Amazfit Balance 2 owners in Germany started receiving Zepp OS 6 through firmware 6.2.208.7, a 23.33MB download carrying a changelog well out of proportion to its size, per Gadgets & Wearables. Pool swimming picks up manual pauses, so rest between lengths stops counting as swimming. Outdoor and trail runners get Equivalent Pace fields for each lap. The watch can now pair with third-party rowing machines that speak FTMS, the common Bluetooth standard gym equipment uses, including the Concept2 RowErg, and read power and distance off them. Mapping gains a download manager, room for 100 stored routes and a preview of the course before a workout starts. Launcher 2.0 did not arrive with any of it, the rearranged home screen already running on Balance 3 and Balance Ultra.
An Amazfit spokesperson has now explained the hold. Feedback kept landing on one thing after Launcher 2.0 appeared on the first Zepp OS 6 watches, and it was the horizontal widgets, the full screen panels you swipe through for heart rate and activity instead of opening cards from a vertical list. Zepp Health says its product team is now evaluating that feedback, and until it decides, Zepp OS 6 keeps reaching older watches with the old launcher left in place. Missing it now does not rule a watch out of getting it later. Six models carry Launcher 2.0 on the company's compatibility chart. Five do not, and Balance 2 is one of them.