Garmin 955 Beta – Sign Up Details!
The beta program for the Garmin Forerunner 955 is now ready.
If you want to join the new streamlined program for getting access to the latest updates then head on over to Garmin Connect (web) and select your 955 from the watch icon in the top right corner. You should see the image above and when you’ve joined you should see the image below. Simple.
Q: Should I join the Garmin 955 Beta?
A: No, probably not…unless you have a very specific reason like curiosity or writing a blog like this. It’s unlikely your watch will be bricked but beta software and, let’s face it, Garmin’s released software, can introduce new bugs and problems. You can’t roll back from a beta and have to wait until an upgrade is released for a newer, live version
Q: What other beta programs are available?
A: New ones are added periodically and these beta programs are also available
-
- fenix 6 Series
- Includes fenix 6, 6S, 6X, Quatix 6, Tactix Delta, and MARQ watches (excludes MARQ Aviator)
- fenix 7 Series
- Includes fenix 7, 7S, 7X, Quatix 7, and Epix Gen 2 watches
- Forerunner 245 Series
- Forerunner 745
- Forerunner 945
- fenix 6 Series
Q: Where can I find more info on beta features and bugs?
A: Try the 955 beta forum here.
Reader-Powered Content
This content is not sponsored. It’s mostly me behind the labour of love which is this site and I appreciate everyone who follows, subscribes or Buys Me A Coffee ❤️ Alternatively please buy the reviewed product from my partners. Thank you! FTC: Affiliate Disclosure: Links pay commission. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Wonder what’s coming…SatIQ hopefully!
yes. hopefully.
interestingly i was looking at apple watch today and that stores %age accuracy level of GNSS in its file system throughout the workout. Would be interesting if garmin add that to complement satiq..plus a flag to say which GNSS level was used.
Does it mean that Apple uses multiband in some scenerios?
no-one knows if the gnss chipset they use is multi-band capable.
Watch 7 introduced Beidou support for the first time. my assumption was that a new chipset was therefore used. (and watch 6 is better for gnss)
if it was a new chipset then it is plausible that multiband capability exists (I would bet AGAINST that as I imagine the chipset would be a year older than the current Garmin crop from Airoha and hence probably not multiband capable)
if it has multiband then turning multiband on/off like garmin’s satiq would be relatively straightforward.
summary: it’s possible but unlikely
has anyone tested if the huge amounts of bugs reported in the garmin forums are fixed in the beta? That is the most crucial part. I dont get why the f… garmin did not ship the well matured Fenix 7 software in the 955. It will split available development ressources unnecessarily.
Yes, I’m still getting battery drain after an activity with external sensors. The ONLY way to stop it is to delete the Garmin IQ field (in my case Stryd). If you don’t do this, basically it’s almost like the activity never stops, so you keep draining battery at a fast rate.
The trick is to either start a new activity without these connectiq fields afterwards OR restart the watch… This will reset the batterydrain. I now just quickly start another activity once I finished the actual one and have no batterydrain after that.
Still annoying because sometimes I forget and immediately my battery will be way down afterwards, but at least a workaround…
There is only the option to sign up, but no beta yet.
There is no actual beta yet, the program is opened but nothing released yet so all bugs and issues still unaddressed unfortunately. It’s pretty astounding how long it takes for Garmin to come with an update…
I had a read of the Garmin 955 forum earlier, is the watch really as buggy as suggested there?Sounds like the normal wait 9 months before buying should apply if so!
seems alright to me. there are bugs but they don’t especially affect me.
these issues are ones for me
1. time taken for older ciq apps to be able to work eg supersapiens still doesn’t work on 955
2. there is a battery issue.
3. i get the occasional reboot . prob linked to errant ciq behaviour
4. i get blank screens with some watch faces.
5. nightly hrv seems wrong
6. something amiss with threshold calcs
It indeed is quite buggy but as tfk mentions, it depends if they affect you… Some of the most annoying ones:
Map issues (can’t select location on map to navigate to, autozoom acting weird during navigation, 3rd party maps causing issues)
Zone issues (can only use a single default HR zone, not sport specific ones)
ConnectIQ issues (connectiq fields keep running in the background after an activity which specifically causes battery issues when external sensors are connected)
Inconsistent datafield availability between activities (no elevation fields in ultra runs, no running dynamics in track runs or trailruns, or not clickable)
Mediocre touch implementation (no zoom by tap in maps, widgets not scrollable, etc)
Beta was released today. Most important things: SatIQ and fix of several bugs such as battery drain and heart rate zones
i’m not going to hold my breath on the bug fixes working properly
thanks for the heads up