Can we get an official answer on texting to siblings/minor accounts will work?

[shaklee3]

As you can see in many topics, almost every topic here is surprised that this doesn't work when communicating with friends/siblings. Can we get an official answer as to whether this is being worked on? It's an artificial limitation and doesn't provide any extra safety.

[FitbitElli]

That's great news! We're getting all devices ready to support the feature, in a few days your Ace app will receive an update and then you should be all set! Look out for an announcement in the next few days 🙂

[chelming]

My kids got the update last night and I was able to add them as contacts for one another today. You add them like you add any other contact. The message will say that the contact needs to accept the email but in reality it immediately links them and they show up.

[Echo864]

Hello, we just got my son a ace lte, and went to add our 12 (almost 13yo -supervised account) son to his contacts. My 12 year old received the email and added the app, but when he tries to sign in, it says, "your account is not supported." Both accounts are supervised and in the family group.  

Thank you! 

[danielapina]

My kids got the update in both their watches and still there is no option
for them to communicate from watch to watch. I haven't seen the family chat
announced either. Any updates on this? Thanks

[Kodros]

You probably didn't get the update that allows it to do this.  It just got released but they send the updates in rounds.  So it should be there within the week unless there are issues where they have to pull the update 

[chelming]

Did you add them as contacts for one another? It doesn't add them automatically, you still have to add them yourself.

[chelming]

The 12 year old can only chat if they also have an Ace LTE. They can't use the app to chat since supervised accounts still aren't able to use the Ace LTE app. The update was only for communicating between two Ace LTE watches

[shaklee3]

huh? This topic, and pretty much all the complaints were specifically about messaging minor accounts and not about people with another Fitbit. Are you saying they didn't implement the feature?

[shaklee3]

@FitbitElli can you confirm whether this allows minor Gmail accounts to contact each other? Hopefully this is not just users with the same watch since most kids don't have it

[chelming]

The only software update we've received (last week) is for siblings with supervised accounts to be able to message one another from their watches. It sounds like the ability for supervised siblings to message using the phone app hasn't rolled out yet. They haven't said anything (in the ads and announcements I've seen) about messaging supervised accounts outside your family group.

[shaklee3]

It was mentioned here: https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Fitbit-Ace-LTE/Can-we-get-an-official-answer-on-texting-to-siblings-...

[chelming]

Yeah. Sounds like only the first part (watch to watch) went live

[FitbitElli]

@chelming is correct, we're still rolling out and some users have started seeing the update that will allow siblings with Ace LTEs in the same family group to be added as contacts.

@shaklee3 Yes 🙂. When the rollout completes, we will allow any supervised sibling in the same family group to be added as a contact. They'll be able to communicate via the Ace app or the Ace LTE. 

[shaklee3]

@FitbitElli when can we expect the update to allow them to communicate with friends without the watch? My daughter has been waiting for that update since she doesn't know anyone with the same watch.

[FitbitElli]

@shaklee3 thanks for letting us know this is a priority for your family. This will take a bit more time, we want to ensure the communication experience remains secure while also extending capabilities to support multiple devices. 

[shaklee3]

Hi @FitbitElli the capability is already there for family members with adult accounts. The feature we requested (and I think it's the highest-voted feature) is to allow any account to be added. There is no reason it has to be a family member or adult since the adults controlling the watches must selectively add the users anyways.