Free Clock Faces?

[Veroman]

Why do all the clock faces cost money? Where are the free ones?

Moderator Edit: Updated Subject for Clarity

[MLPP]

Wow, that’s great. How do you create your own unless you’re a developer with Fitbit? Isn’t that costly as well? Most of them are either too simple or too busy. Thx. 

[DrRobin]

Hi,

You can join the Fitbit developer programme for free, you just need to register.  The development suite is online (you access it through a web browser) and the programming language is Javascript.

You then develop your own watch faces or apps and submit them to the app/watch face gallery, although you can develop just for yourself and download them directly in to your Ionic or Versa.

You will need to know a little bit of programming (Javascript, SVG would be great) or even general web programming (HTML) and it takes a little bit of time to get up to speed.

If all of this is too technical, what sort of a watch face are you looking for?

[MarreFitbit]

Hi guys! I'd recommend following  what @EmTe has posted here. It seems that for @SunsetRunner the #free4life has done the trick.  

Hey there @MLPP, it's nice to see you around here! My friend @DrRobin is right with the information provided. If you're interested in developing a new app, see: How do I develop new apps for the Fitbit App Gallery? all the information needed can be found in that article. 

Let me know if you have any questions present. 

[MLPP]

I just paid ignite.com $4.99 to use the watch face that had what I needed:
Time, steps, heart rate, etc.
However, the red lettering is hard to read, and the letters are rather small. Many of the watch faces are either too “busy” looking or too distracting from the basics I need for keeping track of my activities. Unfortunately, I don’t know the name of it. Since I have paid, does that mean I can change up every now and then, Or, am I stuck with same design?
Had I known I had the option of designing mine for free, I may have waited.
Thanks for responding!


Sent from my iPad

[DrRobin]

You are stuck with it.  Ask for a refund, that is an expensive watch face.

You could try Clock-Fit, this has time, steps, heart rate, is easy to read and free.

[EmTe]

@MLPP wrote:
Had I known I had the option of designing mine for free, I may have waited.
Thanks for responding!

You mean of all the watch faces in the gallery, none of them satisfied 90% of your desires? I'm not mocking, but am genuinely interested.

[SunsetRunner]

Hi @MLPP

Yes, since you are using others designer's products, unless they have provided a Settings page for you to change properties like Text Colour, Text Size etc.

I understand you may not have satisfied with others people's creations, that's why Fitbit has this wonderful online tool "https://studio.fitbit.com/" for you to DIY.

Try signing up, it is free, and you will create your own watch face.

Regards

[taggolf31]

It is very frustrating to have to download the app to find out it is not free. Then you can't delete it, you have to download another app? I am looking for the power icon to show on the clock because it is so difficult to have to try to get the "Touch" screen to do anything!

[MC11010]

@taggolf31  my clock face is free. It's called Hourly Steps and shows the battery level in a ring around the clock.

I think you will need to be in the latest FitBit version for it to install. 

Let me know what you think.

[DrRobin]

Clock-fit is free, shows the battery percentage as well as the time, date, number of steps and heart rate, all colour coded in large font.  There are two versions one for Ionic and another for Versa, written using the first SDK (v1) so the run on all watch firmware versions.

[MarreFitbit]

Hi there @MLPP! Have you tried contacting the developer? To contact the developer please open their app on the Fitbit App Gallery, scroll/swipe down and under "App Details" you will find the information.

As you were advised above, if you're interested in developing a new app, see: How do I develop new apps for the Fitbit App Gallery? all the information needed can be found in that article. 

Thanks for helping out and for sharing the name of the free Clock Faces you're using @SunsetRunner, @DrRobin, and @EmTe! 

If there's any questions present, let me know. 

[Pietero]

 There is a very logical explenation my most versa apps are listed as paid and the ionics are not.

When the App Gallery was introduced, there was no option to list your app as paid. The versa was released 6 months after the ionic. Versa apps/clockfaces are newer and therefore developers had de option to list it as paid.

And the second, even more important thing, A developer can only select the flag "paid app" on publication. So, if you have any plans to make it a paid app in the future, you must sign the checkbox at "paid app" from the beginning. all my newer apps are listed as paid, while none of them require a payment at all.

