Hear me out on this. And no - I don't mean a "night-light" for sleeping, as kids often need. I'm talking about a LIGHT feature on the device in order for me to see when walking to the bathroom at night.
Dev Team - there is a Use Case for this. When I wake at night to use the bathroom (1-2 times, like most middle-aged men), and that bathroom is NOT within my bedroom itself, I have to walk in the dark to get there. Normally, most houses at night have some ambient light, but mine is pretty dark, making it hard to navigate across rooms. When I had my Charge 1 & 2, you could simply press the button to turn it on, and the display of the TIME was so bright, that for those 6-8 seconds the screen would stay illuminated, I could use that light to get where I needed to. No need for an actual "light app", as the time itself was both BRIGHT enough, and the screen would stay lit LONG enough.
Fast forward to the Charge 3 - a great device in many ways with lots of cool new features - except that now the display is dimmer (no way to make it as bright as my old Charge 2), AND the screen turns off much sooner (in about 3 seconds). Therefore this very useful hack I was using has now been rendered useless. And you know what? That 's a real bummer! Although you likely didn't think of this use of the device, using your FitBit as a way to illuminate your path while walking through your house at night is a BRILLIANT use and one hell of an added benefit.
So here are the options I came up with:
1. You give the Charge (and perhaps other devices) the ability to make the display MUCH brighter. Obviously most people will want to save power and will keep the factory dim setting, but give us the ability to make it brighter. Then I can do what I used to do with my Charge 2.
2. Create a "night mode", where you invert the dark and lit areas on the screen after a set time of the evening. That way when I do press the button to turn on the display, most of the screen is backlit (basically every part of the display that is now dark), and I can easily traverse my house in the dark. This one I like best, FYI.
3. Create one more "app" for the device that I can add to the lineup, which is essentially a blank, lit, "white" screen. Have this accessible via that first swipe left or right, and boom - there's your light!
In addition to any of these choices above, please also increase the time the screen stays lit. Reducing that by half doesn't help me at all, as I can't walk very far in three seconds. And even when I am viewing the screen, that's just too short an amount of time. That's why the longer illumination time on the Charge 2 worked well.
Your devices are great, and the only way you don't lead the market after being in the game YEARS earlier than everybody else is through mismanagement of sorts. You have had every advantage, and every reason to succeed. The fact that I've heard of you possibly shuttering was mindblowing to me, knowing how long your products have been around. Nobody says "I got a new Garmin activity tracker", or another brand name. But everyone knows FITBIT. And despite the Apple or Android watches (which I don't need), there will always be a need to track your movement and to track your sleep. Your device does both, which is why I keep coming back.
So, please consider adding this "new" feature to your Charge devices (and potentially others), or just revert some of these functions back to how they were previously (brighter display, longer time on illumination). I'm sure I'm not the only one who uses his FitBit as a light to navigate a dark house. It's a great added feature, and if you want to throw me some credit somewhere for this "night light" idea (assuming it is original), I certainly won't stop you!
Thanks for listening, please give this serious consideration, and keep up the good work!
-Chris
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