New update coming this week! 3rd party notifications, new watch faces!

[dkboxing]

Also reminders to move! 

Article on Cnet.

The Fitbit Blaze is getting an update. Fitbit announced on Monday that its fitness smartwatch will soon receive an update that enables third-party notifications and other new features.

The Blaze, which costs $230 in the US (£179 in the UK and AU$370 in Australia), was released earlier this year. The watch can track steps, distance, calories burned, active minutes and sleep. It was also the first Fitbit that could display incoming calls, text messages and calendar alerts when connected to an iPhone orAndroid phone.

Users will soon be able to view notifications from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Gmail and other third-party apps. The update will also add five new watch faces to the Blaze, which brings the total to nine, and a new move reminder feature.

The feature was previously found in the Fitbit Alta and is included on the new Charge 2and Flex 2. Rather than a basic "stand" or "move" reminder, the Blaze will now encourage users to meet a mini-step goal of 250 steps each hour. If the goal hasn't been reached 10 minutes prior to the top of the hour, the watch will gently vibrate to remind you to get up and go.

The update will begin rolling out to Blaze owners later this week.

[SunsetRunner]

@Yaakovchaim, 

"always deliver on that date" - I've never known a company to do that in my 30+ years in tech.  Bugs happen and are often found late in the cycle.  If you have a product that interacts with other products, then lots of unknowns exist until the product is in beta.  Would you rather have a bricked device or one that works?  

I agree with @Ithildir78 - if you want to complain so **ahem** much then either sell it or return it.  I'm a fan of my Blaze.  Most watches like this require daily recharging..  i charge my blaze once a week.. That feature alone makes it a winner.  Add in the styling, fitness tracking, and reminders to get my butt moving and I think its a mighty fine product for my needs.  Fitbit has always had excellent customer service when any issue has occured with the devices I have owned.  I can't say the same for the other companies listed in this thread (i refuse to ever buy Apple because of their cr@p service).   

Yeah ... karma dude..  bring on the good karma.

[galaxys7user]

Is this new update going to address Galaxy s7 edge users.  I can't find anywhere that tells us they are compatable with each other.  I've had my Blaze since May and now all of the sudden, I can't sync.  I have tried resetting my Blaze twice and it still won't sync.  I can only assume it had something to do with an update

[Yaakovchaim]

@SunsetRunner, Yup, we ALWAYS meet our dates. And we have extremely complex systems.  One of the reasons we have CMMI Level 3 certification.  And we're about 2 years away from Level 4 certification.  Where I work, we don't have the luxery of delivering late or wrong.  It impacts over 350 million people.

And there are times when we have, literally, less than 2 weeks to get it designed, developed, and tested before it hits production.

[Rich_Laue]

@galaxys7user since you say that it synced before the update, have you tried a restart of the phone as your message center suggested? 

[Gingerantics]

I read on the fitbit site about firmware updates that it would be released in September 2016. It's September now, so are we looking at late September, mid-September? I know that I have, personally, checked my app every day for the last 8 days hoping to find the update available. Will I be doing this until the 30th?

Additionally, how long, once it is released, will it take to be available to all users? Will it come out in waves or will it be available to everyon immediately? Will we get an alert from the app when an update is available?

Thanks

Jo

[AndrewFitbit]

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@Gingerantics wrote:

I know that I have, personally, checked my app every day for the last 8 days hoping to find the update available. Will I be doing this until the 30th? 

---

@Gingerantics I sure hope not.

I will post new content as soon as the initial rollout begins (which will be pinned to the top of the Blaze board).

It typically takes around a week or so for it to be pushed to 100% of users, but can vary depending on how things go. You'll see an 'Update Tracker' button in your Blaze's device settings once it's available for you.

[James_Rochford]

To be honest I'm not holding my breath, from what I've experienced thus far I'm not convinced we will get this update this month...in the meantime Fitbit shareholders rake in those extra profits on the back of the promised update!! It's all about the profit margin...as ever.

[galaxys7user]

That did it. THANKS!

[Sevey]

I would rather they take their time and do it right.

[Gingerantics]

@Sevey then they shouldn't have promised it when they weren't near completion.

They have promised September. If nothing else, I would rather they release what they have ready, by the end of September, while they continue to work on the rest to be released in another month or so; as opposed to, promising an update in September and us not getting anything at all in September. It really doesn't lend itself to consumer confidence.

[Rich_Laue]

My thy king is that a third party was able to find out and get info on this update. This same third party leaked it to the public before Fitbit was ready to announce. IE: the title of this thread is asked on this in ugh prized leaked repprt.

