SAVE A SPOT WITH ONE TAP
- The watch waits for an accurate GPS fix and averages several samples
- The button ring shows GPS readiness: grey / amber / green
- Name from presets, free text, or the automatic „Spot N“ — coordinates are never thrown away
FIND YOUR WAY BACK
- Arrow and straight-line distance — GPS and compass, no maps, no phone
- Arrival is automatic: within 15 m it vibrates and shows „YOU’RE HERE — look around“
- Loses signal? It keeps the last direction and recovers by itself
FIND DIARY AND SEASON
- 12 species (bolete, orange bolete, birch bolete, chanterelle, parasol, slippery jack, milk cap, honey fungus, knight, cauliflower, oyster, other) + count
- Every spot remembers its founding, finds and last visit
- Season overview: finds by species, visited spots, top spot
YOUR DATA STAYS YOURS
- Everything lives on the watch — no internet, no account, no server
- A glance with your nearest spot right in the widget carousel
- 50 Garmin watches with Connect IQ 5+, fenix 8 Solar included — dark or light background
1What Houbař does
Every mushroom hunter has places that „always deliver“ — and forgets half of them by next season. Houbař is a spot diary that lives entirely on the watch.
Save the place where you found something with one tap, log what grew there in two presses, and next time the watch walks you back with an arrow and a distance — GPS and compass only, no maps, no phone, no internet. All data stays on the watch.
„Houbař“ is Czech for mushroom hunter.
2Install & first launch
- Open the Connect IQ Store on your phone and search for „Houbař“.
- Install it and start it from the watch’s app list (long-press START, or add it to your favourites).
- The first launch shows an empty home screen — just head for the woods and save your first spot.
There are 50 supported watches (Connect IQ 5+): fenix 8 including the 8 Solar, fenix 9 and E, epix 2 and epix Pro, Instinct 3 AMOLED and Crossover AMOLED, Forerunner 70/165/170/265/570/965/970, Venu 2/3/4, vivoactive 5/6, MARQ 2, Descent Mk3 and G2, Approach S50/S70, D2 Air X10 and Mach 1/2, tactix, quatix and more.
3Saving a spot
Stand at your find and press START on the home screen (or tap the ring). The watch waits for an accurate GPS fix and stores the place — a couple of seconds once GPS is warm.
The ring around the button shows GPS readiness before you even press:
- grey — waiting for signal (wait for green for best accuracy),
- amber — usable fix,
- green — accurate fix, saving is instant.
On the saving screen, START saves immediately (once any fix exists) and BACK cancels. Then pick a name: the automatic „Spot N“, one of the presets (editable from the phone), or free text on touch watches. Coordinates are never thrown away — even BACK keeps the spot under the automatic name.
4Logging a find
Right after saving, the app asks „What’s growing?“ — pick the species, adjust the count, and START logs it. From find to diary entry in about four presses. Just marking a spot for later? Press BACK and nothing is logged.
Species: bolete, orange bolete, birch bolete, chanterelle, parasol, slippery jack, milk cap, honey fungus, knight, cauliflower, oyster and „other“. The grid scrolls (UP/DOWN or drag) with a position indicator on the right.
You can also log a find later: from navigation (START), from the arrival screen, or from the spot detail (menu → Log a find).
5Navigating back
Pick a spot in the list and hit NAVIGATE. A big arrow points straight at the spot, with the remaining distance below. Standing still the arrow follows the compass; walking, it follows your GPS track.
Within 15 metres the watch vibrates and shows „YOU’RE HERE — look around“ with the last find at that spot. START opens the find log right there.
If the signal drops (dense canopy, a valley), the arrow dims, the distance gets a „~“ and „searching GPS…“ appears — navigation resumes by itself once the fix is back.
6Spot list & detail
From the home screen, DOWN (or swipe up) opens the list. In the detail, the menu button (long UP) offers more actions: Log a find, Rename, Delete. The diary holds 100 spots; each remembers its last 50 finds.
7Season
UP on the home screen opens the season overview: finds this year, your top 3 species, how many of your spots you visited, how many new ones you added, and your top spot.
A season is a calendar year, counted on the watch as you log finds — it has nothing to do with activities in Garmin Connect. The spots themselves are permanent and carry over between seasons.
8Glance
Add Houbař to the glance carousel: it shows your nearest saved spot and the approximate distance from the last known position — without opening the app. Tapping the glance opens it.
9Settings
On the watch (long UP on the home screen — elsewhere a long UP opens the spot actions):
| Item | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Vibrate on arrival | on/off for the „YOU’RE HERE“ and save vibrations |
| Background | Automatic / Dark / Light — see below |
| Delete all spots | wipes the whole diary, with confirmation |
On the phone (Connect IQ app → Houbař → Settings) you can change the same things plus the 4 preset spot names offered when naming a new spot.
