Allow More Fitbit Devices than Ace to Family Account

[thewarden1618]

I am frustrated that I cannot give my Fitbit blaze to my daughter and use the family account. The only device it will allow you to since is the Ace. The Blaze is far better and it would be extremely useful to her. The only way I can have her use the Blaze is to lie about her age and create a single account for her. Please allow other devices on the family account for minors. 

Moderator Edit: Title for Clarity/Added Labels

[Acv1234]

Also agree with allowing more Fitbit models being allowed to add to the family account. Will not be buying anymore Fitbit products unless this changes. Also will not recommend Fitbit to other people because of this.

[Phisig2186]

It took a lot of steps to create this account to make a statement to Fitbit.  One of my three children are eleven and would find the ace 2 very kid-ish.  So I got them charge 3 to put on kids account. Now luckily before Christmas I learn you can not do that so I will be returning a total of 4 watches that will be including two Ace 2's, one Charge 3, one Ionic and the Aria scale and we will not be getting the premium as I don't want to be trying to match a bunch of products together to make them work together.  I am thinking I will look at Garmin and all their products for our family unless someone has a recommendation.  My point is I don't know how much Fitbit lost out on money wise because they don't want to hire a developer to make the software to turn a device into a kid's device.  This is just me and my family...I am sure I am not the only one and I am sure that others would not spend the time to create the comment to say this before returning. 

[Mange_J]

If you otherwise are happy with the fitbit products. What will you miss by faking your kids ages?

Otherwise.. go garmin or something else.

[SoyDad]

"...What will you miss by faking your kids ages?"

An opportunity to teach my kids about honesty and integrity.

[jeighsun]

At my child's health provider's suggestion I have been looking to get a heart monitor for my seven year old son. when I google kids heart monitor, many items come up including the Fitbit Ace 2 and the Garmin Vivofit Jr. 2; ironically, neither of these products have the heart monitor capability.

This leaves me with a few options. 

I could ignore my Dr's recommendation and take my chances while we monitor his medication changes.

I could buy a comparable device and just use it

I could go with another brand altogether who understands a parents needs

In researching this, I have come up with a workaround that for me may work. I bought the inspire hr and found on an auction site a replacement case for the Ace 2. Sure, I will not get the fun activities for him to get engaged, but I can at least monitor his activity and more importantly his heart rate throughout the day.

Another suggestion would be to offer a push update to any device to enable parental controls or lock down additional features not needed by a child. how difficult would it be to modify your Ace 2 software to include the HR aspect of the Inspire HR, save the actual monitor, the devices I would speculate run quite similar.

Please update your policies to allow for customers to use the products they buy in a legal manner. You are propagating a culture founded on dishonesty. Please increase your allowable devices on the family plan and allow parents to get their child the product they would benefit most from.

[EdsonFitbit]

Hi @jeighsun, and thanks for taking the time to share your suggestion about allowing kids access to all Fitbit devices with us! We rely on feedback like yours to help us develop products and features that we know our community wants to see. If your suggestion receives votes from other customers and gains popularity, it will be shared internally with various teams at Fitbit. To learn more about how Fitbit decides which suggestions get developed, visit our FAQs.

Watch this space for status updates! In the meantime, try visiting our Lifestyle Discussion Forum to talk with other members about all things health and fitness.

[farignalda]

my son just got a charge 3 as a present from his uncle and now i cant add him, cant set it up because fitbit wont allow a child to use any other fitbit than the ace. This is so stupid, frustrating and makes me angry. How do i tell an 8 yr old to wait 5 years?

[farignalda]

this is so crazy that a year after this has been posted, fitbit has still not changed this stupid policy. my son got a charge 3 as a present. and now i cant set it up. how do u tell an 8 yr old that he has to wait 5 years to use a present he got now and that made him very excited?

[LizFitbit]

Hi everyone, and thanks so much for sharing this suggestion! 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.

We're always striving to enhance Fitbit products and services, and your input is a big part of that process. We truly thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us.

[Cfhell]

I noticed there is another topic the same as this with 683 votes, but comments are locked.

When oh when will fitbit fix this? Over 1yr since other similar posts and still nothing. Just allow any type of fitbit device to be linked- not just limit it to an Ace or Ace 2. My less than 13yr old needed a waterproof device (she had an Ace), but the Ace 2 comes across as too young. She now has a Charge 3. Only discovered this limitation when attempting to add the device to her child account today (xmas day). So like others, I’ve dodgied her yr of birth. Not ideal at all, but what else can i do? Return it? This is actually insane from fitbit. Allow any device to be linked to the family account and let the parent control what aspects the child has access to.

