Feedback for the new Fitbit app

[brenttaylor]

Hate the new look of the app as I and many others have said but this weekend it went rogue.

I took the fitbit with me last weekend but decided to not wear it and left it plugged in back at the hotel.

When I opened the app on Monday---What a surprise!! It told me I had lost two pounds on Saturday and 8 lbs on Sunday.  I had never even opened nor manually logged anything into the app all weekend and needless to say I had not lost 10 lbs over the weekend.

What is up with Fitbit these days???

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[SarahP130]

There are 3 dashes/bars/lines to the right is the item you want to move. Press, hold then slide the category up or down into the position you want it in. 

[RottieLover]

@SunsetRunnerYou tap onto edit. There, you get a screen with things marked off. To change position of where you want them, drag the 2 lines up or down. When done, click onto save. You can also remove what you don't want by unchecking

[JustJanK]

I really dislike the new Fitbit app.   Very slow to sync and seems that every time I open it there is a message that takes up half the screen.    I've had a Fitbit for years ... I don't need suggestions.

I'm not happy with the hourly tracking.    I liked the one before where it started at one end of the half-circle and ended at the other end.    The circle is stupid and not easily read at a glance.

Takes forever to sync when I open the app.    Since I wear my Fitbit on my ankle I don't get a quick look as I would if it was on my wrist.

Biggest gripe is the time it takes to sync.

I took a few of the tools off the app so I didn't have to scroll to see sleep, calories, etc.   Just takes too long to load so just kept the basics.

Very disappointed!

[Imthemomster]

I strongly DISLIKE this update and am irritated that my phone just updated without asking me if I wanted to do this.  Fitbit needs to go back to the more user and battery friendly app.  This one drains my battery faster than it's EVER drained before.  Plus I do NOT like the layout.  As others have stated with the previous screen you could see all needed stats in a single glance and obtain more detailed information with a quick touch of a finger.  Now it takes forever to add food, water or well pretty much anything I've attempted to do.  In what world is making something less efficient, less user friendly and more frustrating to use EVER a good Customer Service policy?  My children gave me a Fitbit Charge 2 for Christmas in 2016.  It sat on my dresser until August of 2017 when a friend convinced me to strap it on.  By July of 2018 both the Fitbit and especially the App helped me to lose 70+ lbs. and I was a convert.  I am happily back at my HS weight and went from nearly busting out of an XL and back into a Size Small.  I have purchased 9 of them as gifts for friends and family and was planning on upgrading to the Charge 3 this year on Black Friday.  I've enthusiastically talked soooo many people, friends and strangers alike into purchasing a Fitbit AND especially telling them to be sure to utilize the App but I will no longer do any of the above unless or until you restore the former more user friendly version.  I guess if I'm going to upgrade, it might be time to start researching the Xiaomi Mi Band 4 (Amazon for under $40.) or the Garmin Vivosport SMH (Amazon $120.ish)  SMH 😞

[MarreFitbit]

Hi everyone.

We totally understand how you all feel and we appreciate you've taking the time to share your thoughts about the new dashboard.

Please note that our team keeps working to improve your experience with the Fitbit app and our services based on the Community posts, so be sure that this will not go unnoticed.

As suggested, you can read more about it here: What’s the new Fitbit app experience? In this article you'll find helpful information about how to use the new dashboard if there are some things you're still trying to figure out about the implementation and changes. 

Hello @SunsetRunner. To better assist you, can you post us a picture of the Notification area you're looking at? In order to add a photo to your reply, please this post. 

@SunsetRunner and @dangotpeace. In regards to rearrange the tiles as you used to do in the old dashboard, see: How do I remove or rearrange tiles on my Fitbit App Dashboard?

Hi @draskids. To log your data, tap the Today tab, and tap the + icon next to the stat you want to log. Add your information, and tap Save. If this is not working for you as described, please log out and log back in to try again. Let me know the outcome. 

Hey @JustJanK. If you're having syncing difficulties, please follow the troubleshooting steps provided in the help article: Why won't my Fitbit device sync? 

Hello @Imthemomster. I totally understand where your concern is coming from. Please note that all apps that run in the background affect your phone’s battery life. I'd recommend to see: What are some tips for using the Fitbit App on my Android phone?

I'll be around and glad to help you in you need assistance. 

[Imthemomster]

I'm sorry if this comes off rude but SERIOUSLY?? I'm NOT a newbie user OR a **ahem**, thank you very much. YOURS was the ONLY update & an unwanted one at that. So please don't try to foist the battery blame on anything else but this idiotic, unrequested, unwarranted & unrequired update.

[SunsetRunner]

Removed duplicate post due to server error. 

[SunsetRunner]

Hi MarreFitbit,

thank you for your reply 🙂

attached is the screenshot of the notification list. There are enough notices in this list for several screenshots. The dates are June, but because there is no year, it can appear to be recent. However, l have asked about several times in the last 2-3 years and always been told that Fitbit is working on a solution.

