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I agree with many of the others. I know there may not appear to be enough users requesting the bluetooth LE off functionality for fitbit to consider it, but I also know of several hundred, Yes Really, who would consider it, fitbit devices, at my location alone. There are 8,000 military and 12,000 civilians affected by the bluetooth rules at my location alone. I traded a fitbit flex for a first generation jawbone with my son-in-law for that reason. I love the Surge and want one, but I can't justify it if I can't turn the LE radio off while I am at work.
Please don't just consider, but make this an option. You will get a number, Most Likely thousands more at $249 a pop, of new customers with this functionality. Most people I speak with on the military base I work at love the look and function of your products, but won't buy them because they cannot disable the bluetooth. They get written up in sensitive electronic areas for active bluetooth devices and could potentially lose jobs.
One older gentleman specifically stated he came home and threw the device in a drawer because he was written up for a violation at work. He loves the device, but can't afford to lose his job. Thanks for implementing this as soon as possible.
Moderator Edit: Edited title for clarity and word choice
Yes, totally agree with pastorscory and all the others who would like the Bluetooth function to be turned off/on at will. Just bought an Alta, love the slim design, but have stopped wearing it because of the radiation exposure. Fitbit--, please implement this update as soon as possible for Alta and all other Fitbit devices.
(reposting the following, as it addresses a few recent concerns expressed in this thread)
This suggestion was submitted in regards to restrictions around sensitive electronic areas - please keep this context in mind, as we do not believe there are any safety concerns related to Bluetooth use in Fitbit trackers.
Fitbit trackers operate at such low RF power levels that they are exempt from the evaluation used for other devices (like cell phones). This means that the FCC considers our trackers to be in a completely separate category, emitting significantly less energy than phones or other RF devices.
I know that it's easy to worry about things like RF exposure, but hopefully it helps to hear that our products operate far below FCC compliance levels, and are considered to be completely safe.
OK. Totally agree about the importance of this feature.. It's really important turn on/off BT.. But I wonder to myself.. is the presence of that ability worth an activity tracker with a non gorilla glassed display and an HR and sleep sensor that doesn't work very good? Compairing garmin vs. Fitbit and thinking that the first should be better than the second means you don't really know how the second is accurate in measuring, user friendly and well designed. Fitbit is the top. Garmin has started just now the marathon.. And still there's a really long way to go.. 😜
@MarX77 I think the presence of that ability is being quite vocally endorsed as more important to some people than the features you've outlined, is it not? I couldn't care less about gorilla glass or a sleep tracker that relies on me flailing about to know I'm awake.
This is why you see some people moving to Garmin, or the Basis Peak (may it rest in fiery peace). Not everyone has the same wish-list. For some, the ability to turn Bluetooth off is very high. Higher than even Gorilla Glass™.
@MarX77 Why do you believe that people need to justify to you, or to Fitbit the features they request?
The standard of proof for a feature request is as follows: "Do people want it?" Full stop. That's it.
Some people don't want to eat GMOs.
That desire was communicated to the market, and some of the market decided to respond and offer non-GMO products. Others decided to sit back and not respond--and that is their financial loss.
I'm told that Gluten sensitivity doesn't exist, but the people smart enough to manufacture gluten free products in response to a certain market certainly seem to be doing OK.
I think it's quite clear that Fitbit will never be swayed by any feature request that doesn't stand to make them more money than it costs to implement. That's business. It's also complicated on a number of fronts because allowing consumer to shut Bluetooth off will invariably result in people accidentally doing so, and then contacting support (and costing them money). Not to mention that most apps of this nature are data-mining your phone / activity and shutting off realtime updates affects the value of the data collected--negatively.
I think all people are doing here is trying to prove there is a desire for this feature. They don't have to prove the worth of their desired feature request--just that there is interest.
Fitbit will never be swayed by arguements regarding health effects; it opens them up to future liability. Even adopting this feature request could be viewed as an admission of a problem. That's why every few pages they chime in to remind everyone that if they do it, it will be solely for workplace compliance.
So please don't start with the whole "prove it to me" business. Fitbit doesn't care about proof, and neither do you. The product fits your checklist as is, with Bluetooth on and off being a nice, but not necessary feature.
