Garmin offers new update to rugged smartwatches with major release on the horizon
Garmin has started rolling out a new update to its Instinct 3 series smartwatches. As per recent releases, the new update has arrived on Garmin's Beta Program. By contrast, Instinct 3 and Instinct E (curr. $215 on Amazon) smartwatches running stable software remain on firmware that the company introduced in late September.
Specifically, Garmin has announced Beta Version 16.09 for all Instinct 3 series models. For context, the company has offered four v16.xx beta updates before v16.09, starting with Beta Version 16.04 in mid-September. Additionally, Beta Version 16.09 replaces v16.07, which Garmin issued over two weeks ago.
Despite skipping a revision number, Beta Version 16.09 contains only limited improvements compared to older v16.xx firmware. The fifth build in this development round, Beta Version 16.09 appears to only add updated translations compared to v16.07 and older builds.
Incidentally, Garmin's previous development cycles contained between seven and eight builds. Hence, the company may only offer two or three more v16.xx beta updates before transitioning development to its stable software branch. In the meantime, Garmin has already offered its new beta update to all Instinct 3 series smartwatches running beta software.
If that has not occurred in your case, then you can request Beta Version 16.09 manually by navigating through the main menu to Settings, System and Software Update before tapping 'Check for Updates'. Please see Garmin's support page for help with enrolling on its Beta Program.
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