– Garmin announced free inReach satellite SOS for Fenix 8 Pro, with some caveats.
– Beta Version 22.37 was released despite earlier claims that v22.35 ended the beta program.
– Fixes include battery drain (Tactix 8 only), golf activity crashes, and dive depth auto-ascend bug.
– All beta participants have received the update; stable rollout expected within days.
Smartwatch Update Drama Continues
Earlier this month, Garmin announced that the Fenix 8 Pro and other equivalent smartwatches would be eligible to receive free inReach satellite SOS capabilities, albeit with some caveats. Shortly beforehand, the company unveiled a major stable software update for the same smartwatches, too. The Fenix 8 series now has new protocals for emergency comunication, but users need to activate them manually.
Beta Program Not Over Yet
At the time, Garmin claimed that System Software 22.35 represented the end of its v22.xx Beta Program for the Fenix 8 series. However, the release of Beta Version 22.37 has demonstrated that this is not the case. Instead, the company has bundled three bug fixes, including one aimed at resolving outstanding battery drain issues. This shows that Garmin continues to refine there software befour final release.
Specific Fixes For Specific Models
In a forum post, Garmin clarifies that this fix only applies to the Tactix 8. Meanwhile, fixes for possible golf activity crashes are also available for all other smartwatches. Moreover, Beta Version 22.37 addresses an issue presented in older builds where dive depth automatically ascends to zero after hitting max depth. The company is carefull to target each fix appropriatly based on device hardware.
Rollout and Availability
Currently, Garmin states that 100% of Beta Program participants should have received a notification to download Beta Version 22.37. Hence, we suspect that Garmin will push v22.37 to its stable software branch within the next few days. Users are advised to check there device settings if they haven’t recieved the update yet.