Track my run and exercise silently

[aknirala]

I muted all notifications. In do not disturb both options (including During Exercise) is on. But when I start running within a minute or two it vibrates and shows an option to start exercise.

I want it to track my exercise silently (like it tracks my sleep), without me doing anything and without it changing it's usual screen. Is there a way to achieve that. Previously in Settings> Do not disturb > During exercise was off and I changed it to on, but still I get notification. Not only that there are 3 taps needed to exit run (I wonder who approved such UX?), I don't like it. How can I make it completely silent.

[LZeeW · Accepted solution]

@aknirala   There is an automatic Run Detect feature in the exercise app.  I think that is what is turning on.  To check this, tap on your Versa 2 Exercise app > Run > the gear > scroll to Run Detect and tap it to Off.  I'm confident that this change and the DND feature will let you run without being interrupted.

[aknirala]

That setting worked. My running was peaceful and after that my workout was also nice (without any notification from my wrist).

But: It didn't tracked my path, nor my speed and thus not also how much I ran and what was my speed (& variation) per mile (I also had my phone with me). That was disappointing, to say the least. All these notifications etc sounds good for first couple of days, after that it should simply do it's job quietly. .Sadly it was an incomplete job. This could easily be fixed by the product owner.

[LZeeW]

@aknirala   If you want a map, then you need to start/stop and track your run using the Exercise app.  See this Help article: How do I track my workouts with my Fitbit device?   When you turned the Run Detect off, your Versa 2 tracked your run using its auto-recognition feature called SmartTrack.  SmartTrack does not give you a map.

[Carl_L]

LZeeW is spot on with the advice provided for the Versa. It took me a long time to work this out but, it's the only worthwhile way of tracking runs - shame the mods don't understand their product(s) & provide such useful advice..

The auto-detect is of little use for monitoring runs (beyond logging general activity levels) as it kicks in after a very unhelphul "number of minutes" & also screws with the distance measurement if you've manually started recording via the app.

Turning off the auto-detect & recording runs via the app is WAY better as you can choose to have voice prompts on or off (I love to check my pace every 0.5 km).

As long as you've configured your phone to allow the Fitbit app to ignore battery optimisation & run in the background, everything should run perfectly although, admittedly, this may not be quite the hands-off background tracking you're looking for. The requirements for monitoring running performance vs general activity levels are quite different & Fitbit should recognise/address this.

[aknirala]

Okies.. What a shame though...