Other people don't have the same priority list--so they add their voice here to the growing chorus of people who want to be given a choice.
@Choice I want this feature too, exactly as you ask. But I'm not agree it's a question of business for fitbit.. Tomorrow many people could ask for a refund if their health will become bad and I think fitbit legal office know this risk very good.. This is business too.. I want that feature too, but simply there's no proof or study that states BT could cause sickness.. So FOR ME it is not a 'must have' change that could make me buy another device.. In my country we say 'the world is wonderful because it's various'.. It means that everyone has it's ideas, believes and passions.. Good luck with your battle against BT. I hope too this feature will be changed. But it's not an essential dilemma for me.. Simply..
The fitbit apparently uses 2.5 GHZ band versions of bluetooth according to their FCC filings https://fccid.io/XRAFB150, https://fccid.io/XRAFB103 The power level is a couple of milliwatts. As far as bands, this is near one of the water absorption bands and is license free ISM due to the very short transmission distances. For a shared band this is actually helpful as signals from further away devices are quickly attenuated. The frequency bands used do directly interact with tissue, as this band is shared with the typical microwave oven, but the power is very low and average power even lower. Still, it should just be a software switch to disable the transmitter, which should only come on when commanded to transmit. This is not a big hardware issue, but could be fixed just by not requesting a transmission while the bluetooth is "muted". Put the logo of airplane mode or whatever to show that it is off and allow easy access, but this is just if Bitbit is choosing to answer the real or perceived need. There seem to be some hyper sensitive people for wifi (B/G band shares these frequencies) While 2mW (2 milliwatts) is fairly low, a microwave oven is only allowed 5mw/cm^2 - so for the size of the watch, this is in the same range, and the duty cycle of standing right next to my microwave, at least, is much lower than for my fitbit. I do not perceive any issues, but then most people are not bothered by gluten while some to a lesser extent, and others quite violently. As for a software update to disable this, just blocking the messages to the transmitter should be relatively simple. It would be nice for Fitbit to implement this as they rollout any other software revision - it really is a minor feature. As to health, having one less thing for many people to worry about, that is a health gain, even if only indirectly. Worry HAS been proven to degrade health! Please implement the ability to turn BlueTooth off. Whether they have safety concerns of being tracked, because their jobs require it, or just because they want it - it is one more simple feature that is probably less than 1-2 hour programming time. Just do it! If the transmitter really only responds to pings from the phone, just cut the packets from the receiver. No ping detected, no response! Your internal staff will save time by not having to read 14 pages of requests! I'm happy with my Surge!
I get that Fitbit doesn't want to acknowledge any potential safety issues with the Bluetooth, but since they claim this has been passed along under the premise of workplace issues with BT, just implement it already and make many different groups happy. It really sends the message that Fitbit doesn't care about the men and women in the military when such a minor change could be made that would allow them the ability to use the devices at work. Add that to the fact they don't seem to care about the rest of us the lack of this feature impacts (not military here, but still can't use BT at work). How many new Fitbits have come out since this thread was started? And yet no change.
If you disable it by software. You need a wireless way to tell it to turn on and off. Otherwise you can't tell the band to sync on demand. A hardware switch is the only way to implement this request.
The introduction of this feature is really simple for developers but considering we are still in this situation I suppose that they can't do this due to hardware limitations.
If it's so, I expect an official comment from Fitbit company. 11 pages of comments made by customers in one year (even if not all customers know this thread) can't be without an official reply.
Are you able to implement this? If yes, what's the reason you are still not implementing it?
If this is the way the Fitbit company pays attention to customers requests, I think I'll never buy one of their products.
I work in a company where the customer is always at the first place. Here it seems is not so.
The US National Toxicology Program (NTP) found "...not just an associated finding—but that the relationship between radiation exposure and cancer is clear. “I would call it a causative study, absolutely. They controlled everything in the study. It’s [the cancer] because of the exposure.”
That's a major finding with alarming implications. There are thousands of studies that have shown harm from RF exposure (of which Bluetooth belongs), but up until now they have stopped short of being labelled "causal".
Of course the silver lining is supposed to be that Bluetooth operates at a much lower power output. Defying conventional logic, that might actually be worse for us.
