Ability to use Chest Strap Heart Rate Monitor or foot pods

[JSy]

I like that the Charge HR and Surge have the ability to monitor heart rate via the wrist based optical monitor, but from what I have gathered, it sounds like all wrist based optical heart rate monitors have poor accuracy at high intensity workouts.  It would be great if fitbit had a product that had a wrist based heart rate monitor, but would switch to using a chest strap heart rate monitor if one was detected.  Any chance that the firmware/software on the Charge HR and/or Surge could be updated to use a bluetooth chest strap heart rate monitor? 

Moderator edit: labels and title.

[Spin0620]

this feature is a necessity! Please make it happen

[SunsetRunner]

I guess they'll (realistically) do it as soon as they release their own chest heartrate band / tracker.

[SunsetRunner]

This is the feature that is preventing me getting the ionic at the moment (and making me look at the Garmin Vivoactive 3)

It's a Crazy decision and one that really questions their commitment to a serious fitness smart watch, rather than a fancy steps tracker with a gps

[SunsetRunner]

This NEEDS to be implemented for several reasons

1. Accurency: A wrist based heart rate monitor is great for everyday life but it is not when it comes to sports. For many sports (HIIT, Running) it is important to have exact and current data which is just not possible with wrist based heart rate monitoring. Also, the calorie comsumption would be much more accurate which is one of the main reasons people buy activity tracker.
2. In some sports, you are not allowed to wear wrist band but nevertheless you want your activity to be tracked.
3. Tracking heart rate while doing sports in water like swimming
4. Gives the chance to add heart rate to trackers like FitBit Flex
5. Almost every competitorgives the chance to connect to a chest strap. Unfortunately, the competitors are ugly, expensive or are missing other features of the FitBit. FitBit would be the only tracker which is good for sports AND everyday life.
6. FitBit could earn more by introducing it's own chest strap 😉

[Puhek]

The biggest problem for me is the lack of hear rate while swimming. I have ANT+ and BT heart rate monitors, none useful with Ionic atm. 😞

[jkleed]

Yeah I also vote for adding this feature ASAP

If the Ionic is meant to be a serious fitness tracker it needs this. 

[LizFitbit]

Hi @SunsetRunner thanks for this suggestion. I also wanted to link to a couple of other Feature Suggestions you may be interested in (although I'll keep this separate as you have referred to other sensors beyond chest straps):

• Ability-to-use-Chest-Strap-Heart-Rate-Monitor
• Allowing-Sync-with-Polar-H7

I will raise this request with the team and get back to you. Watch this space. Thanks

[JSy]

I'm surprised that people are still responding to my original suggestion.  I moved on to the Garmin Vivioactive HR a long time ago.  Battery life is amazing (5-7 days).  Able to see texts/emails on it.  Has _both_ built in optical HR and ability to work with Bluetooth chest strap.  Waterproof (i.e., able to swim with it).  While there are features with Fitbit's products that I like (they have a great app and dashboard), I just couldn't tolerate the lack of ability to integrate a chest strap.  Fitbit missed the boat on this in my opinion.  Their loss, not mine.  

[Robert3190]

Additionally, I don't want to send my Fitbit in for warranty replacement because it gets jolted every punch I land on a heavy bag.

[TrimmyGirl]

I have recently taken up boxing, and wearing a watch is not feasible. It would be nice if there were a way to use a chest strap. I love my Charge 2 for running and other activities, but it will not work for boxing as I can't even wear it. Please make a chest strap compatible or open things up for Polar or someone else!

[joeclimb]

Forget about it, I sent several notes about this and the go ignored. Someone commented that they switched to a Garmin which is what I plan on doing when my Fitbit dies.

Joe Lanzetta

Moderator edit: personal info removed.

[Jakobner]

I'm having issues with the accuracy of the pulse reader in my Blaze and I don't think it is due to the Blaze being at fault but rather me doing crossfit with it . Developing a chest strap that syncs automatically with the Dashboard and Blaze would be a solution, I believe, and would give more accuracy regarding pulse. 

[LS11]

Is there any update on allowing HRM compatibility with the fitbit app? E.g., even with uploading data into Fitbit that has been exported out of Polar Flow/Beat?

[LS11]

There's quite a few of these 'please allow third party chest strap integration' threads now and some are years old. But, clearly nothing has been done. Is it a case of

[a] Fitbit is working on the integration/their own strap but haven't made it public that they are, or
[b] they couldn't care less and have no intention of ever allowing something which every other competitor has in their arsenal?

If it's [b], I will be getting rid of my Charge 2 HR and switching to Garmin permanently.

[SunsetRunner]

Yes agreed. I do a contact sport it would be great if I could keep track of my training with my fitbit ionic. Chest fitting would work. 

[SunsetRunner]

Is there a chest strap which links to my watch. I do a contact sport and can not keep a log of training as I can not wear my fitbit ionic. If not can this be something for your tech team to look at for the future.

[jepuskar]

I post as yet another frustrated user.  My chest strap integrated with my treadmill reads about 170 which is accurate and my Charge 2 reads 80.  This is not a one time occurrence, but every time.  They are spot on till about 120 bpm and then it just gets bad.

Apparently the market is just not big enough for this to become a reality.  Should at least pair up with a 3rd party if they don't want to design their own.

 

[CarlsHealth]

I agree with you. The heat rate for fitbit is not accurate especially during exercise. Be nice to have my chest strap supersed the wrist heart rate option when on, especialy during exercise. 

[CarlsHealth]

I agree, heart rate is highly inaccurate. Should allow a chest strap to work when in use to supersed the wrist heart rate. Either that or make an accurate wrist heart rate. 

[prstrindade]

Yes, that is a great feature to implement!

[physed21]

Recently having changed up some of my workouts to include heavier lifting and boxing, I now require wearing gloves and supports that cover my wrists, making it next to impossible to wear the Fitbit wrist strap during my workouts.  Is there any way you would consider a chest strap that would work with the Fitbit so I can still monitor HR during my workouts?

[Vaya1989]

Please Add Bluetooth Strap Support for your Ionic - if you dont want lose Ground on other Tracker Companies - Every Single One gives this Ability to the User ! (Garmin, Suuntoo, Polar and a lot of more ) You Have the Bluetooth Connection on the Ionic - Please Please Open it up and Support Bluetooth Chest Straps !

[demizerone]

I would like to use my Wahoo Cadence Sensor and Polar H7 chest strap with the Ionic. Sadly this is not possible. If I could replace Strava with Fitbit would be great!

[Rob71]

I too would like to request the ability to use a cheat strap with the Ionic. Either a generic option to add any Bluetooth strap or even a proprietary Fitbit one. This is the one major gap Fitbit has right now VS. other companies. 

[mat_rhein]

The only reason I am holding back on the Fitbit Ionic is the experienced inaccuracy for high intensity and interval training. Since the hardware to enable this is already built into the Ionic (basic BT protocol that is also used to couple with BT headphones), this could be accomplished to available Ionic devices via software update and would attract like-minded buyers that avoided Fitbit for exactly this reason.

For serious heart rate tracking, this would be the absolute killer update.

Is there any chance that this will be offered in the near future? From my perspective Fitbit can only win with this, Apple and Garmin is already doing this regularly.