[Rylan]

---

@Ithildir78 wrote:

First off I'd be willing to bet most of the complainers don't work in software development of any kind. You don't understand the proccess sometimes date's can't be given because they have found a huge issue.

---

I work in a very busy IT team. My job is primarily server infrastructure but I am a direct support to the Software Development team who create software for medical devices - not anything as important as a major fitness tracker admittedly, just other stuff that tells patients how to modify their medication intake so they don't die.

We don't get away with this sort of thing because nobody makes excuses for us.

If a software development company follows a proper development methodology and their business is dependant on doing a good job you will absolutely keep your user base informed, you will deliver on time and you'll raise any exceptions to this so far in advance that you don't commit to vague dates.

[Cubeyz]

@galaxys7user I'm also on an S7 and have no problems syncing.

[DibaSr]

To all you guys referencing Apple, do you remember that the iOS update was mentioned in June, with no definite date, just coming "fall"? These feel like unrealistic expectations--especially since Fitbit doesn't send a mass update like Apple, it does it in waves over a week-ish. If Fitbit gave you a date, but you were the end of the week, would you be upset? The update is coming, like another poster said, enjoy the blaze for what it is, or move on.

[MissKLC]

I think the point is, regardless of what Apple does, regardless of what your IT company or your IT company does, is that they were advertising all these features on the Blaze on the website (they have since changed this however). Now that it's changed they've remedied the big problem. You cannot advertise that a product have features that are actually in a coming update that doesn't even have an announced date. I can't imagine how many returns and complaints they experienced during the last week or so before they fixed it. 

Also, if it's still being tested, if it's still being researched, how about not announcing it. Or not sending out emails advertising "new update! These features!" only for the update to have no date. The easiest way to keep customers happy is to just wait until you can have a date, then announce it with a date. If they wanted to tell us what was coming before it was ready, then they shouldn't have put together full advertising strageties advertising it. Just mention that it's in the works. 

What this feels like is a stragety to keep people from ditching the Blaze. I'm not going to lie, I started saving for the pebble, then suddenly I get an email advertising an update with the main feature I wanted. So I gave the Blaze more time, but with a TBA on the update I feel like i'm just being strung along. It feels like a big "please don't leave us, this thing is coming! But we don't know when!".

I don't know. It's silly and stupid, don't announce something till you can put a date on it. Plain and simple, easy, keeps people happy. 

[SunsetRunner]

"I don't know. It's silly and stupid, don't announce something till you can put a date on it. Plain and simple, easy, keeps people happy. "

I have a different view,  I want to know a feature is committed to by a company as soon as possible.  I think the solution is to state - 'coming soon' without the date..  or put it in big terms - Q3,2016 ..  rather than "this week" or some specific date.   But knowing features that are coming generates excitement, anticipation, etc..  hey - if  you weren't  feeling some sort of interest, you wouldn't even be in this thread.  

anyway - my 2 cetnts.  

I agree with the original point MissKLC - that posting features as part of the product (for me this was missing advertised watch faces) and then not delivering on them in the released version was a problem.  That was awhile ago though. 

[Gingerantics]

I bought my blaze with the belief that an update would be available when it arrived or within the next week or so. Now all of a sudden that's just not happening. I'm debating weather I should return it or not. There are plenty of other products that compete with fitbit that can do what this update will supposedly do. I'm upset that I put my faith in fitbit for no reason. I'm seriously questioning my loyalty to a company that clearly has no loyalty toward it's long time customers.

[Rich_Laue]

@Rylan to me it seems that people are forgetting that this thread is in response to a publication in a paper based on some leaked info, and was assumed that the update was eminent, this was an and not based on any official Fitbit release. 

Yes you can say that fitbit has mentioned that an update is coming, but they did this in response to falsely published info. 

While i applaud that you probably work for the only company in the world that always meets deadlines, i still don't believe it, this is how i feel. Please remember that it is impossible for anyparty, whether right or wrong to win an online battle. 

[MissKLC]

@Rich_Laue I recieved an email announcing to update , then went to the website where they advertise the blaze with the updates, advertising it as having reminders to move etc, with no coming soon banner at all. I check my app for the update, got confused when it wasn't there and then found this forum. While this post might have originated from leaked info, Fitbit themselves fueled it too. The email announcement and handling of the advdrtising made it seem like the update was eminent if not available. They've since corrected this on the website but it was still them who caused this confusion as well.

[Rich_Laue]

If.an update is available there will be a motifs shook on fitbit.com and in the app.