Update to use Explore app rather than Earthmate app.

Pure speculation on my part, but I doubt that this is going to happen. The Mini has been in production for a long time. I think that if Garmin was going to do it, they'd have done it long ago. Garmin also has very little incentive to enhance the Mini now that the Mini 2 is available.

You can submit a request for the feature here:

https://www.garmin.com/en-US/forms/ideas/

Though one thing that gives me hope is that (likely) the protocol they built on top of BLE is the same for both devices.  So the effort to support two apps might actually be lower than just dropping support for the old app instead.

In the announcement they said they would continue to support Earthmate for older devices, so that suggests they don't intend to move those devices over to Explore. Unfortunately.

bummer!

So a couple of yrs ago(2019 actually), a Garmin Support person told me that the Mini and older InReach Explorer+ and SE used a different communication method to talk to Earthmate, than the newer devices do for Explore. My Mini had died while I was on the AT, and I was having them switch my account back to my Explorer+. We were just casually talking about the devices and such... Being that the InReach series were the Delorme devices, and that the Mini was Garmin's first stab at a crossover model, maybe that is in fact true, and that converting those is just very difficult or cost prohibitive. I wouldn't hold my breathe for a change with any of those three devices.

If you want an inReach MINI that works with the Explore app, you have to buy an inReach MINI 2

I would totally support this. Come on Garmin! No point in buying a Mini 2 as I have a perfectly good Mini. Please support your customers and goodwill by creating a firmware update with this feature!

There are other improvements with the M2. For example, better battery life.