The top 2 are the only new ones, since the change was made to only post notices in my phone’s notification area in the locked screen (not my choice of place). I would prefer to have notices in the app itself, if they were deletable. 

A note about the 2 new ones, they were from a scammer who commented on a post in a Group that I made over 700 days ago. 

Thanks again for responding. 

[SunsetRunner]

Dangotpeace to arrange the items on the main page where it shows you the challenges you are currently in and challenges you have finished just click edit in the upper right side of your screen. Here you can apply finger pressure to the three lines to the right of every item in the list and drag it upward or downward as you see fit. Once you are happy with your arrangement just click save on the upper left side of your screen.

Happy Stepping 👣👣

[IcemaninMA]

Bingo.  You nailed all the new bugs they created with this "upgrade".  Plus the fonts and style make in look retro, like it would have looked in the early 90s.

[IcemaninMA]

The all day sync does not work in the new app.  You have to manually kick off a sync and it takes longer than before.  Previously, just opening the app triggered a sync.  The "upgrade" is a downgrade.  First fix must be to go back.  Then figure out how to show a count of the hours one makes the hourly minimum.   Previously it told you if you had completed the current hour.  Now it does not do that and you have to count the hours in your head.  Also, the black and white theme makes it look retro, like what Fitbit would have looked like in the early 90s.  Fire the person who thought taking functionality aware was a brilliant idea.

[JustJanK]

---

@MarreFitbit wrote:

Hey @JustJanK. If you're having syncing difficulties, please follow the troubleshooting steps provided in the help article: Why won't my Fitbit device sync? 

Hello @Imthemomster. I totally understand where your concern is coming from. Please note that all apps that run in the background affect your phone’s battery life. I'd recommend to see: What are some tips for using the Fitbit App on my Android phone?

---

Thank you for your reply, but ...

I am not having problems syncing my fitbit app, my problem is it takes forever to sync since the app update.  I use to open the app and it would sync.   Now I open and wait ... and wait ... and wait ... for that little line to run across the top and sync.

I am also replying to the comment for Imthemomster about battery usage.    It is using more of my  battery life.  I use very few apps on my phone and this is the only one that was updated.

I have used Fitbit for years and have had an iPhone for even more years than that so I'm not a novice.

Again, thank you for your reply.   I am not asking for assistance, just giving my feedback as the title of this thread suggests.

[goldenrodfarm]

This was not a well thought out update, first now I can’t see things at a glance, you must scroll up and down.  Second I am having the same problem about syncing, it starts with the line across the top and may sync for up to 10 minutes, it used to just take seconds.  The update was unasked for and not approved by me but downloaded anyway.  Did it ever occur to you that many many of your customers are older and you keep making things smaller and harder to read, I don’t take my glasses with me out in the fields so now the Fitbit app is not accessible to me during the times it would be most useful.

i agree with the person said it displays a retro look now,  instead of a nice clear cut large easy to read dashboard.  

I have  taken off the all day sync, no emails or texts, or notifications, I have months and months of them now, in short allthe useless things that use up both phone and charge 3 batteries.  Even then the charge 3 battery doesn’t last the time advertised.  Full disclosure should say how long the battery will last with full use.

[Imthemomster]

Agree with you 10,000 times over.  It seems that even their responses are now automated or insanely out of touch.  They need to look up the definition of "Customer SERVICE" or in this case DISSERVICE & either retrain or FIRE their entire IT Department to actually ASK permission BEFORE ramming ridiculous DOWNgrades down our collective keyboards & actually LISTEN to those of us KEEPING THEM IN BUSINESS!!  Positive change is a good thing but change just to be able to roll out idiotic, counterproductive nonsense is most definitely NOT!!  SMDH #LessonLearned  #MovingOnFromFitbit

[mmarks]

@dangotpeace   I clicked "Edit" in my main dashboard view - was able to turn on/off and reorder the info to my preference. 

@Moderator   As others have mentioned, the issue I have is not so much that it was changed, but it was done without warning. 

The "always on" sync notification is meaningless and I cannot find a way to stop it -- even turned off all notifications on phone and fitbit app, but that one is still shows up!  The notification itself isn't worth much - I'm given options to sync, view account or open community and clicking anything will only return the notification.

Additionally I have had difficulty syncing since the change -- constantly have to turn off bluetooth, restart my phone and restart bluetooth to allow sync. 

[11nita11]

Another unhappy user...

I've been using fitbit with various devices since Jan 2015, and I have spent have my professional life intermediating between IT folks and users, so before anyone of the Fitbit League should actually consider replying to this post with some random, totally ignorant links to tutorials and so-called "help" pages: save your time!

The new look of the app is, to say the least, disgusting. I am well familiar with the phenomenon that we humans tend to be reluctant towards changes and criticise any discrepancy to what we are used to.

