Still no Wherigo?

Prior to the Montana, most Garmin handheld GPS receivers that supported Geocaching also supported Wherigo with a dedicated application. With the release of the Garmin Montana, many Wherigo fans immediately noted the absence of any Wherigo player application or support on the device, nor was there any indication it would be added in a future update.


Garmin received many inquires concerning the lack of support for Wherigo on the Montana, and we even have a Missing Feature Request for Wherigo at the Montana Wiki [See Common Issues > Missing Features > #3]. In response, Garmin Support offered the following explanation:

While Wherigo™ support on all Garmin handhelds is something we would like to provide, It is important to understand that Wherigo™ is a combination of an engine provided by Groundspeak, a license agreement to use their patent, and a reliance of their Wherigo™ cartridge builder tools. The remainder of the system (the part people see as the “player” in their Oregon/Colorado device) is managed by Garmin, but is subject to the terms of use we have with Groundspeak. Unfortunately, while Garmin has contributed significant effort to Wherigo™ development in past years, Groundspeak’s efforts to improve the cartridge builder tools and associated developer utilities has not reached a level that gives us reason to further our development at this time.
 

Groundspeak continues to insist they have not abandoned Wherigo while admitting the project has been placed on hold indefinitely, and with no new development or updates to the brand since May of 2008, it seems clear that Wherigo has been all but forgotten. If Wherigo functionality is important to you, the Garmin Colorado and Oregon x00/x50 series GPS receivers include a dedicated Wherigo application, and Wherigo players are also available for most popular smart phone platforms (iOS/Android) as well.