Add heart rate tracking to Ace Series for sleep tracking, Relax feature & HR data

[SunsetRunner]

Edited for clarity on 10/22/18, since my original post seems to have been misleading:

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Several months ago, my 8 year old participated in an important all-day assessment. Leading up to the big day, she was experiencing symptoms of anxiety. On the day of the assessment, we let her wear a Charge 2 and taught her to use the relaxation breathing function on her own. It was an invaluable tool  in guiding her breathing and refocusing her attention. It gave her the confidence she needed to take on a scary day when we couldn't be with her. It didn't even fit her properly and the function still worked perfectly fine for her. 

I am sad to see that the Fitbit Ace does not have something similar to the relax feature. Please add it!!! Today’s kids are more anxious than any previous generation and most of them already know the benefits of mindful breathing. 

Many people have said that I am asking for something that can't be done without heart rate sensing. This is not the case. I believe Fitbit could easily create the code for a simple timed-breathing exercise to guide children through regulating their breathing that would not require heart rate sensing IN ANY WAY. They key to the feature's success is the visual cues for inhaling and exhaling at regular intervals. Kids LOVE the circle growing and shrinking around the heart. 

Still others have said that Fitbit is focused only on getting kids more active. If that's the case, I'm very disappointed. My Fitbit Charge2 does a lot of things for me besides getting me more active. I would hope that FitBit's goal for a device for kids would be a little more robust and ambitious than a Bluetooth enabled pedometer. The Ace, as it is currently designed, is just that and therefore not worth what Fitbit is charging.  

Moderator Edition Labels & title

[AlexandraFitbit]

Nice suggestion, thanks for sharing. We look forward to hearing what other community members think.

[SunsetRunner]

Thanks, Alexandra! This is my first time submitting. How many upvotes are usually expected for a feature to be considered for addition? I’d love to get parents I know to chime in, which would no doubt also raise awareness of the new product! 😄

[alyson44]

Please add guided breathing and relaxation to the kids' fitbit ace.

thank you!!

[alyson44]

Yes, please!! This would be very helpful. I also let my daughter use my charge 2 and I would buy her an ace if it had the relaxation feature

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

This week, my 8 year old participated in an important all-day assessment. Leading up to the big day, she was experiencing symptoms of anxiety. We used my FitBit Charge 2 to help her monitor her heart rate and put her in charge of bringing that number down. On the day of the assessment, we let her wear the Charge 2 and taught her to use the relaxation breathing function on her own. It was an invaluable tool and gave her the confidence she needed to take on a scary day. 

I am thrilled to see that FitBit Ace will soon be released but sad to see that the relaxation function isn’t part of that device. Please add it!!! Today’s kids are more anxious than any previous generation and most of them already know the benefits of mindful breathing. 

Another optional function worth adding is a tool for ADD that would compete with the REVIBE device that is becoming so popular for kids that have teouble staying on-task. 

Adding those two features to the FitBit Ace would make it INDISPENSABLE!

Moderator Edition Labels. 

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[SunsetRunner]

On another board, the moderator mentioned that heart rate sensing would be required for adding this feature. I clarified that the feature would still be useful without actual heart rate sensing. 

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@KateFitbit, even without heart rate tracking, I would still encourage FitBit to consider adding something similar that would provide a simple breathing rhythm (5sec inhale, 7sec exhale) that they could follow. Certainly, heart rate makes the feature better, but I don’t see how heart rate sensing is required for the feature. 

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Please keep upvoting this suggestion!!!

[alyssasgrammi]

I agree with everyone above...relaxation option on ACE would be perfect, I plan on getting my granddaughter the Ace as soon as it is available and would love to see the relaxation feature. Even just a timer or breathing rhythm would help especially with children having so much anxiety.  My granddaughter has ADHD and her anxiety gets worse when she has to take a test, this would be awesome if she could learn to control herself to calm down and relax. 

[LizFitbit]

Hi @SunsetRunner thanks for this suggestion. This would require HR tracking which isn't currently available on Ace, so I've added the 'Future Product' label as well, for what might be the next generation.

[SunsetRunner]

@LizFitbit,  even without heart rate tracking, I would still encourage FitBit to consider adding something similar that would provide a simple breathing rhythm (5sec inhale, 7sec exhale) that they could follow. Certainly, heart rate makes the feature better, but I don’t see how heart rate sensing is required for the function the feature provides. Please still consider a different option!! The kids LOVE the breathing rhythm with the circles and the “glitter”. 

[HeikeAnne]

This feature would be great!

[AdiktiveWear]

I purchased a Charge 2 in January 2018 along with an Alta for my mother. Last month the band for my Charge kept popping off. You agreed to send a replacement, however, by the time the snail mail arrived my Charge had fallen off unknowingly and is now lost. I’ve since been told by other friends that they’ve had the same issue with their Charge 2 fitbits, one person has had TWO bands break on the same item. So clearly this is a KNOWN issue because all of us have contacted customer support and received replacement bands.

