Cortex Onboard

This app is really great, responsive and fully featured. Super easy setup (basically no setup required). It's a convenient backup to our Cortex handhelds. My only wish is that it supported split screen so we could layer it on top of Navionics Boating.

The system has many plug and play features but they are cumbersome to access. The anchor watch mode seems to activate sporadically when tested. The Man over board is very Accurate. To access the onboard WiFi (Starlink) has been an on going challenge . To integrate with Navionics software has not been possible. Garmin support has been at at a loss for help. Hope they get all the kinks out.

The IOS app works decently well but there’s a lot left to be desired. Forget trying to use the Onboard app as an anchor alarm - they still haven’t fixed its ability to alarm with the screen off. The Android app does though. There are occasional hiccups with the connectivity the M1 has with itself presumably, but usually resolves itself 30min later. The app will strangely disconnect from the cortex at odd times, even though the onboard WiFi signal is strong. The other issue we discovered recently is the missing feature parity between IOS and Android apps - IOS can modify the speaker audio level, Android cannot. Android has a bunch of VHF settings that are missing from IOS. So if you don’t have a Cortex handset you will need both phone types to fully manage it. There’s more than just these examples too. Very weird. Lastly, the app is intentionally handicapped to force you into buying their subscription for remote management. I suspect some of this logic is also responsible for the random network disconnects if your location physically becomes 10-20ft away (even though the Cortex and your phone are connected to onboard WiFi).