Issues, bugs, and annoyances with the Blaze

[SomeoneElse]

I've had my Blaze for about a month now and I really like it, but I've also noted a few issues with it that I've found irksome. Maybe some of these have been fixed in the latest firmware update, but I have seen no notification of a firmware update on my iPhone (iPhone 6, iOS 9.2). Maybe some of these are just a setting that I've missed. Maybe I'm just doing something wrong. I don't know, but I was hoping to get some insight...

• Notifications do not consistently show up on the Blaze. Usually a text message will buzz a second prior to my phone buzzing to let me know I've received a text. However, maybe one out of every four times, I will not receive a notification when I get a text on my phone. This is when my phone is dormant and in my pocket.
  • I've noticed that the Blaze doesn't seem to notify if there's a picture included in the text, but that's only a small subset of the missing notifications.
  • Also, the Blaze doesn't seem to have very good emoji support. I get the question box character sometimes. This would be a nice to have feature.
• Phantom input! I found out early on that tapping the screen on the watch face will cycle through the fitness metrics. Nice. However, these will cycle seemingly on their own. I won't touch the watch for a while, but when I activate it to check something, often the metric is different than when I left it. This is annoying as I may want to consistently see a particular metric when checking my watch.
  • I've also seen it activate on a completely different screen for no reason, ie, it's on the Settings page (the icon, not the actual settings). Once I found it inside the Today page. I did not leave it there and I wasn't tinkering with it beforehand.
• Alarms can be flaky. I've had a clearly disabled alarm go off anyway.
• I can't not have a primary goal that buzzes and notifies me, ie, I hit 10,000 steps. I find this more annoying than anything, but I have to have one. Why can't this simply be turned off?
• The screen does not automatically light up when I have a call/text. Sometimes I feel it buzzing as a call comes in, lift my wrist...and it's blank. I want to be able to see that outright. Quick View is set to "On".
• The wrist lift Quick View is inconsistent and a bit annoying. It won't always activate the watch. If possible, perhaps the user could program their own motion to activate the screen? A flick of the wrist or something similar?
• Heart rate tracking is wildly off. Maybe it's just me (pretty hairy wrists), but I've been sitting at rest in a doctor's office with the finger device showing a BPM in the upper 70s while the Blaze shows one in the lower 90s. I know this has been a long-standing complaint, but it's still valid.
  • Also, the chart of BPM over the day doesn't seem to reflect peaks very well. I've seen BPMs on the watch face during workouts and the peak on the chart is nowhere near as high. Maybe this is just how the data points are averaged, but it'd be nice to be able to see peaks more clearly.
• As stated previously, I still have no notification of the latest firmware update. I know they're staggered to lighten the server load, but really, ten days?

[Jason212]

As far as the wait for the firmware upgrade I can say that I just got mine today, has not been long enough to tell you if it fixes any of your issues, just letting you know it is still being rolled out so you should get it.

[Rich_Laue]

Lsets see if I can address some points.

• The Blaze has no emoji support.
• As for phantom input, could a button be accidentally pressed?
• Alarms, your not the first to report this, I haven't seen it yet. It's been reported that turning of the alarm today doesn't stop it from going off tomorrow.
• Buzzing with primary goal is not a feature your able to turn off, maybe try a restart.
• When notifications come in, the screen is not suppose to light up, there's a whole other thread on this, basically there is no need to turn the light on until your arm is raised to look at it.
• That brings us to quick view, you want the arm to be close to parallel, then a slight wrist twist turns the light on. I find at least 9 out of 10 it works for me, I never really had any trouble, but stylized the motion since others were.
• Heart rate, yes during the day in the app it is averaged across 5 seconds intervals. While in tracking mode the interval is 1 second.
• Accuracy, most people only seem to complain during Hitt, and find that it agrees with the doctor. You don't want the tracker to right or to lose.
• The firmware, you'll be notified when fitbit releases it to you. Due to previous problems they are releasing it in batches, prausing in between, to see if the updates are going smoothly.

[SomeoneElse]

I finally got the firmware update. The watch does feel a tad snappier, which is nice. However, I can still confirm that not all text notifications are coming through. I got a text on my phone that was not received on the watch while the phone was dormant in my pocket.

And while I realize it's not necessary to automatically light up the watch for notifications, it really should do so for calls.

[Rich_Laue]

If on Android is notifications set to show on lock screen in the phone settings?

[SomeoneElse]

I'm not on Android, but my iPhone is set to show notifications on the lock screen. It still doesn't explain why this is happening, though. If my phone is in my pocket, I'll usually get a notification, but not always.