Blaze Bluetooth on/off toggle

[mbrett]

Does the Fitbit Blaze have a toggle in settings to turn bluetooth on and off?

This would be much appreciated as more and more companies a not permitting users to wear trackers with bluetooth permanently on at work. This is the same for many military installations across the world.

[Julia_G]

Good question!  Fitbit have not announced this, so I think it is safe to assume that it will not be available initially.  It seems to be a popular request and presumably could be addressed at some point as a firmware update.

[MikeF]

The more important question would be whether the hardware is capable of allowing such a software switch to be installed. Unless such internal power switching is designed into the tracker itself, no amount of software modifications will be able to change this behaviour.

[ErickFitbit]

@mbrettThe Blaze does not have the option to toggle Bluetooth off and on. Good question though! 

[Bunches]

Is the blaze Bluetooth compatible? I know my charge hr isn't.

[EmersonFitbit]

@Bunches In what way do you mean? 

Blaze uses Bluetooth LTE to communicate with your phone/computer (and, in turn, your account). 

[Bunches]

Will the heart rate monitor info be able to be shared with other programs
and as without an additional attachment?

[MikeF]

I don't believe anything different is on offer in the short term to what is available one with the Surge and Charge HR. HR syncing is already tested and working with the Fitbit apps and website so I imagine this will simply role forward to capture the Blaze as well.

Of course, whether this will change in the future or not is something I can't comment on.

[bbarrera]

---

@Bunches wrote:
Will the heart rate monitor info be able to be shared with other programs
and as without an additional attachment?

---

Currently this is limited to:

- Fitbit-to-Strava link (one-way: record in Fitbit Surge, auto export to Strava; MobileRun supported too?)

- Activities (workouts) recorded with GPS (Surge and MobileRun)

Regarding bullet 2, today there are two types of GPS activities: Surge and MobileRun. For example in 2014 I wore a Fitbit Force (step counter) and used Fitbit's MobileRun feature to capture GPS of walks and hikes using the Fitbit app on my iPhone (app uses phone's GPS). Conceptually this is the same as using Blaze with Connected GPS (same in concept). Recently I went back into my Fitbit activity log, found an old hike recorded with GPS (phone's GPS), exported the activity as a TCX file, and successfully imported the activity in some websites (e.g. MapMyFitness) but not others (e.g. Garmin Connect).

In summary, if Fitbit makes no changes then I expect any Blaze activities recorded using Connected GPS will be available to export as TCX file. You will need to test import such a TCX file to determine if it works with other programs.

(there is another 'sharing' feature - it is the largely "useless"* all-day stats, for example connecting Runkeeper to Fitbit results in getting a daily "comment" in Runkeeper with a summary of all day stats. "Useless"* to me as I don't count daily calories. Perhaps it is useful if you count calories, and link Fitbit to MyFitnessPal, I haven't tried that or read about it)

[Mckay1985]

You seem like you know a bit about the fit it's. I'm despite to know why it says I'm doing so many steps when I move my hand when sitting and why it says I'm burning so many caleries.....please help I'm frustrated and tempted to take this thing back

[mbrett]

The way all wrist based trackers calculate steps is based on movement of
the tracker. Fitbit acknowledge that you dominant wrist moves more than
your non-dominant wrist so enable seeing which wrist you are wearing it on.
Specific movement or your wrist independent of is you are walking out
sitting are calculated as steps.

If you are seeing too many steps check if you have the tracker set as being
worn on your non-dominant wrist. If so set it to your dominant wrist
instead.

Let me know if this helps.

[Mckay1985]

Thank you.... Just frustrated as it seems like it's not accurate the it's also time lapsed...... Will all of a sudden add like 10 more steps when I walked like one to catch up from like two minutes ago.it seems likes its time lapsed. Also there's voice cues for a distances when you run/walk....it didn't work today while I had it with me on my walk

[Mckay1985]

Is the blaze accurate? The caleries and steps don't seem that way to me??

[mbrett]

Voice queues are app based usually, using the GPS within your phone on
which the app is running. If there is no GPS reception the measured steps
from your tracker are used instead. Steps are used to calculate distance
based on estimated/assumed stride length. Steps are often displayed based
on either time interval or every so many recorded steps. You will not see
ever step singularly updated.

Hope this helps...

[mbrett]

My iterating is that the Blaze has a similar level of accuracy as other
Fitbit trackers, but I have not had the chance to test it yet.

[Mckay1985]

Still a bit confused about the GPS "app" I have an iPhone 6 and on the blaze it connects to the gps on my phone I'm guessing....so why isn't the voice cues working? It shows a preview of the voice that will be used on the Fitbit app under accounts then exercise tracking

[Mckay1985]

Is it true than the first 5 steps you take won't be counted if you say walk five steps then stop but if you carry on to the 6th step they will start getting counted and the 6 steps will also be added on too??

[mbrett]

My understanding is there the Blaze users the phone GPS which needs the
Fitbit app running and the cues come from the Fitbit app on the phone. The
voice cues do not come from the Blaze. The Blaze can be set to vibrate and
display visible cues based on distance intervals.

[Julia_G]

@Mckay1985 , the cues only work when you set yor exercise to run, not walk. I don't think the 6 step theory is true.

[mbrett]

I always assume people would use run rather than walk exercise type when
walking any distance as run if more feature rich, as you mention.

WRT step display I still stand by the point the the display does not update
for every step, but is based on a time or step interval. I lean towards a
time rather than step interval, but I have not fully proven this yet.