I'm interested in people's opinions and experience with the various Porsche apps. I just downloaded Good To Know, which I find to be a nice complement to the printed owner's manual. I noticed there are several other apps: My Porsche (3 stars out of 5) and Porsche Connect (2 out of 5). I can't access the reviews so I'm not sure what additional value, if any, these provide. Also, somewhere in the forum I remember reading that one of these allows you to add your VIN and get a customized profile. Thanks
Porsche Apps
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I have three apps from Porsche and frankly they give little value. I have My Porsche, Connect and Car Connect which requires dealer activation in the car itself. The latter is a subscription service. Unless you’re using Nav and such, there’s not much going on. Car Connect will give you some info like car location and how much gas it has. You can go in Connect and find things from your phone’s calendar and forward destinations to the car’s Nav. But if you have CarPlay, it renders most of this stuff redundant or useless. I bought my car off the lot and it had Nav. I wouldn’t have specd it. I will probably delete these apps eventually once I see if I ever use them for anything
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I found the Porsche Connect app to be pointless unless the car has Nav. As I recall, it can do a few things like schedule service but a simple phone call to a service center works just as well! I removed it from my phone.
The Porsche Car Connect app is useful for some things, but isn't a gotta-have item. If your car is in for service it can help you track progress in some cases. If you ever lend your car to someone or let a valet drive it, the app provides a way to track it. If you forget where you parked it (!) or if it is ever stolen the app can help track it, show you its position and monitor speed. It also reports some conditions about the car, such as tire pressure when you parked it, presence or absence of a battery maintainer during winter, whether a door is open or unlocked, how full the tank is, what its current driving range is. It's nothing you can't get just be being in the car, but sometimes it's nice to see a few things when you aren't.
The Good To Know app is useful for looking up some feature when you don't have access to your paper manual. It's good for getting a Porsche fix when you are bored in your office. How many times have your seen a posting in the Tricks & Tips thread for some "trick" that wasn't hidden at all but explained in full in the manual?
I also have the Christophorus app which gives me articles from the magazine. So far I have had zero motivation to read anything from it on my phone.
The Porsche Car Connect app is useful for some things, but isn't a gotta-have item. If your car is in for service it can help you track progress in some cases. If you ever lend your car to someone or let a valet drive it, the app provides a way to track it. If you forget where you parked it (!) or if it is ever stolen the app can help track it, show you its position and monitor speed. It also reports some conditions about the car, such as tire pressure when you parked it, presence or absence of a battery maintainer during winter, whether a door is open or unlocked, how full the tank is, what its current driving range is. It's nothing you can't get just be being in the car, but sometimes it's nice to see a few things when you aren't.
The Good To Know app is useful for looking up some feature when you don't have access to your paper manual. It's good for getting a Porsche fix when you are bored in your office. How many times have your seen a posting in the Tricks & Tips thread for some "trick" that wasn't hidden at all but explained in full in the manual?
I also have the Christophorus app which gives me articles from the magazine. So far I have had zero motivation to read anything from it on my phone.
The Car Connect app has been useful while my car has been at the detailer. I was able to monitor the car and make sure they weren't hooning around in it. The app lets you set up GEO fence and speed alerts that will notify you if your car leaves a certain area or is driven over a certain speed.
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I'll also mention the Christophorus app, which contains content that the print version doesn't. If you're a rgular reader of the mag, the app is a great companion to it.
The Good to Know app is absolutely invaluable since it allows you to look up topics via search. My printed Owner's Manual is on a shelf at home as a 'reference' book because of it.
The others? It all depends on what options you have on your car as to how functional and useful they are. Honestly, their utility is limited unless you have Nav; from there, they get more useful ... but you pay for that usefulness via subscription services.
The Good to Know app is absolutely invaluable since it allows you to look up topics via search. My printed Owner's Manual is on a shelf at home as a 'reference' book because of it.
The others? It all depends on what options you have on your car as to how functional and useful they are. Honestly, their utility is limited unless you have Nav; from there, they get more useful ... but you pay for that usefulness via subscription services.
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Could that be because the name of the magazine takes up the whole screen?
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Couldn't find it in Google PlayStore. Is that an Apple exclusive?
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Track Precision App might be worth having if you want to take your car on a track day. I've got it installed but haven't used it yet - if it does what it's supposed to then it sounds quite useful: It has a database of tracks included but allows you to add your own, including whilst driving so you can add a road route. It will video your driving for you and links to the car's electronics for telemetry. Needs PCM and sport chrono for full functionality.
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On Android it's called GTS Routes.
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Appears to have been discontinued. No longer available on Play Store.
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Before it was GTS routes but this is the evolved edition with some of the functionalities that were in GTS routes like recording a route yourself.
Not actually a Porsche app but I recently bought an iPhone just so that I could use the TomTom app through Car Play, which has only been available since June (not on Android Auto).
In my view, in the UK, no satnav comes near it for traffic jam identification. Most seem to tell us when we are already sitting in a jam! Having a super-fast iPhone also means that re-routing is much quicker that the latest stand-alone units.
The change of phone was also influenced by my plan to buy a 718 in the spring, since Porsche seems to be much more Apple-friendly than Android-friendly.
In my view, in the UK, no satnav comes near it for traffic jam identification. Most seem to tell us when we are already sitting in a jam! Having a super-fast iPhone also means that re-routing is much quicker that the latest stand-alone units.
The change of phone was also influenced by my plan to buy a 718 in the spring, since Porsche seems to be much more Apple-friendly than Android-friendly.
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Last I heard about Android is that Google insists on accessing data from the car that Porsche does not deem necessary or prudent. Can't say as I blame them on that.
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Thanks anyway.
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Has anyone been able to use the Precision Track App with their 718? I can’t get it to connect to my vehicle. My local dealer says it’s not compatible with the 718’s, but I don’t think that is true. Would love to know others have made it work before I pursue further with Porsche NA.
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Does your car have Sport Chrono fitted?
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