Garmin has pushed out another beta update for two of its recent mid-range smartwatches. Beta 17.19 is the second update the company has issued to the Venu 4 and Vivoactive 6 during the current v17.xx development cycle, building on the two dozen or so changes that arrived with the first release in this round. Based on how Garmin has handled previous beta cycles, at least another two to three updates are likely before the company promotes v17.xx to its stable software branch.
Beta 17.19 brings eight changes shared across both the Venu 4 and Vivoactive 6 (currently $249 on Amazon). Among the fixes, Garmin has resolved an issue where the turn arrow would disappear during course navigation — a fairly disruptive bug for anyone relying on the watch for outdoor routing. The update also improves UI responsiveness when starting a timer, which should make the experience feel snappier during workouts.
The Venu 4 gets three additional changes on top of the shared fixes. A bug that prevented the watch from accepting incoming calls has been squashed, as has another that caused the back and down keys to stop functioning during bouldering and indoor climb activities. Garmin has also adjusted how the mute setting behaves — it will now only stay active for the duration of the current phone call rather than persisting indefinitely afterward.
The full changelogs for both devices are below.
Venu 4 & Vivoactive 6 changelog
- Adds support for Approach CT1 club sensors.
- Allows LiveTrack to be enabled automatically on a per activity type basis.
- Fixes an issue that could cause the turn arrow to be missing when navigating a course.
- Fixes other minor bugs.
- Fixes send off time not vibrating during swim workouts.
- Fixes various issues that could cause the device to reset.
- GCM Translations – 3.80
- Improves responsiveness when starting the timer.
- Prevents automatic track detection during trail run activities.
Venu 4 specific changelog
- Updates mute setting to only persist for the current phone call.
- Fixes a possible issue where the back and down key would not work for indoor climb and bouldering activities.
- Fixes an issue that could result in not being able to accept an incoming call on the watch.
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Robert Haba is the founder and editor-in-chief of Droid Tools. A lifelong gadget enthusiast with over a decade following the Android ecosystem, he built this publication to cut through the noise and give readers honest, real-world coverage of the tech they actually use.
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