Garmin disables ECG functionality on new smartwatches without warning via new update

Garmin has published a curious update for the Venu 3 and Venu 3S. Again distributed through its Beta Program, the update appears to share its changelog with its predecessor. Incidentally, a similar situation occurred last year with Betas 8.23 and 8.25, which contained almost identical improvements.

To recap, the company released Beta 9.15 under two weeks ago after a two-month gap in beta build distribution. Now, Garmin has moved the Venu 3 and Venu 3S onto Beta 9.16, which is again available to download on the smartwatch itself rather than from its forum post or the Garmin Express desktop program. Thus, you can update either the Venu 3 or Venu 3S by heading to their Main menu, followed by Settings, System and finally to Software Update.

Please note that you will also need to download new audio prompt files once your smartwatch is updated to Beta 9.16. While Garmin has not listed any new changes between Betas 9.15 and 9.16, Beta Program users have observed at least one notable difference. Seemingly, the company has disabled ECG functionality on Venu 3 series beta builds, which is now the case for the Fenix 7 series too. However, it elected against informing Venu 3 owners of this change, nor has it provided a file for rolling back to stable updates where ECG is enabled.

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