The Forerunner 165 remains Garmin's latest Forerunner smartwatch. However, the Forerunner 165 has not been receiving the same updates as its Forerunner peers in recent months. Instead, Garmin has kept the Forerunner 165 on one development branch and all other currently supported Forerunner smartwatches on another.

As a result, the Forerunner 165 (curr. $249.99 on Amazon) has remained on the same stable software throughout late spring and the entire summer. With autumn now rolling around, Garmin has finally now brought the Forerunner 165 onto 20.xx builds that it has been beta testing for two months. As such, Software Version 20.30 contains a tonne of changes from Software Version 19.18.

Specifically, the new update has a sixteen-line changelog, which we have embedded below. Like other recent Forerunner smartwatches, the Forerunner 165 can now back up and restore device settings while also making use of the Garmin Share service. Additionally, Garmin claims to have made improvements to pool swim workouts and its Run Coach feature. As always, the new update features numerous bug fixes, too. Please note that while Garmin states that it is issuing Software Version 20.30 in a phased rollout, it should be possible to trigger its download manually by heading to Menu, System, Software Update and then tapping 'Check For Updates'.

• Added Device Settings Backup and Restore.
• Adds Garmin Share, share your workouts, courses, and waypoints between compatible Garmin devices.
• Fixed alert suppression during breathwork activity.
• Fixed calendar display issues.
• Fixed edge case weather data display errors.
• Fixed incident detection remaining active after activity.
• Fixed lock screen vibration during sleep mode.
• Fixed map data field text truncation.
• Fixed pool size selection in Garmin Connect real time settings.
• Fixed rare potential crash at activity start.
• Fixed various bugs and UI improvements.
• Fixed various language translation errors.
• Improvements to race time predictions based on fitness level and recent efforts.
• Improvements to support pool swim workouts with pace alerts and critical swim speed.
• Improvements to the pool swim rest screen and alert tones.
• Integrates the Garmin Run Coach feature into Garmin Connect app.