Background
Automatic follows the display: black on AMOLED watches (a black pixel is simply off there, so it costs no battery) and light on the fenix 8 Solar, whose reflective MIP display is brightest when it shows white and reads best in direct sun. Prefer the other one? Switch to Dark or Light by hand.
10Controls
| Screen | START / tap | UP / DOWN | BACK |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home | save a spot | season / spot list | exit |
| Saving | save now (with a fix) | — | cancel |
| Naming | confirm name | select | keep the automatic name |
| List | spot detail | scroll | home |
| Detail | navigate | — | list |
| Navigation / You’re here | log a find | — | back |
| What’s growing? | next / save | species / count | step back / skip |
Long UP = menu (settings, spot actions). On touch watches, tapping and swiping mirror the buttons.
11Tips & FAQ
Why does the first save take a while?
GPS starts with the app and needs to warm up — the first fix under trees can take tens of seconds. After that the receiver stays on for the whole session, so every next save takes ~2 seconds. Watch the ring colour on the home screen.
How accurate is navigation in the forest?
GPS is typically off by 5–15 m under dense canopy and the compass can wander briefly. That is why arrival says „look around“ — the watch gets you within metres, the last step is yours. Spots are stored from an average of several samples for best accuracy.
How much battery does it use?
GPS runs while the app is open — comparable to recording an activity. Close the app (BACK from the home screen) and GPS turns off.
Where is my data?
On the watch, and nowhere else. Houbař has no internet permission and no account; nothing ever leaves your wrist. Removing the app removes the diary.
Missing a species or a feature?
Use „Contact Developer“ on the app’s store page.
1.2.0 2026-09-05
- 16 more watches — 50 supported devices in total. New: fenix 8 Solar 47/51 mm (the first memory-in-pixel display), Instinct 3 AMOLED 45/50 mm, Instinct Crossover AMOLED, Forerunner 70, 170, 170 Music, Approach S50, S70 42/47 mm, Descent G2, D2 Air X10, D2 Mach 1, Mach 2, Mach 2 Pro.
- New „Background“ setting (Settings on the watch, or the phone app): automatic, dark or light. Automatic keeps the black background on AMOLED watches and picks the light one on the fenix 8 Solar, whose reflective display is brightest when it shows white.
- Every colour has a second, hand-picked variant for the fenix 8 Solar’s 64-colour display, so nothing shifts hue there.
1.1.0 2026-08-27
- First production release: everything from the 1.0.x beta run – one-tap spot saving with GPS accuracy check, straight-line navigation back, automatic arrival detection, a find diary with 12 species, season overview, glance, always-on GPS while the app runs, and support for fenix 9 (incl. the 466×466 display).
1.0.9 BETA 2026-08-26
- Saving screen: „START = save now“ shows only once a fix exists; without signal it says „BACK = cancel“ and START gives a short vibration instead of doing nothing silently.
1.0.8 BETA 2026-08-26
- After saving a new spot the app jumps straight to „what’s growing?“ — log the find in two presses, or BACK to skip.
1.0.7 BETA 2026-08-26
- fenix 9 support: 9 / 9 Pro 43-51 mm AMOLED incl. the new 466×466 display (5 devices; Pro Solar MIP variants postponed).
1.0.6 BETA 2026-08-25
- Four more species: honey fungus, knight, cauliflower, oyster (12 total, „other“ stays last); the species grid scrolls with an arc indicator.
1.0.5 BETA 2026-08-25
- Save-button ring shows GPS readiness by colour (grey/amber/green, replaces the status dot); spot list has an arc scroll indicator on the right edge.
1.0.4 BETA 2026-08-24
- Third typography enlargement (labels 28, rows 31-34, buttons 35-36, distance 100 px); spot list shows 4 rows, season top 3 species.
1.0.3 BETA 2026-08-24
- GPS stays on while the app is open (instant second save), faster save confirmation (2 s good / 45 s timeout), GPS status dot on home.
1.0.2 BETA 2026-08-23
- Even bigger typography after the second fenix 8 test; shorter hints.
1.0.1 BETA 2026-08-23
- Bigger, higher-contrast typography after the fenix 8 test; hints shortened.
1.0.0 BETA 2026-08-22
- First public beta: save mushroom spots with one tap (GPS accuracy check, averaged fix), name them from presets or freely, straight-line navigation back with arrow and distance (GPS + compass, no maps), automatic arrival detection with vibration, find diary per spot (8 species + count), season overview, glance with the nearest spot. Everything stays on the watch — no internet, no account.
