Garmin’s Forerunner 970 Update 16.28 Adds Battery Insights and HYROX-Friendly Multisport

Garmin has rolled out Stable Version 16.28 for the Forerunner 970 and 570. It’s a substantial update — five new glances, a multi-sport activity mode, notification controls, and a stack of bug fixes that address some genuinely irritating issues. I’m covering only the most significant feature updates, and this is one of them. Now it’s live. So let’s go with what you need to know.

The Headline Features

Most of what’s in 16.28 has been in beta since December, so if you’ve been following along, this won’t be a surprise. But for those of you on stable releases, here’s what’s landing on your watch:

Battery Manager Glance. This is the standout addition for me. You get a detailed breakdown of power consumption over the past 14 days, showing exactly which components — GPS, display, heart rate sensor — are draining your battery. More importantly, it suggests adjustments, such as switching to SatIQ mode. If you’ve ever wondered why your Forerunner died mid-run, this should help.

Weight Tracking Glance. Tracks your weight trends directly from the widget loop. Syncs with your Index S2 scale data in Connect.

Daily Habits Glance. This one tracks how your daily behaviours correlate with specific health metrics. Garmin is highlighting patterns, including links among sleep quality, evening screen time, and alcohol consumption.

Sports Teams Glance. For those who balance training with fandom. Track scores and schedules for your favourite teams from your wrist. Search by city, covers major leagues, including American football.

Sleep Insights. The sleep glance now shows your “ideal” bedtime and wake-up times based on your recovery patterns, in line with what several Garmin competitors have already launched.

Multi-Sport Activity Mode

On the Forerunner 970, this extends multisport profile creation to include gym-based activities such as strength training and cardio as individual legs, which may be useful for HYROX-style events. (Use Roxfit). For the Vivoactive 6, this is wholly new: that device has never had native multisport capability.

Training & Activity Improvements

• Dive-Aware Training Guidance. If you’ve been diving recently, your training guidance now factors in the additional recovery stress. Niche, but important for those who need it.
• Structured Repeats Save. Changes you make to structured interval workouts now carry over to the next session. Previously, you’d have to reconfigure each time.
• GPS Pace Improvements. Garmin says pace is “more responsive.” We’ll see how this plays out in practice, but any improvement to real-time pace accuracy is welcome.
• Varia Radar Voice Alerts. If you’re using a compatible Varia radar device, you’ll now get voice alerts for approaching vehicles.
• Golf Custom Targets. You can now save custom targets on mapped courses.

Notification & UI Updates

Smart Notification Delay. This is a quality-of-life win. You can now set notifications to “Stage” mode, which delays them until your activity is complete. No more mid-interval buzz telling you about an email.

Colour Filters. Beyond the existing “Red Shift” for night use, there are now additional colour filter options. Useful for accessibility and low-light conditions.

Voice Alerts & Alarm Sounds. New voice alert options in settings, plus additional alarm tones.

Bug Fixes That Matter

The update squashes several bugs that have been irritating owners:

• Music player blank screen — Fixed. Previously, accessing the music player during an activity could cause a blank screen.
• Indoor cycling course crashes — Fixed. Loading a course for indoor cycling could reset the device.
• Garmin Coach wrong workout — Fixed. The cycling workout bug, where the wrong workout would occasionally load.
• Backcountry ski summary — Fixed. Max speed and mileage now display correctly in post-activity summaries.
• Wi-Fi upload failures — Fixed. Partial failures during Wi-Fi uploads should no longer occur.

How to Get It

The update is currently at 20% rollout. You can wait for it to arrive automatically, or pull it manually:

Menu > System > Software Update > Check For Updates

Note: If you’re on a Forerunner 970 and running beta software, ECG remains disabled in the beta channel.

Same Update, Multiple Watches

This isn’t just a Forerunner update. Version 16.28 is rolling out across Garmin’s 2025-era lineup:

• Forerunner 970/570 — Stable release
• Venu 4 — Stable release
• Venu X1 — Beta
• Vivoactive 6 — Beta

The feature set varies slightly by device (the Venu/Vivoactive models don’t get everything), but the core additions — battery glance, weight tracking, notification delay, bug fixes — are consistent.

My Take

This is a decent update. The battery manager glance alone is worth the update for anyone frustrated with inconsistent battery life.

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Source: Garmin

 

Last Updated on 24 February 2026 by the5krunner