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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
I concur, With the new release of the Ionic, it can not be worn technically by any DoD personnel due to the inability to turn off the Wi-Fi. In most cases the Blaze still is legal at the DoD level, but each Command and even down to the unit put out their own regs that must cant be looser than the DoD reg but can be more stringent.
Currently the Apple watch is not legal in any form.. So that is one up for you guys.
Right now most DoD personnel are getting around it because they either don't know it is a security violation or are ignoring it. With the episode that just happed that mdcrawmer mentioned it has become front and center for all DoD (GPS giving away troop locations).
I would strongly suggest that either make a model that will meet DoD regs or make the current version more flexible so it is compliant.
One suggestion right off the bat for the Ionic is you must make the Wi-Fi able to be turned off (airplane mode)
Even though the DoD reg does not specify the Bluetooth, some of the commands are requiring an option to disable it.
Also, a biggy that was just in the news is the GPS, there needs to be a way to turn off the GPS easily and completely, that overrides ALL the apps so they don't have to go into every app and hope they did not forget one.
Bottom line - A huge amount of DoD personnel wear Fitbits.. I suggest that some research into the DoD and down regs so you do not end up loosing a huge customer base.
Currently they are trying to figure out a way to scan when you walk in the door to detect these things so the people will eventually not be able to wear them.
My suggestion to make it really easy..
Have a airplane mode and in the setting you can define what you want to turn off.. (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, gps)
Then have a main screen that allows you to toggle airplane mode.
Hope you guys can fix this or put out a military edition, cause I would really like to upgrade to the ionic.. 😞
I love all the Fitbit devices I have had. The only issue is my work doesn't allow any device in the area unless the Bluetooth is turned off. Please consider an option to allow the user to turn the Bluetooth on and off.
Apparently I am bluetooth sensitive which makes me feel dizzy when wearing FitBit. I loved my Fitbit but had to send it back. I tried turning the bluetooth off on my phone, but this did not help. It'd be great if there'd be an option to turn bluetooth off on the Fitbit itself. And then a person can turn it back on, once they're not wearing it, to sync the info to the app.
Can this feature please be enabled? If you don't want to put the programming time in to this can you please at least get the API unlocked so the community can control the radios inside their device?
I am trying to stay positive in this, but thus far, many weeks now it feels like we are being brushed off.
I and another user have even gone as far as to look for guidance on the SDK board for help, but Bluetooth is configuration/access is denied on the API level. I was directed to post here by JonFitBit
TLDR?;
We want to be able to toggle bluetooth on and off. Please enable this.
I work in area where signals are restricted but wish to continue wearing my Fitbit, as I am very active while working, so I would like the ability to turn signals (blue tooth) off or have a device that requires a cable to sync with a laptop
Hello @H81ker ! Thanks for sharing this suggestion, I moved it to this similar post so you can add your vote to it. Please keep sharing your ideas with us!
Hi @Cam125, thanks for taking the time to share why you would like to see the option on Fitbit trackers. Your feedback is greatly appreciated. As mentioned before, this feature suggestion already exists, so I’ve moved your posthere. We don't have more updates about this at the moment. Learn more about how Fitbit decides what suggestions get released in ourFAQs. I hope to see you around.
It leaves one guessing why, but the ideas that come to mind are never positive for Fitbit. Since they were just acquired by Google who has much stricter policies on privacy, hopefully they will create this BASIC feature.
I received a versa 2 for Christmas but will be taking it back and exchanging it for a Garmin because I can manually turn off bluetooth with that watch.
This company and it's condescending canned replies has forced me to move over to Garmin, I love it. I sold the fitbit and tell everyone in the market to steer clear of them as customer support is non existent. Hopefully the google acquisition can improve things, doubt it for exiting products though.
Please make it an option to turn off Bluetooth! I really wanted to get a charge 3 until I realised you can't disable Bluetooth. So many others want the ability to turn it off too. I am concerned about EMF and many others need to turn it off for security in the workplace. It would be easy for fitbit to add this to their devices. Why hasn't it been done already? Is it because fit bit wants to collect data 24/7 on its users? They can then sell this data.