[Carmesean]

So what I’m seeing here is that my daughter is unable to use her Christmas present without lying about her age? I'm amazed that a post similar to this has been rolling for over a year and nothing has been done to address this issue.

P.S. Fitbit: if you’re so eager to hear feedback from the consumer, what’s with the disabling of comments?

[Tronic45]

We bought the 8 year old a inspire hr for Christmas. He chose which watch he wanted and he had the option of choosing the kids versions or a selection from the adult range. When we have set it up we were disappointed to find that you cannot add a device from the adult range to a children’s account. I really struggle to understand why Fitbit would limit what device they suggest a child can have? I have been forced to set up an account and lie about his date of birth to get past the terms and conditions. Why should children be limited to a certain range? He didn’t want the kids version as it wasn’t cool enough. In other news he’s running round the house shouting out his current  step numbers as he passes by! 

[Momif4kids]

My children got Fitbit Inspire for Christmas.  It would be much more convenient if I could pair these devices with the family account.  Unfortunately, the developers only allow the Ace and Ace 2 as options.  Now I have to setup separate accounts with fake birthdays and log in and out each time we want to access their profiles.  Super disappointing.  I am sure it would not be difficult for you to allow other devices to be paired on a family account.  Please let me know when you figure it out.

[Odyssey13]

Hi @Tronic45   due to laws across the world, children are prohibited from having an online account and using these devices. The law in the United States is 13 and under and the laws in some European countries is 16 and under. The Ace series was made especially to allow children six and up to use these services. Fitbit is abiding by those laws as any responsible business should. Lying about the age would create a problem since the algorithms are made based on gender, age, height and weight. So that would give completely wrong data for your child. Don't tell him the device resets to zero at midnight, or he'll stay up to watch it! 

[Odyssey13]

Due to laws across the world, children are prohibited from having an online account and using these devices. The law in the United States is 13 and under and the laws in some European countries is 16 and under. The Ace series was made especially to allow children six and up to use these services. Fitbit is abiding by those laws as any responsible business should. Lying about the age would create a problem since the algorithms are made based on gender, age, height and weight. So that would give completely wrong data for your child.

[Momif4kids]

So, how is my 12 year old supposed to use his inspire?

[Tronic45]

Thanks for replying @Odyssey13. I understand that he cannot have an online account and I don’t want him to. I’ve set him up an account via my email etc so he has no access to passwords etc. Surely though he can use the device or is that all linked? 

[Albank]

I agree completely. The kids want the heart rate tracker but you don’t offer that in the Ace and if I get them one with the hr tracking then I can’t set them up as a child. Any tracker should be allowed to be set up as a child’s tracker. Or put hr on the child’s. 

[Tronic45]

Totally agree. Although even if the kids one had the HR on it, he wouldn’t have wanted it! He doesn’t want to be seen as having something babyish! 

[Albank]

You can buy different bands. That my plan since there are only two colour choices which aren’t appealing or unique. 🙂

Alisha

[Heychrisallen]

I’m in the same boat. I want to set up a family account so my daughter can use her new inspire Looks like I will b returning the device.   

[KangaMomma]

Agree.  This is crazy!  I don't want my children to have an account...I just want fitbit to allow any model device to be connected to my account?  Why do they care what device the child owns?

[rasberreemom]

Same here.

Fitbit - will you be activating family accounts using all Fitbits. This makes no sense for tweens who want to feel older but DO NOT need to see their weight, etc. on a device. 

If you cannot allow non-Ace devices in family accounts, at least allow users to decide what they want to see on a device.  Calories, weight, etc. should not be mandatory viewing for anyone.  There are A LOT of comments/suggestions for both family accounts and the inspire user interface.

It's very disappointed that you could not update and fix this issue before Christmas.

[EdsonFitbit]

Hi @Momif4kids @Tronic45, thanks for taking the time to share your feedback about allowing more Fitbit products than Ace to Family Accounts, this feature suggestion already exists so I’ve moved your posts here as it is not currently planned.

[Honeywill05]

Family accounts should be more than just ace. I wanted a fitbit that does more than ace needing for her disability and I need to control the settings. 

I can't open her an account as her age so have to lie about that too. You need to make this a more family friendly app. It can't be that hard to do an app update to allow more devices into family acc.