"unknown" caller ID

[AndreyT]

I observe the following strange behavior with phone call notifications:

• When I receive a call from a known contact, whose name is spelled with international characters, the wristband displays it as unknown caller, i.e. the word "Unknown" is displayed by Charge 2. This is already strange. What is the reason for that "Unknown"? This device cannot display international characters? In 2017?!
• But it gets even stranger: when I receive a call from a genuinely unknown contact, the wristband does not say "Unknown". Instead, it displays the full phone number of the caller.

This is rather bizzarre. What is the word "Unknown" on Charge 2's display is supposed to mean then? What is the idea behind it? If genuinely unknown contacts are represented by their phone numbers, then why do I see "Unknown" for known contacts with international names? If this device cannot display international characters (which is, BTW, absurd in 2017), why don't you just fall back to displaying their phone numbers instead? 

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[MarreFitbit]

Thanks for stopping by and raising this great questions @AndreyT! I had this issue last night, but I just needed to follow these steps:

• Go into your phone's settings
• Select "Apps"
• Select the Fitbit App
• Find "Permissions" 
• Enable your Contacts (toggle over to the right)

This should allow your phone to recognize callers from your contacts list and their name should appear. 

Keep in mind that your tracker will notify of an incoming call, if the person who is calling you is not on your contacts list or is marked as a blocked number (depends on the service provider) you will see them as Unknown. Your tracker and the Fitbit environment do not have Caller ID, only Call Notifications. 

Also, I have a friend who had this issue and she figured out it had something to do with the selection of contacts. Contacts display accounts,  some say Phone and some say Google contact and some use both. When she changed the test phone from Phone contact to a Google contact the name showed up on her tracker.

Give it a shot and let me know if this does the trick for you as well! 

[AndreyT]

Thank you for your response, but unfortunately it does not seem to be relevant to the problem I'm reporting

• Firstly, "Contacts" permission is already enabled for my FitBit app and has always been enabled. Note that contacts whose names are spelled in English in my contact list are properly displayed by my FitBit wristband, which means that FItBit app does have access to my contacts.

• Secondly, you are saying that "if the person who is calling you is not on your contacts list ... you will see them as Unknown". This is not accurate and this is not how FitBit works. As I stated in my original message, when the person who is calling me is not on my contacts list, FitBit wristband will display the full phone number of the caller instead of the name. Contrary to what you said in your response, the word "Unknown" is not displayed in such cases.

• The only case when I see that "Unknown" on my FitBit wristband is when the caller is actually known, but their name is spelled with international characters.

[Jennyj1966]

My fitbit also comes up with 'unknown caller' and my fitbit did not vibrate and notify me till after I had already taken the call! 

[sot13]

I have exactly the same issue! It appears that fitbit CANNOT display international character set (in 2017!!!!) and reverts to "unknown"

[MarreFitbit]

I'm so sorry for the misunderstanding guys @sot13 @AndreyT! You're right, international characters sometimes are not showed up or are represented by some little squares. 

I'd recommend checking out our Feature Suggestion Board if you haven't already. This is a space where Community users can post features, ideas, and suggestions that they'd like to see in future Fitbit products, accessories, and software and top-voted suggestions get relayed to our product team for review.

I'd also recommend up-voting and commenting on Support international characters  feature suggestion since it is very similar of what you're looking and asking for.

If there's something else I can help you both with, let me know!

[AndreyT]

Well, while missing support for intenational characters is strange (to say the least), the primary issue I was trying to report is not about international characters per se. It is the weird logic that controls when the word "Unknown" is displayed by the wristband. Currently it is as follows:

• When the caller is known, the band says "Unknown" (under some circumstances)
• When the caller in unknown, the band does not say "Unknown"

This logic is obviously backwards.

[MarreFitbit]

Keep in mind that the "unknown" or just "numbers" will depend on your service provider. For example, my sister has an Android and I have an iPhone and the way our phones work are totally different. 

If you receive a call from an unknown caller you'll either get the "unknown" message or just the numbers being displayed. If you're getting unknown from a known caller but they have international characters, this is due to the characters. 

Let me know if there's something else I can help you with @AndreyT.

[Crimesn]

Mine is different. It has been working fine. Yesterday, something strange started happening. Each call I get now shows up as "CINDI", which is my wife's name. I've had 6 soliciting calls since yesterday afternoon and each one shows "CINDI". Suggestions?