Lerchl found higher rates of cancer among mice exposed to SARs of 0.04 W/Kg, 0.4 W/Kg and 2 W/Kg —and in some cases, the lower the dose, the more cancer. For instance, he saw a higher incidence of lymphoma at the two lower doses than at 2 W/Kg, as shown in the histogram taken from his paper, which has been accepted for publication in Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications:
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I just bought a Charge 2 yesterday and was stunned I couldn't turn off Bluetooth. Came here to read some sort of excuse about how low Bluetooth energy etc and how harmless it is. I'm sorry but even my Pebble watch I could turn off Bluetooth and still record my sleep. I don't see why Fitbit cannot implement something as simple as Bluetooth off in their device as there is no explanation whatsoever from them not to do so. Seeing how this feature was requested since 2013, I have feeling my Charge 2 will not have this simple "Bluetooth Off" feature. I'm greatly considering to return this device unless an upcoming firmware allows me to turn it off.
Hi... I have a M.S.E.E. with specialty in Electromagnetics, have worked for numerous cell phone companies desiging RF blocks in cell phones, and I AM concerned about the continuous radiation on my wrist.
The bluetooth radiation is not as bad as of a cell phone due to its lower frequency and lower power, however my personal opinion is that it's still quite unhealthy.
Side note, this radiation is not to be compared with 60Hz electrical installations in your house. Bluetooth frequency is over 2 GHz (that is 2,000,000,000 Hz) and has a much higher penetration rate = more radiation!
Anyway, I would be grateful if Fitbit can make it possible for us users to turn it off.
MarkoR wrote: The bluetooth radiation is not as bad as of a cell phonedue to its lower frequency and lower power, however my personal opinion is that it's still quite unhealthy.
I guess people don't click spoiler tags...
This is often repeated but is an extrapolation based upon what we know regarding ionizing radiation. It seems non-ionizing radiation does not operate the same, and we don't fully understand the mechanism of harm.
Lerchl found higher rates of cancer among mice exposed to SARs of 0.04 W/Kg, 0.4 W/Kg and 2 W/Kg —and in some cases, the lower the dose, the more cancer. For instance, he saw a higher incidence of lymphoma at the two lower doses than at 2 W/Kg, as shown in the histogram taken from his paper, which has been accepted for publication in Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
I should point out cell phone SAR limits in the EU are 2W/Kg (10g average) and 1.6W/Kg (1g average) in the US. Not only did this study show cancer far below the SAR levels your phone is putting out right now, but in some cases there was more cancer at lower doses. Highly unusual, and very concerning.
Explore how we've arrived at the "lower power, lower frequency is safer" mindset. As best as I can tell, it only exists as an extrapolation from what we know of thermal effects. What we're seeing with things like Bluetooth and Cell phones are not thermal effects; they are as yet unexplained non-thermal, non-ionizing effects. The same yardstick does not apply.
So yes, for the prudent consumer who's paying attention--an off switch sure would be nice. It's a shame Fitbit apparently doesn't care enough to implement it...
Messes with the brainwaves in your sleep so your sleeping pattern isn't regular resulting in not getting good sleep. Any device that uses wifi tech should be at least 8 feet from you. Not related to the cancer concern (although that's scary, but no verdict on it yet). I currently use the sleep cycle app on my iPhone in airplane mode, but when it vibrates it wakes up my husband too. So was hoping to use this, not realizing I couldn't turn off the BT.
I know several people who wear activity trackers from Garmin only because they are able to turn the bluetooth off in the device itself. I also know many people who bought a Fitbit but stopped wearing it after a little while because they were either not allowed to wear a bluetooth device in their workplace or were concerned about continuous exposure to radiation. And those people are NOT hippies! 🙂
I find it really hard to understand what is keeping Fitbit from implementing the feature. It is definetly not workload because the implementation is really really easy! It is a pity because I'm 200% sure that they would win thousands of new customers.
I would like to be able to turn off the Bluetooth on my Charge 2 so that it can conserve the battery and NOT expose me to EMF radiation all day and night... Is there a way to do this, if not why not?
Now unless your syncing, the Bluetooth is in standby mode and only listening, not transmitting. The battery drain is negligible compared to the screen or the heart monitor.
About EMF you can drastically bring this down by turning off the heart rate monitor.
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