Garmin Forerunner 265 gains new features and improvements with latest software update

Garmin has finalised its latest stable update for the Forerunner 265, one of the company's recent sports & fitness smartwatches. To recap, the company last updated the Forerunner 265 on its Beta Program to Beta Version 17.22. While Beta Version 17.22 was a Release Candidate build, Garmin's stable software distribution jumps up to Version 17.24 with no v17.23 in between.

At any rate, v17.24 succeeds v16.17, which Garmin delivered three months ago. Unsurprisingly, v17.24 contains numerous improvements from its stable predecessor, with seven new features listed in Garmin's changelog. Specifically, v17.24 adds the following new features:

• Nap glance mode
• New body battery functionality
• Inline skating mode
• Large font mode
• Stress alerts, rest alerts and daily summary within body battery settings
• Red shift control (changes display colour to red, green, or orange for preserving night vision in low light)

Also, Garmin claims that the Forerunner 265 will show images in phone notifications when updated to Version 17.24, but only when paired to an Android smartphone. Moreover, the new update should improve course navigation for courses with a large number of course points and for turn notifications. Garmin has listed 'various bug fixes and UI improvements' too, albeit without providing any specifics in these regards. Please see Garmin's forum post for more details.