Fitbit Versa assistance for Coronavirus

[Tomtomato]

According to what I have read, a Versa device could help on the coronavirus in 2 ways:

• Use the SpO2 sensor to detect breathing issue (currently, it's only activated during the night)
• Detect variations of resting heart rate, as apparently, an increase can be an indication of flu

Is Fitbit working on a software update to help detect those?? For instance, monitor the blood oxygen for a few minutes?

T.

[Gusthy]

As far as I understand, SPO2 is measured only while sleeping because movements make the sensor unreliable. But if you have a falu-like illness, ít is enough to detect variation of bood oxygene saturation while sleeping, ít doesn't add if detected whole day. 

[SunsetRunner]

Correct, SpO2 can only be measured when no movement is detected which is why Fitbit only record it at night when you are far more likely to have minimal to no movement. 

[RabbidWallaby]

Gotta agree on this one. A manual trigger to take the reading would be real nice. Doesn't have to be going auto all the time and if a finger tip device can do it I'm more than sure the fitbit could handle it. For a lot of the people who have gotten sick and stayed home to fight it, look at Chris Cuomo, an at least close spo2 reading is how he tracked progress making sure it didn't dip below a certain level. I figured Fitbit or some third party app would have done this by now and have looked everywhere to find nothing. I'm not even getting the sleep score yet. SPO2 sensor has been on their devices for a long time now and yet are totally useless. The ball has been dropped on this one.

[Tomtomato]

Well, if the SpO2 sensor only works reliably when no movements are done, they could always add an app to measure it over a minute or two, and instruct people to stay still in the meantime (and void any measurements if movements are detected).

I don't see how this is a blocker for releasing a blood oxygen measurement app.

It's a bit frustrating to see that millions of people have fitbit devices, and those could be used in the context of Coronavirus.

[Gusthy]

You are right, ít would be possible to build an app this way. But why isn't ít enough if people measure their blood oxygen saturation  while sleeping - for much longer duration, whole night?

I had a little flu-like thing some weeks before (not covid), and Versa perfectly showed ít a day before.

So of course it would be possible, but maybe they consider it non-beneficial compared to current measurement method. 

[RabbidWallaby]

It's completely useless for someone like me. Have been disabled for 13 years now with a spinal injury and it's a very rare occasion that I get 3 or more straight hours of sleep so I really have no ideal if mine is working or not as have yet to meet the requirements for what they consider proper measurements. A manual trigger would be nice.

[Gusthy]

Oh, I am really sorry. 

[Tomtomato]

Anyone from Fitbit willing to comment??