Fitbit app causes air commands on Samsung S22 Ultra not to work

[Bellerofon]

It seems like samsung s22 ultra's spen is not connecting to the phone in order for the air commads to work when fitbit app is installed. I tried earlier versions of the apps and finally came up with 3.43.1 to have the spen work flawlessly. All the updates after v3.43.1 cause this bug. My band is Charge 5.

Moderator edit: Subject for clarity.

[RodrigoMFitbit]

@Bellerofon Welcome to the forums. Thanks for inquiring about the Fitbit app preventing the air commands of your new Samsung S22 Ultra to work.

Thanks for taking the time to make the tests and explain the situation in detail. How did you find out that the Fitbit app was causing this? Do these not work at all when the Fitbit app is installed? Or does this occur only when the Fitbit app is open? Are the air commands related in any sense to actions on the Fitbit app?

Thanks in advance!

[Bellerofon]

Hello! Thank you for your reply.

The story goes like this. One month ago I purchased Samsung Galaxy S22 ultra upon release and transferred all my apps from my previous phone S10+ including Fitbit app. My band back then was Inspire HR which worked perfectly. The S22 ultra includes an s-pen accessory which supports writing on screen and air actions (commands) via Bluetooth protocol. I realized immediately that the writing was working fine but when I was taking out the stylus it didn't connect to the phone immediately as it should in order for the air actions to work. I had to wait for about a minute while the phone was searching for the stylus and then after failing to discover the accessory I had to re-enter the pen into the phone, wait for about extra 30 seconds with the pen in the phone and then it would finally be recognized so I could take it out to have the air actions working.

I contacted Samsung immediately to complain for a faulty brand new 1500€ phone and they suggested to make a hard reset and try again. That's what I actually did and the s-pen began to work flawlessly so it is not a hardware issue. Then I started fresh installing my apps this time one by one and after each installation I was testing s-pen which worked fine until I installed an set up the Fitbit app. I tried several times to uninstall the app and try the s-pen and I verified that when I have the Fitbit app installed the s-pen air actions fail but and when I uninstalled it everything goes back to normal. I installed the rest of my favorite apps except for the Fitbit and all seemed well. Afterwards I started rolling back to previous versions of Fitbit app one and finally concluded to the 3.43.1 version as the latest one that cooperates flawlessly with the air actions of the s-pen.

Since then I was hoping that this bud would be fixed in either Fitbit app or Samsung future update but so far nothing is fixed. Fitbit released since the purchase of the phone v3.56.1 update on March 24th and Samsung released April's 1st security patch but the bug remains. In the meantime I was strongly considered to change after many many years of using Fitbit bands (Charge HR - Charge 3 - Inspire HR) to another brand because of this bug but in the end I went about a week ago with Fitbit's Charge 5 again hoping that ultimately your ITs would have this bud fixed shortly. Of course I did all the tests described above this time with Charge 5 instead of Inspire HR but obviously it doesn't work.

FYI, when I install the latest version of Fitbit app without logging in an pairing the band, I have no problem with the air actions. The bug occurs when I log into the app and I have my band set up. Additionally I have several more devices with their apps paired with my phone such as, Galaxy buds pro, Galaxy buds+, Galaxy Watch, Huawei Watch 3 pro, LG TVs and Bluetooth sound bar and speakers that work flawlessly except for Fitbit bands along with Fitbit app versions later than 3.43.1.

Sorry for my long message but I tried to pass the most detailed info I could to help you determine the problem.

Thanks in advance for your support!

B.r.

[RodrigoMFitbit · Accepted solution]

@Bellerofon Thank you so much for the detailed explanation and the feedback.

Not a problem with the lengthy reply, it was actually what I needed. Thanks for taking the time to explain. It seems to be related to the Bluetooth connection the Fitbit device establishes with the smartphone and it then interferes with the SPen. I will be passing this along. Thanks again. 

I appreciate your patience. Have a nice day!