Your Garmin Instinct 2 is about to get some amazing new features for free

Morning Report and wrist-based running power are coming

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

If you’re aGarmin Instinct 2wearer, you’ll be getting some ofGarmin’s best new features in an Alpha firmware update coming in January, including the popular Morning Report and wrist-based running power functions. What a way to start your new year!

The new firmware update takes some of the features of thebest Garmin watchesreleased this year and adds them to the Instinct 2, according to a report published onGarmin’s website. Initially, the features will only be available to members of Garmin’s early-access beta testing program, but they are expected to be rolled out to all Instinct 2 users automatically around late-January, according to a report byGadgets & Wearables.

The full details of the features coming to the Instinct 2 can be found below, as written on the Garmin website:

Analysis: Reporting for duty – but what about the Instinct Crossover?

The main attraction here, and the feature we’ve gotten the most use out of, is the Morning Report. First introduced on theGarmin Forerunner 955, the Morning Report feeds a selection of curated information to your wrist as soon as you wake up, including information on last night’s sleep, the weather, your Training Readiness score, and a recommended training intensity.

This allows you to alter and curate your training plans for the day: for example, if it’s a day of icy weather and you’ve had a terrible night’s sleep, you may want to abandon that long run in favor of a short, restorative yoga flow.

Race calendar glances is also really interesting, allowing you to see the races you’ve put into Garmin Connect on your wrist, offering a countdown to the next big day. Wrist-based running power is a fantastic way to calculate the overall effort and tax on your body created on any given run.

Normally, you need one of thebest heart rate monitorsto calculate this metric effectively, but the Instinct 2 will allow you to do it without a HRM from January. Other features include listed fixes to common problems, such as increased calorie-counter accuracy.

Get the best Black Friday deals direct to your inbox, plus news, reviews, and more.

Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable Black Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content.

There’s no mention of whether these features will come to theInstinct Crossover,  Garmin’s latest watch, which is essentially an Instinct 2 retooled to work around analog hands. We imagine Crossover users will be in for a longer wait, as the UX of each feature will need to be adjusted to work around the watch’s analog design.

Matt is TechRadar’s expert on all things fitness, wellness and wearable tech. A former staffer at Men’s Health, he holds a Master’s Degree in journalism from Cardiff and has written for brands like Runner’s World, Women’s Health, Men’s Fitness, LiveScience and Fit&Well on everything fitness tech, exercise, nutrition and mental wellbeing.

Matt’s a keen runner, ex-kickboxer, not averse to the odd yoga flow, and insists everyone should stretch every morning. When he’s not training or writing about health and fitness, he can be found reading doorstop-thick fantasy books with lots of fictional maps in them.

The Samsung Galaxy Ring 2 could fix a major smart ring flaw according to patent

Xiaomi Smart Band 9 review: the cheapest fitness tracker you should consider buying

Apple might still be developing that fabled smart ring after all, according to latest leak