How To Update Gopro Remote Firmware

GoPro teases new Smart Remote and Hero 9 Black firmware update with app upgrade

(Image credit: GoPro)

GoPro has revealed that it'll soon be releasing a new Smart Remote for its current action camera line-upward, along with major firmware updates for the GoPro Hero 9 Blackness, GoPro Hero eight Black and GoPro Max.

The two teaser announcements, which are and then far lacking in details, came during the release of a more small update to the GoPro app, which delivers a new feature called Mural (which y'all can see further down this page).

Landscape is effectively a customizable wall of your favorite photos and videos, which lives on the app's opening screen. A new style of seeing of displaying and organizing your GoPro videos, it'southward bachelor from today if you update the GoPro app on your Android or iOS device.

But it's the Smart Remote and firmware updates that are the more intriguing news. GoPro says that information technology'll be fully announcing a GoPro Smart Remote, which volition presumably replace its existing remote (which you can meet in the image above), on Dec 17 at 9am EST / 2pm GMT (or December 18 at 1am AEST).

These are the best action cameras yous can buy right now
Read our in-depth GoPro Hero nine Black review
Or bank check out our guide to the best cheap action cameras in the world

There are currently no other details about this remote, other than the fact that information technology'll be compatible with the Hero nine Blackness, Hero viii Black and Max. GoPro says it'll exist available to buy on December 17 in North America, but the balance of the world will have to wait till subsequently Christmas for its arrival in February 2021.

December 17 is going to be a busy day for GoPro, because it'll likewise be releasing firmware updates to its current lineup of activeness cameras. This will apparently bring up to thirty% faster offload speeds to the Hero nine Black, Hero viii Black and Max, which means you should be able to transfer footage to your smartphone much faster than before.

Bated from that, little else is known about the firmware updates, other than that they'll bring "other features that meliorate the overall user feel".

Festive treats

So what exactly can we expect from the new GoPro Smart Remote, and these mysterious firmware updates? GoPro does already have its existing Smart Remote (which you lot can see in the image at the top of this page), and then information technology may well simply be a minor update to that.

The current remote lets yous control all settings on your GoPro wirelessly from a distance, so you lot can capture action without beingness fully in the thick of information technology. It works from upwardly to 180m abroad and, like most GoPros, is waterproof down to 10m. Only it's not without its limitations, including a lack of voice control and incompatibility with the new Hero 9 Black.

Whether GoPro gives this remote a major update or just refines it for use with the GoPro Hero 9 Black remains to exist seen, only all will be revealed on December 17.

Of greater appeal to more than GoPro users will perhaps be the new firmware upgrades, which will also be released on the aforementioned twenty-four hour period. The Hero nine Black received a pretty large update soon subsequently its release on October 20, which promised to better the functionality of its laggy touchscreen and cranked down the sharpness when shooting 4K video.

Information technology was little rough edges similar this that led us to give the Hero nine Black a slightly lower score than the Hero 8 Black when it was released, but hopefully the incoming firmware updates will iron further out these issues – along with other niggles on the Hero viii Black and Max – to give us all fully polished GoPros in time for Christmas.

Fancy shooting some aerial videos? Check out the best DJI drones you lot tin purchase

Marker is the Cameras Editor at TechRadar. Having worked in tech journalism for a ludicrous 17 years, Mark is now attempting to break the world tape for the number of camera numberless hoarded by one person. He was previously Cameras Editor at Trusted Reviews, Acting editor on Stuff.idiot box, too as Features editor and Reviews editor on Stuff magazine. Every bit a freelancer, he's contributed to titles including The Sunday Times, FourFourTwo and Loonshit. And in a former life, he too won the Daily Telegraph'south Immature Sportswriter of the Yr. Only that was before he discovered the foreign joys of getting up at 4am for a photo shoot in London'south Foursquare Mile.