Latest Update

[Sprucan]

I REALLY do not like the most recent update.

I have used Charge 5 for almost a year for a very specific purpose - monitoring/managing heart rate and cadence/endurance (mostly) while walking. I had heart surgery last year and needed a way to track my heart rate and monitor interval times. When I started, I could walk from one mailbox to the next, then 2 of them, then end of the block, etc., until I could walk a mile. Then 2, 3 and 4. While walking I could monitor heart rate and the app would notify me of avg. time per mile. The app was perfect, I could assess my "workout" while walking and adjust cadence based on my heart rate and time per mile at any time while walking. And the info was useful when I met with my Dr.

The new app is "automated" and eliminates the features that allowed that level of monitoring/adjustment to cadence. I'm walking blind other than being able to check HR.

Please add that functionality back. If you can't I'll move to another brand that can.

[Julia_G]

Hi, @Sprucan the feature to monitor your pace is available on your Charge 5 itself if you use the exercise app on your Fitbit itself.  You can choose which stats are main stats and tap to scroll through them.  If you need more info on how to do this, please post again.

Also the new app has a new focus option.  You can find that on the app by clicking on the pencil icon then clicking on the top box and swiping left.  I have chosen the heart health focus and find it really helpful.  It gives me the lowest HR detected of the day and the highest and also all the main heart and exercise stats are grouped together.

I know the new app takes some getting used to, and the navigation isn’t obvious, but it is more flexible than you might think at first glance.

Here’s a pic from my app of the heart health focus:

I hope this helps.  Welcome to the forums!

[BigBadBrad]

I can’t tell if the latest app update was done by people having no experience with updating and improving apps or if it was done by Fitbit staff who hate Fitbit. It’s awful!

no more battery %

no more rolling week for stats

 the day of the update I had 14+ miles hiking that didn’t recognize and track as exercise.

too much junk on main screen, Fitbit only wants to monetize users not provide users with a good experience.

Fitbit is making move to Apple Watch after 9 years as a happy Fitbit user.

[Sprucan]

I looked through the items mentioned but none quite get at what I was
looking for. The previous version provided interval times which have been
very helpful in my post surgery recovery.
Example - at 1 mile I’d get a verbal update “1 mile in x minutes, 2 miles
in avg. of y minutes.”
This has been crucial for me as I moved from literally 21 minutes to walk 1
mile to approaching 14 per mile for 4 minutes. I get no verbal prompts that
alert me that I’m slowing down and no gps data that shows where I walked. I
don’t see anything in that new app that provides this info, not sure why
GPS is not working and I get no verbal prompts.
Am I somehow missing the settings that turn these items back on? It seems
the app has become more cluttered and automated. One other item I
appreciated was the ability to pause tracking for any number of reasons.
Any thoughts how I can get back to this functionality?
Thanks, I appreciate the feedback.
Chuck

[BigBadBrad]

I hear you brother.

so many changes, yet they eliminated so many good features. Very frustrating.

my Apple Watch arrived today, so I’m making the switch after 9 years.

wishing you good health.