Charge 4 can't view text messages

[aurora8971]

I am successfully receiving notifications for my text messages to my Charge 4, but when I tap on Open to view it, the notification disappears from my Charge and does not display the text message.  Sometimes I've noticed that the Messages app on my phone will suddenly open and display the text instead, although this doesn't happen every time (I think maybe the times it doesn't happen is because my screen is locked).  But I thought the message was supposed to open on the Charge itself, especially since you are supposed to be able to use the Quick Replies from the Charge as well.  Any ideas what might be wrong here?  I have a Samsung Galaxy S9 with Android version 10, Charge's firmware is version 48.20001.82.46, it is enabled to send notifications for Text messages (but disabled for emails, calls and calendar events) and I've set the Messages app as the default app.  I tried rebooting my Charge this morning as well but this did not change anything.

[Rich_Laue]

Yes @aurora8971 as explained in the user manual and the online help, Tapping open will open the message up on the phone. 

If you want to open the first characters of the message, you want to tap the heading on the Charge 4 

[aurora8971]

Sorry I'm still missing something.  I am not finding anything in the user manual that says that it will open the text on my phone instead of on the Charge.  Could you maybe tell me which page you are finding that on?

And if this isn't actually supposed to open the message on the Charge, then how would you use the Quick Replies?  The way the manual reads it sounds like you have to open the message first, then you would have an option to Reply.  And if I can't read the message on the Charge, why would I be replying to it with a Yes or No (which are some of the default Quick Replies available in the app)?

Also you said you can open the first characters of the message, but I don't see how to do that either.  When I pull down for my notifications at the top it just says how many messages I have (like "3 New Messages", or just "New Message" if I only have one), it does not show any of the message itself, not even if I tap in that area or try to scroll left.  If I continue scrolling down from there then I get the "Open" option (which as I said just opens the text on my phone and deletes the notification from the Charge) and then next is "Clear" (which just deletes the notification).  Nothing I've tried shows any part of the message on the Charge.

[Rich_Laue]

You tap the message once, and the first X amount of charectors are displayed. 

At the bottom of the message their will be the option to open, clear, and reply. 

[aurora8971]

Ok, but what I am saying is, my Charge is not doing that.  If I tap where it says "New Message", or "2 Messages" or whatever, nothing happens at all. 

[Rich_Laue]

What phone do you have? 

[aurora8971]

I included that information in my original post.

[vc52rac]

That happened to me... really frustrating. Took 2 hours to work it out.  Go to Bluetooth on your phone and unpair the charge 4. Then scan and reconnect. when it finds the Fitbit again it will ask for notification permissions. Messages will work. I have an S10+

[aurora8971]

Unfortunately unpairing in Bluetooth settings didn't fix it.  At first it wouldn't reconnect at all so I had to remove it from the Fitbit app as well and start completely over, then tested again and notifications still behaved the same.  So then I unpaired again in Bluetooth settings and that time it did let me reconnect without having to use the Fitbit app, but it still didn't change anything.  It never asked me for permissions at any point during either variation of the connection process, but I did confirm in my phone settings that the Fitbit app currently has permissions to SMS.

[Rich_Laue]

@aurora8971 unpairing through Bluetooth will keep notifications from coming through until notifications are setup. 

@vc52rac once the tracker has been removed from the honed Bluetooth, the user will not be able to pair the tracker. The app will pair the tracker during the setup of notifications. 

On android, simply logging out/in on the Fitbit app is usually enough to reset permissions. 

[aurora8971]

I logged my fitbit app out and back in again, I am still not able to view any of the characters of the message itself on the Charge (just get the words "New Message", no detail).

[aurora8971 · Accepted solution]

I finally talked to Fitbit Support, and they were able to help me find the issue.  There was a setting in my Messages app on my phone that needed to be turned on.  They had me open my phone's Messages app, then go to "Settings", then "Notifications", then "In-app notification settings", then enable "Preview new messages".  Hope this information helps someone else who ends up with the same problem.

[SunsetRunner]

Omg TY aurora8971! I spent an hour with the chat team and they couldn't help me, so they had to escalate the issue. I wish I found your answer sooner 😍

[kntaylor1216]

I tried this and it worked. But I don’t want my phone to show me previews. Is it possible to work around that?

[Dianerh]

I am having the same issue. I used to be able to read them but now it just goes back to the time when I tap read message