This month I gave in and finally replaced it with an Alta HR since my mother hasn’t had any issues with her’s. A few days later my son received an ACE for his birthday. Imagine my dismay when I found out the charger for the ACE is completely different than the Alta even though they are the same shape and size. THAT’S RIDICULOUS!! And then to add insult to injury, IT DOESN’T ACTUALLY TRACK SLEEP!! With a $99 price tag you’d think at the very least it would track sleep the way it does for adults! All this thing does is count steps, and give reminders. Which isn’t at all helpful as a parent of a child with ADHD who doesn’t need reminders to move, but DOES have issues with deep sleep. He would have been better off receiving a Flex than this thing because then at least he could get it wet. Moving forward you should consider creating a child size Flex! Preferably with a watch-like band that doesn’t pop off, AND tracks their sleep patterns the same way as the adult version!

The next issue is the family option. It’s great being able to setup an account for my son so I don’t need another device, EXCEPT when I want to switch back to my own view I’m FORCED to not only enter my password, but THEN I have to sign back in completely! If the child’s view can only be seen on one device, why then aren’t I able to switch between the two effortlessly?! This is time consuming and annoying. Perhaps now would be a good time to add the thumbprint/facial recognition feature to your app! Granted, since it doesn’t track sleep well, I have little reason to look at his account.

Moderator edit: Clarified subject, and format

[LanuzaFitbit]

Hello @AdiktiveWear.

As you can see in here the Fitbit Ace already tracks sleep. It has done so from the very beginning.

As for your other two suggestions, in order to keep the board organized we ask that our users post only one idea per post. That way it is easier to gauge the interest and support from users. Please post you other ideas separately.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

[AdiktiveWear]

Clearly @LanuzaFitbit did not read my issue with the fitbit Ace and it's sleep tracking in it's entirety.  

I wrote:

With a $99 price tag you’d think at the very least it would track sleep the way it does for adults! 

So to tag my concern as a current feature is not true because the fitbit Ace does not provide sleep stages, it only tells you if the child was asleep, awake or restless witch is not the same!  Rather than read the title, or only bits and pieces, it would be helpful if you read entire posts before claiming something exists.  I am livid by the lack of sleep stage tracking because as I stated in my previous post, it does not make it clear that sleep stages aren't part of the sleep tracking. As for your comment about placing my other concerns in separate posts .... I'll pass.  Fitbit lost my business after these last two disasters. I'm not impressed.

Moderator Edit: Title for Clarity/Added Labels

[KiwiMack]

I've used the 2-min relax function with my son when he's totally hyperactive  before bedtime and it's great. But I have to put my Charge HR on him- it would be wonderful if his had the same function - I would happily pay the extra for the HR monitor.

[SunsetRunner]

I’m so glad this feature is still getting upvotes and feedback! Thanks, everybody! 😁

[SantiR]

That’s an interesting idea and could be useful. It is not currently possible as sleep stages require heart rate to track. However, I added the "future products" label to point this to a new tracker. Thanks for sharing this suggestion.

[TraceyL1]

My 9 year old is very disappointed that the relax function isn't a part of the ace. Please consider this fitbit

[Ade6827]

My children and I are also disappointed to see the relax function not available!   I agree with above comments that heart rate not required just a breathing exercise that the wearer can trigger at any time.

[SunsetRunner]

I'm just going to reiterate that I think this feature would be useful WITH OR WITHOUT HEART RATE sensing. Children would benefit JUST from a guided breathing exercise. Someone from Fitbit in another thread about this topic went on and on AGAIN about how this feature would be tied to heart rate sensing.

Fitbit, please listen to what we are saying. Maybe it requires a different feature. Maybe it needs to be called something else so that you will stop assuming it would be tied to heart rate. Whatever you want to call it, we are asking for a guided breathing / cool down / mindfulness moment / meditation to give kids some guidance for anxiety when we can't be with them.

[Valery9]

My 3 and 5 years old both us the Relax app on my Charge 2. A HR monitor would not be necessary, just a 2 minute timed app that kids could access.  It would be all over puchasing an Ace for my old child if it had a timed breathing program.

[Rich_Laue]

Without the heart rate reading, the Ace is unable to track down ye users breathing. The relax feature depends on tracking the breathing. This feature may need to wait for the Ace 2 to be released.

[Ade6827]

Is it possible to think outside the box and create something new just for kids? Not a relax feature just a picture of numbers counting would be sufficient.

Sent from my iPhone

[Valery9]

The Relax feature works even if you aren't wearing the Charge 2 my kids use it all the time without wearing the device. What I am saying is for kids it doesn't actually need to track anything just be a guided breathing exercise. Just the heart with the circle expanding and contracting in a preset time intervals.
I think they missed the mark with the Ace by not including that as a function.  I can get a second hand Charge 2 for the cost of a new Ace and have the guided breathing functionality for my son.

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

[Rich_Laue]

The relax feature first requests the user to relax and breath in and out. I notice that the heart on the Charge 2 follows my breathing, this sets up the frequency of the inhails and exhails.

The heart rate is monitored to give the user a score. Yes it will work without the heart rate, but would not be customized to the user.

[SunsetRunner]

I guess I just don’t see the need for having the breathing exercise customized to the user. It doesn’t strike me as being that customized when I use it. We can use the feature even when no one is wearing the device. 

I used the feature again with my daughter, last night, when she got into a panic. The device was on my wrist but she did the breathing while I held her. By the time the five minutes were up, she was so calm, I thought she might have fallen asleep! It works beautifully without being customized to her heart rate.

Having this on the Ace would be an amazing whole-health feature. 

[Rich_Laue]

I don't understand then why we are asking for guided breathing when the tracker isn't able to guide?