Guys, we miss the strong silent alarm

[ocook]

I sincerely hope they have Fixed the fundamental failure of the weak and ineffective silent alarm feature which has been on every device since the original Charge HR. I used to rely so heavily on the silent alarm, it was so powerful and persistent on the old Charge HR that it woke me every time without fail, while leaving my partner sleeping. I even threw out my alarm clock. Then the strong and persistent vibration was absolutely ruined in the Blaze and replaced by an awful, useless, weak series of 3 short bursts which then doesn't repeat itself. The Fitbit guys screwed over so many peoply who were late for work on the first day they wore their Blaze. If anyone from Fitbit is reading this i beg you, make the silent alarm persist untill it is silenced by the user. Screw battery life, just wake me up. I beg you. It's such a gentle and peaceful way to wake up too, noise alarms are too jarring and violent. I mourne my zen mornings being lovingly shaken awake by my beloved first gen Charge HR. May he and his tenacious vibrations rest in peace. 

[SunsetRunner]

Whilst hardly scientific, DC Rainmaker said in his preview "It’s stronger than Charge 2, but I don’t remember Blaze off-hand. I’ve had no moments with Ionic where I thought ‘Oh, I didn’t feel that’.

Does suggest they've made it better 

[dermbrian]

    The manual states that the alarm will go into snooze mode if not acknowledge in one minute. By snooze mode it means that it repeats in 9 minutes. So it sounds like it has a persistent alarm. There's no mention of a limit to the number of snoozes that occur automatically.

     But in the manual where it talks about alarms it only mentions the ability to create up to 8 silent alarms. Does that mean Fitbit doesn't have a beeping alarm?

[CopperWolf808]

@dermbrian AFAIK, it wont have a beeping alarm because there isnt anything to emit sound from.

[dermbrian]

       The lack of a loud alarm is unfortunate.  I hop the vibration is strong and not the "gentle" mentioned in the manual.  I rarely feel my Tomtom Sparks vibration while I'm active.

     It also looks like all feedback is on the watch itself....no voice announcing pace or laps or heart rate via bluetooth.

[ErickFitbit]

@ocook I have been wearing Ionic for the past month and can attest that the alarm is strong enough to wake me from my sleep. It seems to be a stronger vibration in comparison to my Alta HR silent alarm.

@dermbrian There is no limit to the number of snoozes. As @CopperWolf808 said, the alarm is a silent alarm that vibrates. Ionic does not have the hardware for audio playback.

[ocook]

I never mentioned an audio alarm, I don't know where that came from. I love the silent vibrating alarm. However the strength of vibration, and length of time it vibrates for in the Blaze is pitiful compared to the original Charge HR. And to work as an alarm it should not go into self snooze mode after a minute, that doesn't make any sense. It needs to vibrate continually until the user silences it. Your alarm clock doesn't press it's own snooze button. It really doesn't make any sense that it does that. 

i was merely making the point I hope that the strength of vibration and the insanely short time the vibrating alarm goes off for before self snoozing has been addressed in the Ionic. If I am forking out £300 and it doesn't deliver this most basic of functions I will be even more annoyed than when I 'upgraded' from the charge to the Blaze and then had to go buy an alarm clock. 

[RatedE]

For me - the vibration of the silent alarm on my Blaze has been strong enough...but I'm not a deep sleeper. Meanwhile - I find the "reminders to move" vibration far too weak (I often miss them) yet the vibration used during the Relax mode is too strong....so much so that it's distracting, so I turn it off. Would be nice to be able to adjust the vibration strength/length to each person's personal preferences. Maybe this is an opportunity for a developer out there to create something in the app gallery.....

[dermbrian]

I just noticed that the manual for the Ionic shows a setting for the silent alarm and the example setting they show is "strong".  I don't have any experience with other fitbit's, so I don't know if this is a new setting. Did other Fitbit trackers have degrees strength of alarm listed under settings?

[JohnnyRow]

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@dermbrian wrote:

I just noticed that the manual for the Ionic shows a setting for the silent alarm and the example setting they show is "strong".  I don't have any experience with other fitbit's, so I don't know if this is a new setting. Did other Fitbit trackers have degrees strength of alarm listed under settings?

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No, previous do not have alarm strength setting so it appears there are at least 2 alarm strengths available, though cannot be sure yet.

[anim8t]

Hey! Yes, there are two levels of vibration in Fitbit Ionic settings. But I can't distinguish any difference between them, they are both too weak! And it's super annoying that there are ONLY 3 vibrations at the beginning of the silent alarm and that's all! Kinda useless feature with such behavior.

[USAF-Larry]

I have the Vibrations set to Strong on my Ionic, and the Silent Alarm has never failed to awaken me yet. On my Ionic, the "Normal" vibration setting is about equivalent to the Charge 2, and the "Strong" vibration setting is about equivalent to the Charge HR.  I prefer the Strong setting because I can feel it regardless of what I am doing at the time.

[anim8t]

Good for you 🙂 I can easily miss even strong vibration. I tried to tighten the wrist band more, it doesn't help. Maybe I have thick skin, I don't know 🙂

[dermbrian]

Brisk walk with GPS on a windy day....i felt none of the half mile cues in a 5.5 mile walk.

[asawesomas]

I have recently changed over from Garmin to Fitbit with the Ionic, and relied so heavily on the silent alarm to wake me up through vibrations as it truly is a much nicer way to do so with the Garmin watch I had. The Fitbit I was hoping to continue using the same alarm system, but having only 3 series of vibrations and then becoming silent is ridiculous, the fact that it repeats this in 10 minutes is useless, as this may be slept through as well with only a repeated 3 vibrations.

[SunsetRunner]

I’m going to agree, as I’ve now slept through three alarms :police_car_light: and no longer rely upon my Ionic to wake me. Having strong or normal makes no difference to intensity. The vibration needs improving imho 

[Canefan]

I set 3 alarms, 5 minutes apart, Intensity set to "Strong", and all 3 failed to wake me up.  I am not a particularly heavy sleeper, but the vibration is a joke.  I agree that perhaps the ability to vary the duration and frequency of the pulses would help, but for now, it's useless.

[Lisamarie44]

My alarm didn't wake me, and I didn't have time to workout before work! Thank goodness I didn't have to work early. I would like to at least have the option of an alarm with sound. 

[CaptainSafety]

I too have been giving feedback to Fitbit that the vibration in the Charge 2 is not as strong as in the old Charge HR.  I have slept through many of the alarms and find it frustrating to have to go back to an alarm clock or another watch with an audible alarm.  I am thinking of purchasing the Fitbit Iconic and now I am worried they have not fixed the silent alarm.  The fact that they have two options may work for me, but from the feedback I am reading, it may not make a difference.  Lately the Charge 2 has been waking me up, but I don't think it is because Fitbit has made any updates.  In fact, I don't know if they can do firmware updates to a fitbit.  Hmmm.  Going to have to really consider if I am going to upgrade now.  The Silent Alarm is one of the things I have liked the most.

[anim8t]

Seriously, as a user of Fitbit Ionic for almost 5 months I would rename the "Silent Alarm" feature to "Gentle Notification" 🙂