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Garmin Beta 18.29 is rolling out to six watches: the Forerunner 70, Forerunner 170, Forerunner 570, Forerunner 970, Venu X1 and vívoactive 6. The maintenance release fixes alarm quiet starts across the group and, on four specific variants, prevents voice alerts from playing while silent mode is enabled. Garmin has not itemized the other minor fixes.
What Garmin Beta 18.29 changes
The update is a small maintenance release rather than a new feature platform. The principal correction addresses alarm quiet starts, a behavior that was not working properly for the six eligible watches. After updating, an alarm configured to begin quietly should follow that setting instead of starting with the previous audible behavior.
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Garmin also changed voice-alert handling on selected models. Voice alerts should now remain silent when silent mode is enabled on the Forerunner 570, Forerunner 970, Venu X1 and Forerunner 170 Music. The same change is not listed for the Forerunner 70, vívoactive 6 or the non-Wi-Fi Forerunner 170.
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Which Garmin watches are eligible?
| Watch | Beta 18.29 | Silent-mode voice-alert suppression | Connectivity note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forerunner 70 | Yes | No | Not listed for this change |
| Forerunner 170 | Yes | Only the Music variant | The non-Wi-Fi model is excluded from the voice-alert change |
| Forerunner 570 | Yes | Yes | — |
| Forerunner 970 | Yes | Yes | — |
| Venu X1 | Yes | Yes | — |
| vívoactive 6 | Yes | No | Not listed for this change |
The Forerunner 170 distinction is important: “Forerunner 170” is not enough to determine whether silent-mode voice alerts should be suppressed. The Music version is included in that behavior change; the non-Wi-Fi version is not.
Is the Forerunner 970 included?
Yes. The Forerunner 970 receives Beta 18.29, including the alarm quiet-start fix and the selected-model voice-alert change. Owners looking for a Garmin Forerunner 970 smartwatch should treat this as a software eligibility detail, not as evidence of a new hardware revision. The update does not change the watch’s model identity or published specifications.
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- Designed with a bright, colorful AMOLED display, get a more complete picture of your health, thanks to battery life of up to 11 days in smartwatch mode
- Body Battery energy monitoring helps you understand when you’re charged up or need to rest, with even more personalized insights based on sleep, naps, stress levels, workouts and more (data presented is intended to be a close estimation of metrics tracked)
- Get a sleep score and personalized sleep coaching for how much sleep you need — and get tips on how to improve plus key metrics such as HRV status to better understand your health (data presented is intended to be a close estimation of metrics tracked)
- Find new ways to keep your body moving with more than 30 built-in indoor and GPS sports apps, including walking, running, cycling, HIIT, swimming, golf and more
- Wheelchair mode tracks pushes — rather than steps — and includes push and handcycle activities with preloaded workouts for strength, cardio, HIIT, Pilates and yoga, challenges specific to wheelchair users and more (data presented is intended to be a close estimation of metrics tracked)
What about the Venu 4?
The Venu 4 was not included in this rollout when the update was reported. It remained on Beta 18.27, so Venu 4 owners should not expect Beta 18.29 to appear simply because other Venu-series watches received it. Rollout status can change later, but the reported release did not establish an equivalent Venu 4 update.
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Garmin provides three delivery routes. Availability can be staggered, so an eligible watch may not show Beta 18.29 immediately.
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- Designed with a bright, colorful AMOLED display, get a more complete picture of your health, thanks to battery life of up to 11 days in smartwatch mode
- Body Battery energy monitoring helps you understand when you’re charged up or need to rest, with even more personalized insights based on sleep, naps, stress levels, workouts and more (data presented is intended to be a close estimation of metrics tracked)
- Get a sleep score and personalized sleep coaching for how much sleep you need — and get tips on how to improve plus key metrics such as HRV status to better understand your health (data presented is intended to be a close estimation of metrics tracked)
- Find new ways to keep your body moving with more than 30 built-in indoor and GPS sports apps, including walking, running, cycling, HIIT, swimming, golf and more
- Wheelchair mode tracks pushes — rather than steps — and includes push and handcycle activities with preloaded workouts for strength, cardio, HIIT, Pilates and yoga, challenges specific to wheelchair users and more (data presented is intended to be a close estimation of metrics tracked)
- Automatic device updates: Leave automatic updates enabled on the watch. When Garmin makes the package available to that device, the watch can download and install it according to its normal update process.
- Garmin Connect: Pair the watch with Garmin Connect, sync it, and allow the application to deliver any offered software update. Keep the watch close to the phone and maintain the connection until synchronization finishes.
- Garmin Express: Connect the watch to a computer running Garmin Express and check for device software updates. Follow the on-screen installation instructions and do not disconnect the watch during the transfer or installation.
Before starting, charge the watch sufficiently and make sure a phone, computer or Wi-Fi connection used for delivery will remain available. If no update is offered, confirm the exact model and variant first; the voice-alert change is not universal, and rollout timing may differ by device.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How this differs from Garmin’s broader 2026 feature release
Garmin’s February 24, 2026 newsroom announcement described a wider software release for compatible devices including the Forerunner 970, Forerunner 570, Venu X1 and vívoactive 6, as well as the fēnix 8 Pro. That release covered feature additions such as expanded gear tracking, gear collections and a gear database, course planning, live sports scores, Garmin Fitness Coach, mixed-session activity tracking, Varia voice alerts, sleep alignment and lifestyle logging.
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- Built-in LED flashlight with variable intensities and strobe modes gives you greater visibility in the outdoors and provides convenient illumination when you need it
- Know your body better with health monitoring features, including wrist-based heart rate, advanced sleep monitoring, Pulse Ox and more (this is not a medical device, and data presented is intended to be a close estimation of metrics tracked; Pulse Ox not available in all countries)
- Navigate confidently with a 3-axis compass, barometric altimeter and multi-band GPS with SatIQ technology, which delivers superior positioning while also optimizing battery life
Those capabilities belong to the broader feature rollout and should not be treated as new functions introduced by Beta 18.29. Garmin said those free updates had started rolling out to compatible devices, while Beta 18.29 is identified as a later maintenance version focused on the alarm behavior, selected voice-alert handling and unspecified minor fixes. A watch can therefore be eligible for both streams without every feature being available on every model or connectivity configuration.
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What to check after updating
- Set or edit an alarm and verify that its quiet-start option behaves as expected.
- If you own a Forerunner 570, Forerunner 970, Venu X1 or Forerunner 170 Music, enable silent mode and confirm that a voice alert no longer sounds.
- If you own a Forerunner 70, vívoactive 6 or non-Wi-Fi Forerunner 170, do not interpret continued voice alerts in silent mode as a failed installation; that behavior change is not listed for those variants.
- Check the installed software version after synchronization so you can distinguish Beta 18.29 from an earlier release.
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