[Terrysimms]

I don't mind paying a dollar or two for a clock face that suits my lifestyle and use of the Fitbit, especially if it gives me access to future clockfaces by the same designer as well as any improvements and adjustments to the one I've paid for. Terry Simms

[DrRobin]

Terry, if there is a paid for app or clock-face then most if not all developers will give you free updates and support.  However, the subscription is for a particular app or watch-face and does not automatically allow you to use others from the same developer unless it was a bundle.

I have one clock-face, it is free and I aim to answer any questions within 24 hours.  Everyone gets free updates/support for life.  I am in the process of writing a much more complex version, this will be paid for (probably $1).

I have a paid for app, you get the same great support and free updates for life, the payment reflects the time I have spent developing the app, several months.

I think the reason people object to payments was explained in a previous post, when the Ionic and Versa were first released there was no paid for apps/clock-faces and it takes a little while for the mind set to change.  Unfortunately, unless you write an app for your own use, then share for everyone, no one is going to write complex apps, it takes too long. 

[JNadir]

I agree with most of your post but within my post I mentioned that FITBIT seems to be TOTALLY relying on others to create these awesome watch faces and apps.  I cant remember when they actually put out any new and fresh content.   And even so, it still would be nice to have a separate category for FREE watch faces and apps.  Its very time consuming to open something you like only to see it costs.  I know on the Apple watch you can save multiple faces on the watch itself.  That would go a long way to be able to change on the fly faces one has already confirmed are free.

[DrRobin]

Agreed, a free/paid for category would be nice, or perhaps append a $ sign on to the list for those that are paid for.  Fitbit do write their own apps and watch faces and to say that they are totally relaying on others is slightly misleading.  I wonder if you could say the same about Apple on Android, nearly every Apple app I have downloaded from the app store was written by a third party?

Anyway what is so wrong about third party developers?  I am a 3rd party developer, do it in my spare time, writing apps I want, then sharing them.  The more complex ones I put up as paid for, but we are only talking about $1 - 2.

The other thing that is missing is either a way of knowing ho wmany downloads a clock-face or app has had and/or a rating system.  I have no idea how many times my clock-face has been downloaded, but seeing as I get a support email every couple of weeks I guess it is more than a few and less than a lot.

[SantiR]

@Pietero I hope you're doing well! Thanks for taking the time to post this information regarding developing apps for the Fitbit App Gallery. I think this will be very helpful for other users too.

@Terrysimms Welcome to the Fitbit family! Thanks for sharing your input on this thread regarding paid apps/clock faces. I think a lot of those paid apps are really good and worth it too. 

@DrRobin @JNadir It's great to see you in the Fitbit forums! Thanks for posting your input on this thread. I think having free/paid categories is a great idea too.

I was making some research at the Feature Suggestions Board and was able to find this idea which is asking for the same:

• Add Filter for Free App and Clock Faces Versus Paid Ones 

Feel free to vote and comment for the idea to show your support. The more votes, the better. 

You can also check all Fitbit developed apps. There is a section for those specifically at the Fitbit App Gallery.

Keep me posted! 

[EdwinFinch]

Hi @MLPP and @DrRobin, the co-founder of Lignite here.

First of all, none of our watchfaces cost $4.99. That was the price of our Lifetime Bundle, which includes all 35 of our current watchfaces and every single future watchface we build for Fitbit in the future. We recently increased our price to $5.99, but that is still an insane deal. At $5.99 for 35 watchfaces, that's only $0.17 per watchface.

Otherwise, if you don't want the bundle, you can buy any of our watchfaces individually for $1.25. That is still inexpensive considering some watchfaces out there are upwards of $3 or even $4.

If you purchased any of our products and want a refund, we are happy to provide you one, no questions asked. We don't want to hold anyone's money hostage if they don't like what they paid for. If you would like a refund, please email me: edwin (at) lignite [dot] io. You can also send an email through our contact form at www.Lignite.io.

Also, nobody is forced to pay for any of our watchfaces. We never hold your watch for ransom nor would we ever want to. If you don't want to use our watchface, you can simply change to another watchface. 

Thank you very much for your time and have a lovely day!

Moderator Edit: Format

[Fredlynn]

I found alot that are free

[Styves]

I had the Samsung Galaxy Frontier for about 26 months... can FitBit add a tab to just see the "Free Faces" for those that do not want to pay $1.99 every time they want to change their watch face? I have bought watch faces in the past but also am not going drop 2 and 3 dollars every other day as I like to change my watch face. Thats a perk of having a smart watch with bands you can interchange, the face can also change with your style.