Garmin has officially released a significant stable firmware upgrade—Version 16.28—tailored specifically for the Venu X1 series. This update isn’t just a minor patch; it introduces a suite of new “glances,” performance refinements, and essential stability fixes designed to streamline the user experience both during workouts and daily wear.
Enhanced Health and Lifestyle Tracking
The update focuses heavily on data accessibility by introducing several new “glances” to the watch interface. Users can now monitor their weight trends and battery performance directly from the home screen. A particularly clever addition is the daily behavior glance, which illustrates how your routine habits—like caffeine intake or movement—impact your overall health metrics.
Sleep tracking also receives a boost; rather than just showing how you slept, the watch now offers ideal sleep and wake-time insights to help you optimize your circadian rhythm.
Dynamic Training and Athletic Features
For the multi-sport enthusiast, Version 16.28 adds a dedicated multisport activity mode, allowing you to record consecutive sports in a single session. Diving enthusiasts will appreciate that training guidance now factors in recent dive data, ensuring recovery and exertion levels are calculated with underwater sessions in mind.
The training suite has also been expanded to include specialized plans for cardio, strength, and timed workouts. Additionally, Garmin has improved pace responsiveness, meaning your watch will reflect speed changes more accurately in real-time.
Communication and Audio Upgrades
Customization is a core theme of this rollout. The settings menu now includes color filters and voice alerts, providing better accessibility and mid-run feedback. For those using compatible radar devices, the watch will now provide audible alerts for approaching vehicles.
Furthermore, a new smart notification feature allows you to “stage” alerts. This means you can delay incoming notifications until after your workout is finished, ensuring you stay focused on your performance without distractions.
Critical Bug Fixes and Stability
Perhaps most importantly, Version 16.28 addresses a critical reboot bug that previously caused some devices to crash during general use or at the start of an activity. Several navigation and media issues have also been resolved, including the “blank screen” error that occurred when accessing music and errors that occurred when loading Garmin Coach cycling plans.
Garmin has also refined data reporting for backcountry skiing, ensuring that maximum speed and total mileage now appear accurately in post-activity summaries.
How to Install Update 16.28
While the update is rolling out in phases, you can skip the wait by manually triggering the download on your device. Navigate through the following path on your Venu X1: Menu > System > Software Update > Check For Updates.
Change Log Summary:
- Adds a glance that tracks your weight.
- Updates your training guidance with consideration to recent dives.
- Adds a glance that tracks battery life details and performance.
- Adds a glance for tracking your favorite sports teams.
- Adds training plans that focus on timed workouts, cardio workouts, and optional strength workouts.
- Adds a glance to track how daily behaviors affect certain health metrics.
- Adds insights to the sleep glance for your ideal bed time and wake time.
- Adds color filters to the watch settings.
- Adds voice alerts to the watch settings.
- Adds an activity to record multiple sports in a row.
- Adds voice alerts when using a compatible radar device.
- Adds additional alarm sounds.
- Adds smart notifications to the stage menu to allow notifications to be delayed until after the activity.
- Improves pace to be more responsive.
- Saves changes to structured repeats for the next interval workout.
- Fixes a critical bug that could cause the device to reboot during general use or when starting an activity.
- Fixes an issue where the wrong Garmin Coach cycling workout could be loaded when selecting to do the workout.
- Fixes an issue that could cause the device to reset when loading a course for indoor cycling.
- Fixes an issue that could cause a blank screen to appear after accessing the music player during an activity.
- Fixes an issue that could cause partial failures when using Wi-Fi for uploads.
- Fixes the backcountry ski post-activity summary not showing max. speed or mileage.
- Fixes other minor bugs.
- Updates translations.
Also Read: The Best Garmin Watches of 2026: A Beginner’s Guide to the Ultimate Ecosystem
