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Garmin Forerunner 955 series receives SatIQ and Shimano Di2 support with battery drain fix thanks to Beta version 12.20

The Garmin Forerunner 955 series arrived in June with up to 20 days of battery life. (Image source: Garmin)
The Garmin Forerunner 955 series arrived in June with up to 20 days of battery life. (Image source: Garmin)
Garmin has started rolling out Beta version 12.20 to the Forerunner 955 and Forerunner 955 Solar. Bundled with numerous changes, Garmin has added support for seven new features and has included several bug fixes. Beta version 12.20 is the first update for the Forerunner 955 series on Garmin's Beta Program.

Earlier this month, Garmin added the Forerunner 955 series to its Beta Program. As we discussed separately, the Beta Program allows people to test upcoming features before Garmin releases them in public builds. Also, Garmin could include features that never make it to public builds. However, there is a good chance that alpha version and beta version builds will be unstable or less stable than public ones.

Surprisingly, Garmin has started the Beta Program for the Forerunner 955 series with a Release Candidate build. For context, Garmin considers 'Release Candidate' to mean software that will reach all units unchanged, provided that it observes no critical issues during public beta testing. Hence, Beta version 12.20 should be considered more of an early access build, rather than a true beta build.

Like other Beta Program builds, Garmin has distributed Beta version 12.20 via GCM, which checks daily for a new build. Additionally, it could take several hours for Beta version 12.20 to finish transferring from your paired smartphone to your Forerunner 955 series smartwatch, once it has finished downloading. The changelog for Beta version 12.20 is as follows:

  • Added support for displaying a power guide for cycling courses.
  • Added support for the Shimano Di2.
  • Added support for SatIQ.
  • Added support for selecting a PacePro plan for a race.
  • Added support for showing an elevation graph for cycling events with a course file.
  • Added support for setting sleep/wake times on device.
  • Added support for displaying step streaks on the weekly steps graph.
  • Made numerous map page improvements.
  • Improved the calculation of the workout execution score to consider skipped steps.
  • Improved daily suggested workout suggestions.
  • Improved the VO2 max. graph to display the last 4 weeks rather than 7 days.
  • Fixed some issues that could cause training status to fail to display for some users.
  • Fixed numerous issues related to the morning report.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause the device to crash during an activity.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause the device to crash when trying to navigate to a location.
  • Fixed an issue where setting the backlight to be enabled after sunset could cause the device to crash on a button press.
  • Fixed an issue where hot keys were blocked when a notification was being shown.
  • Fixed an issue where the backlight could be turned on even when it was disabled.
  • Fixed an issue where the descriptions for swim workout steps that use equipment were not displayed correctly.
  • Fixed an issue where the Virtual Partner ahead or behind data field could fail to update.
  • Fixed an issue with the lock/unlock hot key always going to the watch face.
  • Fixed an issue where the personal record trophy could fail to show if applicable for a race.
  • Fixed an issue where sport zones for heart rate could not be modified.
  • Fixed various other minor issues.

Supposedly, Garmin has addressed a battery drain issue for the Forerunner 955 series too, which the company does not list in its changelog. In a blog post, a company representative explains:

We believe that we have a fix for this report that will be rolling out with the next software release for this device. While I do not have a timetable for this release, I will be updating this thread as information is made available. Thank you for your patience while we work towards a resolution for this report.

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2022 08 > Garmin Forerunner 955 series receives SatIQ and Shimano Di2 support with battery drain fix thanks to Beta version 12.20
Alex Alderson, 2022-08-20 (Update: 2022-08-20)