STILL:

- As mentioned repeatedly by other users before me, in the old version it was easy to see at a glance what I wanted to see at glance (thank you, I DO KNOW how to arrange tiles, that's not the point). The point is that now I have to scroll to see / enter information where this had not been necessary in previous versions of the app

- The icon for the feature Hours Active is especially ugly (design-wise), and more importantly, hard to interpret to the point of being unintelligible. If I cannot interpret the information displayed, what's the point of displaying it at all?

- Syncing and display of synced data:

most bothersome!!! (for Fitbit staff relating to this post: see above)

I use Android 6.0.1

- Time for the app to load and display all its funky little pieces takes LOOOOOOOOOONG. I.e., when I open the app, I usually have to wait for several minutes, staring at a whole zoo of moving circles in this off-putting dark mint green or whatever the colour is called. But hey, colour preference is highly individual, isn't it? Record until today was 17 minutes. I am not talking data transfer here, ONLY loading those bloody optical elements!!!!! In which super-ideal environments had this app been tested, I wonder. Or who waved it through to dump on (paying) customers in such a crappy state.

- Syncing itself (transfer of data from device to app) is tangibly slower than before

- Display of updated data can take up to several hours -- ???? How can anything like this ever get rolled out???????? (wishing to scream). Example: My Resting Heart Rate of today is given on the start page; when I click the icon to see details and history, however, the last recording is from Friday (it's Tuesday today). Similar delays, not for days but several hours (= standard since the new version)/one day (max. delay seen until today) happen with Steps, Distance, Active Minutes, Sleep. Hours Active has always had a lag as long as it has been around. Again, this is not about data transfer, but incorporating and displaying it into the details/history part of the app.

On a general note: Syncing of more than one device has always seen its ups and downs, I would love to see this improved one day. (I use two devices I wear alternately.) Example: In the month before the update I experienced serious trouble getting mine to sync, in any combination (device 1 --> mobile app, device 2 --> mobile app / device 1 --> dongle + desktop app, dev2 --> mobile app / dev1 --> mobile app, dev2 --> dongle + desktop), fiddling with bluetooth, forcing re-starts, re-installations, all things evil, and eventually sync would work, but randomly, not as if one solution proved superior to another. I had to try them all until one or another would work.

So I was quite eager to see an update, hoping that the syncing would come with some improvements in that regard, and I would describe my expectations and general attitude as open. But no.

Even the mess with the sync trouble did not make me turn to this or any other page to "file a complaint"; I just searched tutorials and help forums to find yet another tip and that's it. This update, however, is the last straw. Seriously.

Do something about it. Improve it. Improve the app, don't push back on your customers, feeding them shallow words, don't tiptoe around the fact that you have massively screwed up, don't point your customers to pointless "help" pages. It's your product, it's your obligation to make it work. Not ours to make workarounds work.

[JGreen3]

I'm not really sure that you addressed anyone's concerns. You brushed them off trying to say that the new Fitbit app was better when it is clear that everyone hates it. It is not easier to use. Before it was a quick glance & I knew where my stats were. You took care of that ease & ripped it away from us. So disappointed! I love my Fitbit. Very upset with your downgrade of a app though

[Imthemomster]

EXACTLY RIGHT on all counts... complaints.  I am frustrated beyond belief at this point.  Every day I seem to spend more time attempting to view stats rather than actually accomplishing anything.  Clearly the twisted Fitbit IT Department is delusionally figuring if they keep messing with the app it will be some type of job security.  The IDIOTS who rolled this out should ALL be FIRED because NOT ONE SINGLE person I've spoken with is happy with this deplorable DOWNGRADE!

[SunsetRunner]

Hi 11nita11,

I completely agree with your comments. 

I have been a Fitbit user since 2013, and Fitbit helped me get back to up to speed after a bad fall during a race.

I have been patiently waiting for fixes in the app for several years, but this update is the last straw. 

Fitbit does not share data with Apple Health, I would think this would be in a new app upgrade. Nope, still must use another app to do this. Grade = Fail

Other apps/devices do not require consecutive hours of steps to meet the hourly movement goal. It could be any 10+ hours easily, with bonus cheers if one goes beyond. Grade = Fail

Now we have an updated app that is terrible, not user friendly, less informative, and unreliable. Grade =Fail

And to top it all off, I personally have complained about the notification area for years, and sent screenshots to different moderators. Not one of these moderators (who asked for the screenshot) has chosen to reply or acknowledge the problem. Grade = Fail

I am uninstalling the app from my phone.

[SharonSlovenec]

First, if we had the option to keep the prior dashboard, we should have been given a preview of the new version to allow us to make an informed choice!

I like the black, bold text better on the new dashboard but HATE that I have to scroll down and the mustard (!!!!), kelly green and red colors of the circular icons. Color affects my mood. The mustard, kelly green and red make me antsy and unhappy. 

I'd upgraded to a Charge 3 last December rather than switching to an Apple watch because I really liked the Fitbit app. I'll likely make the change now, even though my Charge 3 is still working.