More clock faces for the Charge 5

More clock faces for charge five

 

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

306 Comments
stevefal
Jogger

@BarryMW 

 

I don't disagree. The original post is like 6 months ago. I just got my watch, so I've haven't stewed long. Certainly they could detect that a "Hot" suggestion has unhappy campers commenting. Then again maybe they use the fervor as another gauge of importance. Squeaky wheel, you know.

 

Anyhoo, good luck to all of us.

Nschickle
Recovery Runner
I've come to my own personal conclusion that Google bought Fitbit and took
away all it's resources in order to remove smartwatch/tracker competition
for the Google Watches. That or they would've bought them to transfer the
very intuitive and flexible software over.... Which is what I was hoping
but not expecting. Either way I'll never buy a Fitbit ever again.

I'd buy an apple watch for my Google pixel phone first.
UlrikeDG
Runner

As far as I can tell, "Reviewed by moderator," just means they verified the post doesn't contain offensive content. It has absolutely nothing to do with the actual improvement process. The most recent "under consideration" feature was requested in July 2021 and has one upvote, and the next most recent was from April 2020 with 22 upvotes.

 

The "Coming Soon" looks like it's 100% released features, and the only one that's less than 8 months old has to do with a badge that is offensive in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The "Released" filter is basically just the "Coming Soon" filter because there aren't any "coming soon" features that haven't already been released. It is fun to see how many of them have single-digit votes.

 

Basically, response from Fitbit is an illusion. They release the features they want when they want, and sometimes they find a request that matches the feature to mark as "done" when they take their victory lap. If we get new clock faces for the Charge 5, it will be because they already scheduled them (that's what they did for the Charge 4, fingers crossed!), not because of anything we the consumers said or did. It seems unlikely that the Charge 6 will release with a set of useful, readable clock faces, and those consumers (won't be me!) will also wait 6-8 months for an update to make their Fitbit functional as a wrist-worn fitness tracker.

BarryMW
Recovery Runner

 

OK since fitbit isn't paying attention I'll ask this question here.

I was ready to buy the $300 Withings watch, only to find out the HR monitoring is not real time, every 10 seconds unless in Workout mode. Workout mode drops battery to a still respectable 5 days.
Does anyone have a suggestion for a Tracker with realtime (or close) 24Hr HR monitoring and multiday (5+) battery life ?

 

Thanks

 

Barry

nacinla
Recovery Runner

Thanks, @stevefal, for the tip. I upvoted the issue as suggested.

 

I continue to have operational issues with my Charge 5 that are discouraging, however. I invariably have to refresh two or three times, or shut off my phone and restart, to get the app on the phone to sync with the device. And syncing is very slow, taking up to two minutes.

The other day, I was walking the treadmill and looked down at the device and it had skipped ahead to the next day and had restarted the step could. Somehow it reset.

And, as with my old Charge 2, I've concluded that the sleep, step and heart rate counts are at best approximations. I have a slow heart rate (bordering on bradycardia) and walking the treadmill I'm barely at 80 beats. My Fitbit often says I'm at 120+ beats, which for me takes a LOT of effort to achieve. It eventually settles down to something close to what the treadmill (an imperfect read as well) is alleging. But I've come not to rely on that feature.

The sleep measures are sometimes way off: My CPAP will have recorded one time; the Fitbit an hour less.

I think there's an Apple Watch in my future but I'll see what Fitbit does to improve the software on these devices....

lilbit97
First Steps

DEFINITELY agree, this thread is needed!

 

When clock faces are redesigned, it would be nice to have the old ones available as well.

 

It would be GREAT to be able to customize what options/stats you want shown on the clock face.  Stats that are important to one may not be important to another.

SobiFit
First Steps

The charge 5 needs a respectable analog clock face. How about something like the charge 4 pendulum with month day date and numbers.  At the very least alternative colors should be available for the current clock faces.  I definitely would have had second thoughts about purchasing the charge 5 had I known I would be stuck with these limited colors and no acceptable analog faces.

stevefal
Jogger

Despite the title, this other post significantly relates to usability of the existing clock faces and new ones. Please upvote:

 

Improve tap responsiveness on Charge 5 screen  

SunsetRunner
Not applicable

What gives Fitbit!!????? can you stop investing in sense and versa watches and do an update for charge 5 add support notification in allllll language's and make normal mature clock faces instead of child look or psycadelic look????? do an update and stop waiting for 2 million useres to keep complaining on the same thing! it is not a competition this is what you have to do!! we are the costumers that paid for this and not receiving its value!!! 

Do an update with all language notification support and clock faces!!!!

sannennetarou
First Steps

It's been over half a year and and four more threads requesting new or less crowded clock faces have sprung up and gained hundreds of votes. These appear to be the most requested changes for the charge 5 as well.

 

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Fitbit-studio-for-Charge-5-to-create-clock-faces...

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Add-clean-and-easy-to-read-clock-faces-for-Charg...