Hi @Louise341. Thanks for taking the time to explain why you'd like to have the option to turn off Bluetooth on your Charge 3 with us. This feature suggestion already exists, so I’ve moved your post here. While this isn't currently planned at this moment, we have left voting open so we can keep tracking this request over time. To learn more about how Fitbit decides which suggestions get developed, visit our FAQs.
I found a post about bluetooth from 2015, in the last 4 and a half years it looks like they do NOT care what people say about this topic. Furthermore it took 2 years (2017) for them to say that bluetooth being turned off is not planned.
Looks like a lot of people are looking elsewhere for their devices. I wish I realised this before I went and brought a fitbit. At least the app is useful, once the warranty runs out I might buy another device but since bluetooth cannot be turned off I stopped wearing it after a few days of purchase.
I was hoping fitbit would help with my sleep monitoring since i am a shift worker but it is not currently.
However, i am not manually counting steps and found out that 40calories are burned per 1k steps. I just figured out how to input an exercise that is around the same amount of steps, and save the steps until i meet that so I can record them, so time recording them is not accurate but at least I am being more active than I was. Far more active now.
Definitely will not be recommending this to others, what a waste to have a watch that continually emits dangerous signals. It is bad enough we have a phone, this kind of thing causes cancer but clearly fitbit does not care. If companies can turn off the signals fitbit should be able to work out how to also.
So glad I brought the cheapest model rather than the most expensive.
Considering the way things are going they would be far better to focus on their phone tech than the watches as i think watch sales must be decreasing with being able to count steps through phone's gps now - however it is useful to have the time without wasting phone's battery, though I can buy an old school watch that doesnt emit bluetooth for that.
Can the basic feature to disable Bluetooth be implemented on the Fitbit charge 3? It's quite baffling how something as toggling bluetooth on and off depending on when is needed is not included in a product with this price tag. This could also be 'Airplane Mode'.
Hi @Levantine, thanks for explaining why you would like to have the option to disable Bluetooth in restricted areas. This feature suggestion already exists, so I've moved it into a similar request. While we don’t currently have plans to release this feature, we always appreciate the passion and creativity that comes out of this Community. Since we know this idea is important to many of you, we have left voting open to continue tracking interest and will post another update if anything changes. To learn more about how Fitbit decides which suggestions get developed, visit our FAQs.
Add an option on the Charge 4 and by the way to all other devices in order to choose in the tracker's settings to turn off/disable the Bluetooth on the tracker itself. Allow this feature trough software update ASAP.
Hi @SunsetRunner, thanks for explaining why you would like to have the option to disable Bluetooth in restricted areas. This feature suggestion already exists, so I've moved it into a similar request. While we don’t currently have plans to release this feature, we always appreciate the passion and creativity that comes out of this Community. Since we know this idea is important to many of you, we have left voting open to continue tracking interest and will post another update if anything changes. To learn more about how Fitbit decides which suggestions get developed, visit our FAQs.
Enable the feature for the user to enable or disable the Bluetooth feature to personnel who work or operate in classified and/or restricted area/building can continue to wear Fitbit.
Hi @Palonus, thanks for explaining why you would like to have the ability to disable Bluetooth in restricted areas. This feature suggestion already exists, so I've moved it into a similar request. While we don’t currently have plans to release this feature, we always appreciate the passion and creativity that comes out of this Community. Since we know this idea is important to many of you, we have left voting open to continue tracking interest and will post another update if anything changes. To learn more about how Fitbit decides which suggestions get developed, visit our FAQs.
I love my fitbit device, but cannot purchase another one until the option is rolled out to temporarily turn off all bluetooth transmissions. Competitors offer this feature and for me (and many others) it is a dealbreaker.
Hi @DV12, thanks for explaining why you would like to have the ability to disable Bluetooth in restricted areas. This feature suggestion already exists, so I've moved it into a similar request. While we don’t currently have plans to release this feature, we always appreciate the passion and creativity that comes out of this Community. Since we know this idea is important to many of you, we have left voting open to continue tracking interest and will post another update if anything changes. To learn more about how Fitbit decides which suggestions get developed, visit our FAQs.
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