Garmin offers up more changes and improvements to high-end smartwatches with new software update

Garmin is not waiting around with delivering updates to the Fenix 7 series of late. While the company took a short break over the holiday period, it started issuing Beta Version 16.xx builds in mid-January 2024 with Beta Version 16.10. Since then, it has released Beta Version 16.11, Beta Version 16.13, Beta Version 16.16 and Beta Version 16.17. For context, the latter two have been delivered in the last week or so, with Beta Version 16.17 arriving only a few days ago.

Now, the company has pushed Beta Version 16.18 to most Fenix 7, Epix 2, Enduro 2, Quatix 7 and Marq 2 smartwatches that have been enrolled in the Garmin Beta program. For some reason, Garmin has elected to limit the distribution of Beta Version 16.18 to non-Pro SKUs though, mirroring the release of Beta Version 16.16. Thus, Beta Version 16.18 will not reach any Fenix 7 Pro or Epix 2 Pro smartwatches, although Garmin's recent beta software releases suggest that a corresponding update for Pro models is right around the corner.

Additionally, Beta Version 16.18 will not start downloading on eligible smartwatches automatically. Instead, you must head to Menu, System, Software Update and then Check For Updates to manually pull the new update from Garmin's servers. For reference, Beta Version 16.18 contains the following changes from Beta Version 16.17:

• Fixed potential issue that would cause activities to fail to upload to Garmin Connect.
• Fixed potential shutdown when saving a swim activity.
• Fixed UI issue in golf activity on FMB page.

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