Garmin releases major update with heart rate tracking improvements for older smartwatches

Garmin has now delivered new stable updates for its older Forerunner smartwatches after a short-lived beta development phase. To recap, the company last issued a stable update for the Forerunner 165, Forerunner 255, Forerunner 265, Forerunner 955 and Forerunner 965 (curr. $589 on Amazon) at the end of July when it published Software Version 24.12.

Since then, the company has focused on more recent releases like the Forerunner 570, Forerunner 970 and the Fenix 8. While those three have received numerous beta updates, Garmin has only offered Beta Version 25.02 to Forerunner 165, Forerunner 255, Forerunner 265, Forerunner 955 and Forerunner 965 beta testers. Without warning, the company has pressed ahead with Software Version 25.04, which can be manually downloaded by navigating through the following menus on your Forerunner smartwatch:

Menu > System > Software Update > Check For Updates

As expected, this new stable update focuses on bug fixes, including one that prevented Strength workouts from being marked as complete in Garmin Run Coach plans. Moreover, Garmin claims to have improved wrist-based heart rate tracking by minimising the cases when readings would be inaccurately high during activities. Please note that the Forerunner 165 is the only one of the five smartwatches eligible for Software Version 25.04 that has not received a fix for Power Save Timeout settings in multisport profiles. The full changelog for Software Version 25.04 is as follows:

• Fix the Power Save Timeout setting in multisport profiles. (Not Forerunner 165)
• Fix the Primary Race glance sometimes showing a secondary race.
• Fix Strength workouts not being marked complete in Garmin Run Coach plans.
• Improve some cases where wrist-based heart rate could appear unusually elevated during activity.
• Various bug fixes and improvements