Garmin inReach® Messenger Handheld Satellite Communicator, Global Two-Way Messaging

This messenger device would be my 5th Inreach or satellite communication tool and became an instant preference over others. The battery life is by far the best feature with this model as I am not as worried about leaving the tracking feature on higher frequency when out hunting by myself. The main complaint I would have is the ability to use this device for active mapping on your own phone when connected, but Garmin also provides an updated model the Messenger+ that provides this feature.

I actually purchased this a year ago to go on my trip through South America and also for flying my powered parachute for safety. Well it's been a year and I am finally using it. I charged it up and had it sitting around the house for about a month and the battery still had a ton of juice left in it. I started my trip and had it on while on the plane from Seattle to Medellin, Colombia and it tracked me all the way there which was awesome! Now that I am in town it has tracked all over where I have walked and taken the metro. It's awesome for family members to see where I am for mine and their security.

To be fair, I only bought this because we planned and executed a family trip in Big Bend National Park. I was traveling with my wife, kids and grandkids. I knew that there would be no cell service and didn't want to risk an accident or animal encounter without access to some kind of SOS communication. Fortunately, I never needed the SOS but was greatly relieved that I had access to it through my Garmin messenger's 24/7 response feature which included the ability to define our emergency should we have one.

Battery that lasts for days. Good tracking. Emergency communications. Cell phones have sat messenging available but I haven't had it be as reliable as a sat messenger. Maybe one day but for now traveling in the backcountry alone this device is madatory. I find it lasts a whole weekend without issue.

I have used the inreach messenger on many extended backcountry trips and it has been just what I need, a simple and compact version of an emergency and communication device. I have only used it with my phone (can imagine this would be quite a pain without pairing it) and have not missed the lack of mapping/nav features, but if either of those are a concern, this may not be the best option. For me, however- perf. Long battery life is a bonus as well. Have not yet used the reverse charge feature, but I bet that will come in handy someday.

I purchased this for an off road trip to be able to keep in touch with family. Battery life was excellent, it only dropped 10% after 4 days of intermittent use. Size and weight wasn't a concern for this trip but I don't have any concerns in taking it on the next backpacking trip. It will be a minimal weight penalty for some peace of mind.

The InReach messenger works great! The app works well too, very clean and intuitive to use. The only thing I wish was different was that it had a phone number that didn't change. It's a slight inconvenience, I have to start the text threads before someone can respond. But other than that complaint the device, app, and service all work very well

I carry this on backcountry or offgrid situations and have not needed it for an emergency but have used it for text communications paired to my phone. Has worked every time, no issues. What else is there to say for a product like this? It works when it needs to.

I bought this for an AZ mountainous motorcycle trip. I use my phone, mounted on the bike, for navigation. There's a risk of going off a cliff and getting separated from my bike. I didn't realize that a link to my phone was necessary for emergency communications I've returned it and hoping that the inReach Mini is what I want. I gave 4 stars because - perhaps - this could have been made clear to me before my online purchase. Otherwise it likely is a wonderful device.

Good performance. Only criticism is that there's a bit of a delay in the messaging (~ 20min for a message to be sent or received), but perhaps that's to be expected with a satellite-based system. I don't know if others are better. Messaging via the phone app worked great from northern Ontario.