How does Product Feedback work?

[LizFitbit]

Below is a 3 minute video about how to search, vote and comment or add new feedback. 

This is an infographic with more insight into how exactly Product Feedback works, from beginning to end.

Have your own feedback to make Fitbit better? Post them here!

[SunsetRunner]

Love this, @LizFitbit. I know I’ll be re-posting it. Well done. 

[Psywiz]

Thanks for the graphic. Just wondering at what point the community gets feedback. Over 400 people have posted complaints about the short display time on the Fitbit Charge 3.

I think frustration is mounting. A response from developers would be great early appreciated. An acknowledgement of the communications would go a long way. 

Thanks.

Moderator edit: format. 

[19leus97]

There are lot of other complains and ideas and questions: for example spO2 but they are not responding. 

[MIG86]

I think this is a very good way of improving products, but I´m a new user and I haven´t check the community postings before. And what I´ve notice is that some are not new "ideas" but very strong complains. Is not the same to improve something that it is working to having to having something work completely different of advertising (here I´m including all the complains about charge 3 I have seen so far, including counting a HUGE amount of steps while driving and not being able to stop it, pO2 not working or at least not being recorded anywhere visible, and low amount of visible time of the watch) 

As a serious company, I don´t think this should be taken as "suggestions" but as formal CONSUMER COMPLAINS. 

Hope some of this issues are resolving soon

[CBOYD1123]

Please consider adding a step between Under Consideration and Productized, like Under Development, that would clearly communicate to the user community that their ideas/concerns are moving toward completion.

[Cucurucho]

Probably this may sound like a rant for someone that opens his account this way but I really want to know what the community thinks of this as it is very much a concern to me.

Let me start saying that I used a charge hr band but I am worried about my new purchase. I will get my Ionic tomorrow mornining according to Amazon. I was happy to find a watch for sports including swimming, capable of GPS positioning, sleep monitoring, and music listening on the go through Bluetooth earphones. The fact that it does not need to be recharged every night was awesome and the whole thing made me buy this watch over an Apple one.

In order to get an insight of the specifics for playing music, podcasts and audiobooks I started to research through this community forum I am very surprised how time goes by while suggestions pile up with very little input from Fitbit (I know this has nothing to do with the moderators) and even less reaction. It somehow remembers me how Nokia did not see Apple coming while struggling with a lacklustre Symbian OS. Simple demands from clients went on for years and a fine pseudo smartphone company with hundreds of millions of customers worldwide went puff.

Fitbit stepped forward into the smart watch market with good hardware but it somehow manages to force itself within the sports wearable. Why they produce hardware capable and marketed as smart watches but still loads them with wearable sports wands software puzzles me to no limits. Suggestions can collect interest for well past a year adding hundreds of adherents until the obvious lack of interest and/or feedback makes the usesrs despair. I can see many suggestions implemented but many are, as some other user puts, user complaints or “quality of life” very small changes. It is way more difficult to find real smartwatch features worth of that name. 

I am personally focussing in the lack of a good audio player and a podcast solution and a way to transfer/download directly fom the net or the phone but there are many other demands that are collecting dust.

Is anyone aware of the reasons this is going on or is it that I am new and not getting things right? Maybe things are being done even at a slow pace and the smart watches will get software capable of their denomination. Maybe the OS is not of enough interest for developers and your favourite podcast player need to be encouraged or even contracted to develop it for Fitbit OS. Why we have Pandora but no Spotify, is there a reason?

Again I hope you guys don’t get this as a rant but as something I find difficult to understand. 

[SunsetRunner]

Welcome to the forums, @Cucurucho. Glad you found us here! I can address a couple of your comments. 

• Regarding music, none of the Fitbit devices offer cellular service so in order to play songs, they must be downloaded to your Ionic or Versa. And you can only  legally download songs that you own or those that a service allows you to download. With a paid subscription, Pandora will allow subscribers to download a playlist. They were willing to work with Fitbit to make that happen. You may have already visited this help page, but it goes into detail regarding which songs and podcasts may be downloaded ... and how to do it. There are work arounds available for audiobooks but those files are large and I personally find it much easier to listen via an app on my phone.
• Regarding new features, you have to keep in mind that
  1. Third parties are not always willing to work with Fitbit. For example, one of the big requests is to allow Fitbit devices to work with the Apple Health app. It’s not going to happen until Apple says ok. For now, if you want to use that Apple app, you must buy an Apple Watch. Other examples include wanting to use other fitness devices with the Fitbit app. If the companies are not willing, there is not much Fitbit can do about it. But from a business sense, it makes sense that Fitbit would want you to buy a Fitbit device. So sometimes the answer to a request is no. 
  2. There are often hardware and software limitations. Most companies prefer to engineer forward, not backwards. There were complaints that the light from a Fitbit device would wake people up at night when they moved. Now, it was possible to go into the app and turn off Quick View every evening at bedtime. But folks wanted something easier so now the Versa allows you to turn that feature off right from the device. There were requests to make the vibrations stronger. Later models offered stronger vibration. There were requests to make the display brighter. I can read the time and other details on my Versa in bright sunlight. People wanted a Fitbit that would track swim laps. Fitbit developed a device to do just that. I could go on and on.

