Garmin continues its commitment to refining the user experience, pushing out a substantial stable software update, version 23.20, across a range of its popular Forerunner smartwatches. This latest iteration brings a suite of new capabilities, enhanced security, and crucial bug fixes to the Forerunner 965, 955, 265, 255, and the recently introduced 165. Let’s dive into the specifics of what this update delivers to your wrist.
Elevating Sleep Insights and Security
A significant addition across the board is the introduction of breathing variation detection during sleep. This new metric promises deeper insights into your nightly rest and recovery. Furthermore, Garmin is bolstering device security with a passcode feature that integrates wrist detection, adding an extra layer of protection for your personal data.
Enhanced Connectivity and Customization
The update also focuses on improving the seamlessness of your connected ecosystem. Secure sensor pairing and updates should now be more robust. For cycling enthusiasts, the bike camera controls widget now extends its support to include Varia Vue, offering greater control over your cycling safety setup. For those who like to tailor their workouts, a welcome addition allows the use of custom workouts within the Walk activity profile, providing more flexibility in your training routines.
Smarter Training and Activity Tracking
Garmin is also refining how your daily training suggestions are presented. If you have both a Bike and Run workout scheduled for the same day, you can now conveniently access both directly from the calendar glance. This offers a clearer overview of your training plan at a glance.
Addressing Known Issues: Stability and Accuracy
Beyond new features, a significant portion of this update addresses existing bugs to ensure a smoother and more reliable experience. Notable fixes include resolving a crash that could occur when replying to texts during activities using the keyboard, and correcting an issue where TrainingPeaks swim workouts incorrectly displayed all steps as kick. Additionally, workouts using the Treadmill profile should now accurately reflect execution scores, and Strength workouts will provide more precise rep counts.
Refining Everyday Interactions
The update also tackles several usability quirks. The Wi-Fi enable prompt should now function correctly even in battery saver mode, and syncing audio notes in edited yoga workouts has been resolved. Users should also see fewer graphical irregularities on various screens, and a pin lock highlight issue has been corrected. Furthermore, anomalies on the altimeter chart page and instances where Stress and Body Battery history wouldn’t appear have been addressed.
GPS and Glance Enhancements
Accuracy in GPS-based activities sees improvement with a fix for a potential distance issue in GPS Walk activities. Navigation within the watch interface also gets a touch-up with a corrected highlight issue on the glance list. The Body Battery glance will now accurately categorize activities on its Factors page, no longer labeling them as “Other.”
Workout and Media Playback Improvements
For structured training, the lap summary screen will now correctly appear during suggested workouts, and a rounding issue with the Pool Swim interval timer has been resolved. Music lovers using Apple AirPods Pro 2 (on Music versions) should experience more reliable track skipping. Finally, a persistent issue where the steps data sometimes wouldn’t reset at midnight has been fixed.
Forerunner 165 Specific Refinements
Owners of the Forerunner 165 will benefit from targeted fixes, including the restoration of missing smart notification sound settings and a resolution for smart notifications inadvertently turning on the display during Do Not Disturb mode. A potential crash when initiating Live Event Sharing has also been addressed.
Forerunner 265 and 965 Exclusive Updates
The Forerunner 265 and 965 models receive enhancements to rep counting for a wider range of exercises and movements, promising more accurate strength training data. Issues with Multisport activities displaying distance values for non-distance-based sports like Yoga have been corrected, as has an incorrect data screen configuration in bouldering activities. Additionally, power meter audio prompts will now only play when the sensor is actively connected.
Forerunner 965 Unique Fix
Specifically for the premium Forerunner 965, this update resolves issues encountered when toggling map layers during an activity, ensuring a smoother navigation experience.
This comprehensive software update underscores Garmin’s ongoing dedication to improving the functionality and reliability of its Forerunner series, offering both new features and crucial fixes to enhance the user experience across these popular smartwatches. Keep an eye out for the update notification on your device to take advantage of these improvements.
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