Keep it private on Garmin.

Garmin changes menu names between app versions and watch models. If a label on your screen is slightly different, look for the closest match.

1. Set your activities to "Only Me"

This decides who can see activities in Garmin Connect, including a "Cardio" activity saved by Closeness.

1. Open the Garmin Connect app on your phone.
2. Open your profile or the menu, then Settings.
3. Go to Profile & Privacy (or Privacy), then the setting for Activities.
4. Choose Only Me.

This default applies to new activities. Activities already uploaded keep their old setting, so do step 2 as well.

2. Update past activities

1. Sign in at connect.garmin.com in a web browser.
2. Open Account Settings or Settings, then Privacy Settings.
3. Set activities to Only Me and use Update Past Activities.

You can also change the privacy of a single activity from its own page in Garmin Connect.

3. Check apps connected to your Garmin account

Strava, Komoot, TrainingPeaks and similar services receive every activity that syncs to Garmin Connect when they have the Activities permission. They do not filter by type. We have not been able to confirm that "Only Me" in Garmin Connect stops this, so do not rely on it.

1. In Garmin Connect open Settings, then Connected Apps (sometimes Partner Apps).
2. Open each service and turn off the Activities permission, or disconnect the service.
3. If you keep the connection, set the default visibility in that service to private as well.

The simplest option: never turn on "Copy to Garmin Connect" in Closeness. Then no activity file exists, and there is nothing to sync.

4. Turn off LiveTrack auto start

LiveTrack can e-mail your contacts when an activity starts. It only matters if a session is recorded as an activity, that is, with the Connect copy turned on.

1. In Garmin Connect open Safety & Tracking, then LiveTrack.
2. Turn off Auto Start.

5. High heart rate alert

Garmin watches can show an abnormal heart rate alert after a period without movement. A session in Closeness does not switch it off, and we cannot promise it will stay quiet.

The alert is a safety feature. Change its threshold only if you understand the effect, and do not turn off an alert you rely on for your health.

Do Not Disturb on the watch silences notifications from your phone during a session. Garmin's Incident Detection works only with Garmin's own activity profiles, so a session in Closeness will not trigger it.

6. What the watch records anyway

Your watch keeps measuring all-day heart rate, stress, Body Battery and steps, and syncs them to Garmin Connect as usual. Those charts can show a rise at the time of a session. Closeness cannot change that, and no other app can either. The charts show numbers, not what you were doing. If you share your Garmin data with anyone, keep this in mind.

7. Open Closeness fast

On many fēnix, epix, Enduro, Forerunner, Instinct and MARQ watches you can put an app on a held button:

1. Hold MENU (usually the middle left button) and open System, then Hot Keys (or Shortcuts).
2. Pick a button hold, for example holding DOWN, and choose Closeness if your model lists apps.

On Venu and vívoactive watches, look for Shortcuts or the action button settings in System. If your watch does not allow an app there, move Closeness to the top of the apps list or add it to favourites, so START and one more press get you into a session.