Bottom line, Fitbit is on many lists of Best fitness Trackers. They keep moving forward, trying to give the customer what they want, constantly improving and offering more functions. There is a limit to what they can offer but they keep trying to push that limit. All a person can do is - do the homework, as you did. Define your needs, see what everyone offers, then make your purchase accordingly. This is what we must do with any buy decision.  In case you are wondering, no, I do not work for Fitbit. I’m just a loyal customer who has been with them since the first device was released years ago. I like the devices, I push for improvements, and I really, really like the Fitbit community which listens to my rants, offers advice and support when I need it, and has helped me make some good friends over the years ... friends who share my fitness goals and help push me in the challenges.  

[Cucurucho]

Thanks for the welcome and the long explanation. It is true that you have to do your homework and I kinda did it but at the end there are things that you take for granted while you shouldn’t. Things like the competition having an already approved and working spO2 system or Spotify support (I guess Pandora is great but I live in Europe so it is of no use for me). I somehow saw that the device had spO2 and Pandora and the other less known music provider and jumped on the Ionic (contrary to general opinion I like the Space 1999 style) assuming too much. Honestly thought that those things were more or less standard for the market leaders once they have had the time to make it happen, and we are talking about a hardware able watch that has been there for a year and a half.

Anyway I like the watch and what is capable of, it’s a pity that the state of software development, ability or interest to make interesting partnerships and so, kinda let you scratching your head while looking at the competition. I still have 40 days to make up my mind and while this happens I will sure enjoy the community. Thanks again for your response!

[MrInc]

I agree with the comment from MIG86 above.  Suggestions should provide a classification to distinguish the nature of the issue.  Here's one possible set of classifications:

• Defect (completely fails to meet the intended function)
• Deficiency (partially or inaccurately meets the intended function)
• Feature Limitation (the design of the feature is limited)
• Feature Idea (a completely new design idea)

This would better help determine the priority of the issues logged, and provide an additional filter for the community to search them.  I've seen several outright defects that are highly frustrating to your user base, apparently not receiving attention because they don't have enough votes to compete with feature suggestions.

[jdiritto]

FYI - it looks like the submit and continue link to accept the Product Feedback Policy does not work after you click share feedback

[MrBosco]

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@jdiritto wrote:

FYI - it looks like the submit and continue link to accept the Product Feedback Policy does not work after you click share feedback

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I'm seeing this too.  When trying to submit a Product Feedback post I can't get past the policy acceptance page ('Share Feedback -> 'Submit and Continue'). Clicking on the submit button has no effect.  I've tried it using Chrome and Firefox.

Is there perhaps a block on submitting Product Feedback for new users of the forum or something of that nature?

[wtevr]

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[wtevr]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TySTL9EQKvY 

[wtevr]

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[AllanSyd]

So is it the reverse process applied when features are continually removed from the Fitbit app I wonder.  

[KL22]

I can't seem to post on discussion boards or find a place to send feedback !!!  I am so frustrated and angry how they changed the ability to manually input on the dashboard !! And I do NOT want to use GOOGLE..and this is now google owned and I think I will have to leave after 7 years !!!!Goggle is very controlling and invasive and I avoid anything to too with them! They make it impossible to be heard. I am so sorry to vent here but is the only place I could find.

[ChrisAtkins]

I certainly miss the dashboard on a browser, which has been withdrawn by
Google. Looking at the map of, say, a walk is too fiddly on a phone screen.
I think this may be my last Fitbit when it finally dies. Sadly, I think
this is what Google intends, hoping to boost sales, of its own activity
tracker.

[Adddarkmode]

This is a joke. Fitbit ignores all product feedback for years and implements garbage no one wants and doesn’t work. Fitbit is a nightmare