Ability to use Chest Strap Heart Rate Monitor or foot pods

[JSy]

I like that the Charge HR and Surge have the ability to monitor heart rate via the wrist based optical monitor, but from what I have gathered, it sounds like all wrist based optical heart rate monitors have poor accuracy at high intensity workouts.  It would be great if fitbit had a product that had a wrist based heart rate monitor, but would switch to using a chest strap heart rate monitor if one was detected.  Any chance that the firmware/software on the Charge HR and/or Surge could be updated to use a bluetooth chest strap heart rate monitor? 

Moderator edit: labels and title.

[BoltMK]

I’d like to support the suggestion to add chest strap capabilities to the Fitbit Blaze. I love my Blaze except when I workout. The heart rate is rarely accurate and it gets in the way. I do a lot of work with kettlebells and a wrist device isn’t ideal. 

[Parras]

No news from fitbit on this issue, at least not since I posted a year ago. I haven't tried the new "tri-wavelegnth" sensor on an Ionic because a) it's bulky and b)it's  out of my league $ wise, so I don't know if the "improved hr monitoring" it supposedly provides would be sufficient.

At this point, I'd settle for a data import/override ability in the app from a chest strap hr monitor as distinct from a truely integrated chest strap. However I expect chest strap devices collect data in a different "shape" or density than the fitbit wrist leds measure, and therein lies the sticking point of why we don't have this functionality yet.

[jepuskar]

The Ionic is better than the Charge 2, however it is real hit and miss to get it locked on.  Once it is locked it is accurate to within max 5 bpm from my chest strap...however it can drop off at anytime and it does.  Real frustrating when you are trying to track peak minutes.  

I have seen several suggestions and I think at this point anything would be better than the current state.  Was there ever an official response to the numerous posts about this?

[joeclimb]

Jepuskar:

I have been monitoring this thread for most likely a year and I have yet to see a response from Fitbit. I also tried calling but gave up because I realized I was talking to a computer.

Personally, when my Fitbit dies I will look for another brand that accepts a chest strap.

Joe Lanzetta
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[ggoodman]

It's clear at this point that Fitbit is asleep at the wheel. They're falling behind the competition in being a leader in this market and will go the way of Nokia in the next 5 years as people realize their products are no longer as good as the competition.  I really liked my fitbit when I started out because they were the best option at the time, but they clearly have lost their edge. I think the only competitive advantage of FitBit now is "look", but I suspect the competition will catch on to this soon and over take them. It's much easier to create a nice looking product then it is to get all your tech and software up to speed when it's fal

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@JSy wrote:

I like that the Charge HR and Surge have the ability to monitor heart rate via the wrist based optical monitor, but from what I have gathered, it sounds like all wrist based optical heart rate monitors have poor accuracy at high intensity workouts.  It would be great if fitbit had a product that had a wrist based heart rate monitor, but would switch to using a chest strap heart rate monitor if one was detected.  Any chance that the firmware/software on the Charge HR and/or Surge could be updated to use a bluetooth chest strap heart rate monitor? 

Moderator edit: labels and title.

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len so far behind. Right now, I think my money will go to Garmin when my current fitbit dies. 

[knuts]

hi

Heartrate monitor as really something you should getting in place...

[ShanePresley]

I googled Fitbit compatible chest straps fully expecting to find dozens of off-brand products and I imagined my biggest problem would be sorting through the reviews. Imagine my surprise to instead find this thread. Absolutely unreal that there is no chest strap. 

[Static1Shot]

Used the Charge 2 during a HIIT workout last night while also using a different HR Monitor that includes a chest strap.

The Charge 2 never showed me going above ~140, while the one with the chest strap was correctly indicating 170-180 during the intervals.

When my HR was below 130, both HR monitors were within ~2 of each other, so without a chest strap the Fitbit is pretty worthless for high intensity workouts.

[CarlsHealth]

Agreed! I find this all the time to be the case. On my cycling runs my chest strap will say for example average heart rate was 168, and the charge 2 says it was 120.  I verified my chest strap is acurate. My wife stoped wearing her charge 2 because of this problem. Luckily I got to wear her charge 2 & test out & not buy one of these what I consider wasted piece of energy's. Doesnt keep the athlete in mind nor any who wants accuracy. I mean really? If fitbit can't get it right on there heart rate technology end, which they should cause people pay for that.... but at least alow a chest strap for those who care about accurate measurements ie. sports activities etc.

[MTBer]

I've jumped ship to the polar m200, it tracks HR perfectly. Not to mention
much more battery life.

[led1002]

I also agree. Would love to see this important feature added to Ionic. I have used Ionic on a bicycle and it's ability to read HR on a choppy road is very limited. 

