Whenever you purchase a telephone, pill, or smartwatch at this time, you understand precisely what number of years of Software Program updates it will obtain — equivalent to three years for the Pixel Watch 2 or 4 years for the Galaxy Watch 6. Nonetheless, purchase a Garmin, Fitbit, or every other fitness-branded watch, and it is a whole crapshoot to foretell how lengthy till it turns into an unchanging artifact, lapped by new tech designed to make it look out of date. 

I feel it is time for that to vary. 

When $100-or-less health trackers have been fashionable, you could possibly anticipate no matter software program got here with it within the field, and never a lot else. And that is affordable, in the identical approach that an affordable Android telephone will get one OS replace at most. 

Now, firms commonly promote $400+ health Watches with strong coaching and mapping software program. However in contrast to comparably priced smartwatches, these watches have thriller CPUs and subsequent to no assure for a way lengthy they’re going to get correct help.

We all know that the Pixel Watch 2 makes use of the Snapdragon W5 chip with 2GB of RAM, and that each Google and Qualcomm are invested in making it carry out properly for years. Select a health watch as an alternative, and also you’re unlikely to know what efficiency positive aspects it provides over earlier generations, even in case you take it aside and examine the proprietary parts. 

With Garmin, as an example, I do know usually that Fenix or Epix watches have the perfect efficiency to allow the most recent software program tips, whereas an Intuition watch sometimes has slower efficiency. However I do not know the magnitude of the distinction, which makes it onerous to guage how a lot to spend so my watch has the capability to be taught future tips. 

Usually, designing a health watch or tracker is all about stability. It’s important to make it compact sufficient to maintain it skinny, clocked low sufficient that the battery can final a few weeks, and one way or the other strong sufficient to energy all the sensors and satellites inside. 

When you strike that stability, you may’t simply add new software program willy-nilly a yr later, not with out overloading the finely-tuned equilibrium between design and efficiency. And identical to that, your fancy, expensive wearable might get left behind — often with no alternative for a trade-in deal. 

Garmin makes some extent of updating its outdated watches a couple of months after new fashions launch. It dawdles lengthy sufficient to tantalize its prospects into upgrading; solely after the launch window ends will Garmin begrudgingly add new options to the older fashions, assuming they don’t seem to be restricted by {hardware} limitations. 

Simply have a look at final month’s huge Garmin characteristic dump of instruments like Hill Scores, Coaching Readiness, Coaching Load Ratio, and Morning Report back to last-gen Forerunner, Fenix, Epix, and Intuition watches. Garmin is aware of full properly that if it sells a brand new mannequin yearly after which does not help year-old watches, folks will cease trusting that the finest Garmin watches will stay the perfect for very lengthy.

My major situation is that it is by no means a assure that your watch will get a brand new characteristic. The truth that Garmin can cost $3,000 for a carbon-fiber MARQ watch with out promising how lengthy the watch will obtain help is an issue! 

I am assured Garmin will give it years of updates, however it ought to be a matter of report, not of belief within the model. And on condition that it is a redesign of the MARQ Gen 2 watch launched in 2022, that makes me marvel if the {hardware} inside is already barely dated in comparison with 2023 watches just like the Epix Professional Gen 2. I is likely to be incorrect, however I’ve no approach of figuring out. 

For one more instance, have a look at 2022’s Garmin Forerunner 255, a superb working watch supplanted by the Forerunner 265 lower than a yr later. Apart from the brand-new AMOLED display, the 265’s one improve was Coaching Readiness, which measures your physique’s readiness to work out primarily based on restoration information, coaching load, HRV, sleep, and stress information. The Forerunner 255 measures each single a type of metrics individually, however Garmin nonetheless hasn’t given it the capability to transform that information into Coaching Readiness. 

Is that this as a result of Garmin gave the 255 a lesser chip that may’t deal with the additional work of calculating it? We do not know as a result of Garmin does not promote efficiency positive aspects per era. Or is it reserving the characteristic to justify the 265’s $100 value bump? Once more, we do not know.

I need to give credit score to COROS, a working watch model and Garmin rival that appears to deal with its updates higher. All of its EvoLab coaching suggestions are the identical throughout all watches, no matter value. COROS even gave all of its units a firmware replace proper earlier than the COROS PACE 3 launched, guaranteeing PACE 2 house owners had related software program and primarily had {hardware} causes to improve. 

That is the one exception I do know of, nevertheless; in case you purchase an Amazfit watch or every other typical health watch, you would possibly get updates up till the following mannequin arrives, however not often something in addition to bug fixes after that.

I am curious if Fitbit would be the subsequent main model to buck this development and set an instance for dealing with Software Program Updates. The early days of Google’s Fitbit acquisition have been a multitude, because the Sense 2 and Versa 4 had last-gen options walked again or disabled. However perhaps the Cost 6 will start to reverse this development. 

Google set a powerful new normal with the Pixel 8 and its seven years of OS updates. This solely applies to telephones, after all — Google’s approach of difficult the supremacy of long-lived iPhones. 

What I need to see is Google take an identical method to Fitbit OS that it does to Put on OS. To not make Fitbit’s software program a duplicate of Put on OS — you may at all times get the Pixel Watch 2 for a stability between smarts and health — however merely to present Fitbit’s software program a daily replace cadence, with annual or quarterly benchmarks for when to anticipate new options. 

I simply started testing the Fitbit Cost 6 and genuinely prefer it up to now (maintain a watch out for my overview coming quickly). However with out diving into the small print, it is truthful to say {that a} $160 health tracker that ultimately expenses you for Fitbit Premium is an actual funding when you do not know how lengthy Google will correctly help it — particularly the Google apps. The corporate has a behavior of eradicating options from older units, in spite of everything. 

Now, think about if Google have been to vow that the Cost 6 would get the identical software program updates because the hypothetical Cost 7 in 2024 or 2025. Or that the Garmin Venu 3 will get all of the preliminary options of the Venu 4 in a yr or two?

That will sound unreasonable, however we know {that a} $200 Apple Watch SE or $300 Galaxy Watch 6 will get new options from watches years from now that have not even been designed but. Why cannot we anticipate the identical software program dedication from health watches, particularly ones with related (or larger) value tags? 

I’ve come to simply accept that health watches’ proprietary chargers are an unsolvable mess as a result of they cannot mandate that watches maintain the identical design from one era to the following. However I do suppose it is truthful to anticipate extra from the unnamed price range CPUs positioned inside health watches to depart sufficient leeway for correct updates a yr or two down the road.