Garmin just fixed some of its most annoying smartwatch problems across the Forerunner 970, Venu X1 and more

Garmin has released another sizeable software update for some of its most popular smartwatches.

Public Beta Version 18.27 is rolling out to the Garmin Forerunner 570, Forerunner 970, Venu 4, Venu X1 and Vivoactive 6, with Garmin now listing the update as available to members of its Public Beta programme.

The company says the update addresses a potential issue that could cause unexpected display behaviour and inconsistent gesture response.

Garmin has also fixed an issue that could prevent the always-on display setting from taking effect, along with a problem that could stop button tones from sounding.

Version 18.27 addresses a bug that could cause alert tones to fail to play when Garmin's Incident Detection feature is triggered.

The sound of software problems

Audio accounts for a surprisingly large chunk of the latest update.

Garmin says it has fixed problems with music failing to pause properly when the selected music provider is set to control your phone, as well as an issue where volume adjustments in the music app might not work correctly.

The company's Phone Assistant functionality also gets some attention.

One fix addresses voice commands failing to be recognised, while another tackles a problem where the assistant could stop working after being interrupted by an incoming call.

Garmin's Spectator Messaging feature gets two fixes. Audio messages should no longer be cut off before they finish playing, and Garmin has also tried to make them easier to hear when music is playing at the same time.

Golfers haven't been forgotten either, with Beta 18.27 fixing a delay that could occur before the score prompt appeared.

The release also includes a handful of other minor fixes and updated translations, but no new features this time around.

In other words, this is very much a housekeeping update, albeit one that addresses quite a few irritating problems.

As this is Public Beta software, you'll need to be enrolled in Garmin's Beta Software Programme to get it. Once enrolled, you can check manually from Settings > System > Software Update > Check For Updates.

One important caveat for Venu 4 owners: Garmin says the ECG app is disabled in the current beta software and recommends staying on the stable software if you want to keep access to ECG.

The feature is expected to return towards the end of the quarterly beta cycle, before the software becomes a full public release.

[via NotebookCheck, Garmin Forums]