Garmin's New Beta Platform Explained & How-To Sign-Up

Thank you calling out Garmin on their software quality. Your honest feedback is keeping them on their toes.

Your bug report is excellent (4:59). I’m glad you submitted it, Garmin keeps getting away with stuff. I hope you didn’t try out the Swim function 🤣

I can't imagine thinking "Garmin software releases are terrible and they break everything, I should get on the Beta program and have that happen even more frequently"

The only recommendation I would give is, if you are going to test beta software on your watch, wear two watches on your workout. Just in case the software causes an issue that impacts your workout, you'll have a backup watch with good data. Testing beta on anything, including something we rely on as much as our Garmins, it's smart to have a backup plan.

I'm a Garmin customer since the Forerunner 610. Just by owning the watch I was (pratically) their beta tester for more than 10 years. Their watches were terrible, in terms of software functionality but also sometimes in terms of features and many times in terms of stability. I really don't understand why someone not payed by Garmin should participate nowadays in the development of such a product he/she has already payed for (and not cheap).

That's hilarous! How many Garmin wearables have you got?!!!

I have been screaming for Garmin to have a proper Beta Program for fucking years! YEARS! Shoving beta builds out to the forums with no system in place to get actionable data was the reason for so much of the Garmin device problems. It is about time!

How about a video explaining in depth the Alpha program, does it have new cast widgets or features we can try out? I am still hounding them for a multi-activity feature or widget. I want to create a custom WOD using several activities on my watch. Hyrox, DekaFit, CrossFit, Spartan Obstacle Course Racing, Tactical events etc all use multiple activities, we should be able to build them into a workout and use the lap button to move through the workout.

I nearly choked on my food arount 1:30 😀 Thanks. Also, I have the same bug with my Instinct 2. Can you share the link, so that I don't submit a duplicate

I hope they pay us for QA and beta testing ;)

Do they ever have any kind of time frame on when things will actually be released? I remember you said the Instinct 2's were getting Training Readiness and Morning Report in beta a few months back... someone else said that the Instinct Crossover has those in beta and I kind of want to get the Crossover this year. Would be nice if it ended up coming with those out of beta by then but I can't seem to find any information on those functions being released out of beta yet?

What could I consider as an advantage to be involved in beta program, I can’t get any point? Is it like garmin sponsoring program so they can fire testers and QAs and get more profit from already expensive toys?

Do you think there would be more open source contributors for garmin software if they scrapped monkey C in favor of more common systems languages like Rust, C++, etc?

Ray please push Garmin to fix the connect iOS app link to apple health , I believe they just need a start and end time for the move data so my apple activity rings can update with Garmin connect workouts .. The workout exercise rings update properly so they just need to mirror that .

I could not see the option on Garmin connect site for my 1040. Is it for just certain models only?

Can you please cover the issue that Garmin is not allowing users to use PAI heath calculations on their watches ?

The fenix 7x sapphire solar watch has a major drawback, the screen in the menu as well as the messages that arrive when the phone is connected to the watch are set to black background and pale blue text (due to the poor finish of the sapphire glass, there is no white color, but pale blue color) and that text is hard to read. There is no option like on older models of garmin watches to change the background to be white or pale gray and the text to be black, which would be more legible. (Inverter color or display color setting). As soon as you sweat a little around your eyes during activities, you can't see clearly, or if you have a smaller (+ eye diopter) for reading, which most people over 40 have the same problem, you strain to read what is written on the screen. Otherwise, the watch is excellently made, but this problem with the screen and the lack of an option to set the background to be white or gray and the text to be black, which is more pleasant and legible for the eye, makes the garmin fenix 7x sapphire solar watch unusable for many people and if not documents in some software update the watch is a complete and utter failure. I found a lot of the same comments in several forums which says that the problem is not innocuous.

I'm guessing APAC version of the hardware are being left out too?

Thanks for heads up. By Any chance will you lay your hands on new 955 in upcomming week or so? :)

Thanks for the info Ray. Sadly us 945LTE users have been in 'BETA' since release of the watch :), sigh :(.