[SunsetRunner]

I can understand why the devices may not be able to connect to Ant+ sensors, but many newer sensors use Bluetooth.  I can even understand why some of the lower-end or older devices might not be able to pair with Bluetooth sensors but the Ionic is already configured to allow pairing to other Bluetooth devices from the settings menu (though currently implemented for headphones).  I would love to see even just the Cadence sensor for a bike so I dont get credit for when I am not pedaling.  Though Footpods for cadence or the newer Run pods that can measure power would be really nice too and would make me regret my decision to move away from Garmin less (they discontinued support for Windows so I had no choice).  I would even perfectly be fine with needing to buy Fitbit specific devices, though would hope they could then combine a footpod with a cadence sensor so it would work for running, stair climbing machines, ellipticals, and bikes with a single sensor I mound on my sneaker (not sure why someone hasn't done this yet, especially for us in cold weather states where the gym is used more often) but I am digressing from my point. I just would like to be able to use external sensors. 

[Ahmed_Zalat]

 As a personal trainer I love my new ionic watch and it's my first try with Fitbit after several years with another brand.

But I was surprised when I could not connect my chest heart rate monitor to my watch during my workout. As science approved that chest heart rate monitor is the most accurate one during workout.

I'd love to see that fitbit add the option that I can connect to my chest heart rate monitor during the workouts. Because this is very important to me and will defenitly make me stay with fitbit for a very long time.

Thanks.

[Cyberwiz]

I would like to connect Ionic with Stryd in a way similar to what Garmin provides.

Submitted a specific request for a Stryd Fitbit App as a separate suggestion topic.

[Bruce-Success]

If they add this option, i will buy fitibit.  But until then i can't.

[zimscubasteve]

Please, can we get the HR strap connection sorted ASAP! It pretty ridiculous that we can connect to headphones easily enough, but you will not allow connection to an HR strap? The technology is already there, you just need to add the features as an update?!!! The wrist-based HR is terribly inaccurate. Even if you want to make your own strap, and sell that, I'd be happy, but need to get this sorted. For a NZD$500 watch, it's proving to be pretty limited in my opinion. 😞

[Caitmiller87]

This original post from 2014 I don’t think they care. I think I’m switching to Apple Watch or garmin. 

[Urge]

I went to Apple Watch. It pairs to a standard bluetooth chest strap and also uses the Fitbit technology. Just set it for high intensity interval training and it uses whichever method is most accurate. It has proven to be 100% better than my Surge!
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[MarcChi]

It would be great if the IONIC could pair to an external chest heart rate monitor. With intense Cardio and HIIT workouts, I'm noticing the sensor built into the watch is very far off from my actual heart rate. It can be 40 or 50 bpm off and over a long workout I'm seeing this cause inaccuracy with computing calories burned.

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[Abadi]

Yes I was screaming  I am sorry.

But can you please introduce fitbit's own chest strap monitors or allow us to connect fitbit devices to our chest straps?

Fitbit devices are great, they track steps, distance and heart rate accurately when walking or doing cardio, but they just lose their accuracy when we do weight lifting exercises, I also, some times, need to put on wrist supports which results in my charge 2 to show a heart rate of 80 when its 140-150.

The only thing that stops me from buying other fitness trackers is my hope that fitbit will solve this problem.

[SunsetRunner]

I'm actually really angry about fitbit introducing several new fitness tracker/smartwatches per year but not introducing this feature which is ESSENTIAL for accurate fitness tracking.

[Worre]

Hello. 

I already have a fitbit watch, but my first world problem is that i like to use fitbit, but i have to take my watch off when i play handball, to protect the people i play against and my self because it sa contact sport. so the days where i play handball i wont reach my goal, because i have 2 hours where im not allowed to have my watch on. a simple and nice solutions for this little problem, is if it could be possible to make a pulse belt, to have on under the shirt. and then sync it with the app. 
so its not a big solution im looking for, it just a accesorie to the watch where i think for me the pulse is the most important it have to measure when i play. but if it can measure the steps to easily that would be nice.

i know you dont have this product but if it could be possible to make it you would have a buyer for the product in me.
i hope you will concider it 

[EstePeqo]

I'm new to the smartwatch / fitness tracker world. I decided to buy one and actually fell in love with the Fitbit Ionic. I was very happy with it even though it is not perfect, but i started to realize that my BPM where kinda off during exercise (I've been doing exercise and monitoring my BPM for over 18 years now), so I started to look about this issue online and learnt that a CHEST BAND is needed for actual accurate HR readings during a workout, and I am now VERY disappointed with Fitbit not having one nor allowing conectivity to other brands' chest bands.

Will you ever solve this? I see this is a 4 year old post, so my hopes are not very high. I guess I'll just get a refund for my purchase and go for a Garmin.

[Kentuckyboy76]

 Really hoping for a chest strap heart rate monitor that works with Fitbit. I don't care if it is an integration with another vendor or a Fitbit branded item. 

[Bruce-Success]

I may refund my ionic if i don't hear of word that i can get my chest strap to sync with fitbit Ionic..  Will have to go with garmon active if this isn't solved.