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Charge-5-Heavy-stat-clock-face/idi-p/5030568

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Charge-5-Customize-clock-faces-colors/idi-p/4971...

 

The tracker offers more than enough screen real estate to display everything at a glance, and previous trackers in the charge series already offered all the features users of the charge 5 are missing. This is one of the biggest disappointments for buyers of the charge 5 (to the point that people return the product or refrain from upgrading), yet it also seems like a very straightforward and cost-efficient thing to fix, with users even suggesting that we simply give the community ways to design faces.

 

I don't understand how there hasn't been any development or comments a full 8 months after release...

mrittman
Stepping Up
No kidding, it’s absolutely ridiculous 😡. Fitbit hasn’t said a peep about it. A company that actually cared would address the community, like “We’ve heard you loud and clear, and are diligently creating additional clock faces for the Charge 5, which should be arriving within the coming months.” But no, not even one bit of acknowledgement that they’ve read any of these concerns. What a joke.
sannennetarou
First Steps

This doesn't seem like the kind of core feature request that would require hundreds or thousands of hours of work.

 

Changing the colours of a face to monochrome or porting an already-existing clock face from the previous generation should be a matter of minutes.

 

It's impressive that of 23 faces none are actually loved or considered "good" by the community and users are just discussing which one is the least crowded, ugly or useless. They all feel more like the sort of gum watch I had back in elementary school than a 150$ tracker with all of google behind them.

EvasiveFrog
First Steps

Can we please get an un-Slashed version of the Slashed clock face please? 

SunsetRunner
Not applicable

I haven’t even had my Charge 5 a day and I’ve tried out at least 6 different clock faces because they’re all just awful. They seem to have gone too heavy into a stereotypical upbeat fitness motif: blocky or large numbers, bright off putting colours, quirky skewed arrangements to try and look fun. I get it’s a fitness oriented tracker, but does that mean it can’t look appealing? The mildly garnish options for the screen look childish, especially if you switch to a non-silicone band. I feel like the developers forgot that this is something people are going to be wearing all the time, not just to the gym. 

Fazer84
Jogger

Fitbit aggiorniamo il charge 5 con dei nuovi quadranti? Che dobbiamo fare? Non pensavo a distanza di tutti questi mesi che restasse tutto fermo. 

eppure è costato parecchio questo charge 5. Mi aspettavo molto di più da voi. 

spero di non rimanere deluso e che quanto prima possano uscire dei nuovi quadranti. 

SPerdue66
Jogger

The change didn’t come fast enough for me. I was not willing pay a premium price for an ugly device.

Moderator Edit: Personal info removed

SunsetRunner
Not applicable
You are absolutely right!
Thosensd of complains about it and no 1 reply!
Fitbit sucks, their service the design, all they care about is versa watchs.
Im never buying one of their products again!
Pisces of s...!
JakeStrava
Jogger

Crazy that there are so few good clean clock faces with stats. Please add more or let us add more.

shaung75
First Steps

I bought the Charge 5 as an "upgrade" to the Charge 4 yesterday and I'm so disappointed by the lack of a decent clockface - my 7 year old thinks they're great, but as a grumpy 38yr old I think they're aweful.

 

I'm a developer so would be more than happy to tinker to get something I like, but the option isn't available in Fitbit Studio. I'm seriously thinking of returning the Charge 5 and sticking with the Charge 4...

Suemurr
Stepping Up
Totally agree with you. They have not responded or tried to make new faces
since I bought mine on black Friday. Very disappointed. May go back to my
Charge 3.
JimRW
Jogger

It's obvious Fitbit neither cares about this issue nor intends to address it.  I've purchased an Apple Watch.  I won't be purchasing another Fitbit product.  Why should I spend my money with them when they won't address simple requests from so many users?  Who knows if they would address similar issues with the next Fitbit I bought?

mmazzini1
Base Runner

Charge 5 clock faces are really disappointing- miss so much the clean clock faces of my Charge 2…why this “designer” approach on a fitness tracker??

wbadams10000
Recovery Runner

I would like to see more vibrant, sporty clock faces colors that are more vibrant in colour. 

Nathanbitsfit
First Steps

How do we not yet have a fully functional clock face? Just give the users what they want. Put the stats all on one face so we don't have to keep tapping our wrists multiple times to figure out the stats that are most important to us. If you are incapable of doing that, then let the users design it themselves and upload it for others to use. This is standard across the market with plug-ins. The coding is not that difficult. Why the suspense?

moonchicago
Jogger

Face watches are the dynamic daily fun of it all, but they are important for mood and goals.

 

I select them in a motivation-oriented manner. The dark purple helps to remind me to take things slow or to sleep early and the more dynamic ones help me set goals and help to remind me to stay focused. I sometimes change during the day depending on what my mood is and as reminders.

 

Please, please, make new ones!! Your designs are really great btw! So edgy and modern!

 

Thank you!!

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