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

[harpus8]

On other watches attached to a kids account, it would be nice to be able to turn that watches features on or off per our preference. 

[Martina828]

I can't believe this request has been open for 4years and still no response!

My daughter plays many sports and is an avid swimmer, at 10 she would.like to track her progress and improve her PBs so as Fitbit users ourselves naturally we want to buy her the same.

She has a phone that was once an adults and it's locked down for her age by Google's family link. I cannot understand why Fitbit insists on only the Ace (a watch my 10yr old describes as babyish) being able to be attached to a child account with parental control!

How many customers have gone to another brand for their child and swiftly followed suit to have the whole family on one app.

Sort this out Fitbit!

[Thehenqu]

My daughter bought a Fitbit lux with her pocket money but is unable to use it as she cannot be linked to my account. My son has the same problem with his Charge5. Why can’t these devices be added? There was no warning to say that this was the case before purchasing. Both devices are unusable for the kids which has been a huge disappointment. Both had previously used the Ace devices but as they are now  11 and 12 years old they wanted something with more tracking features. Will Fitbit rectify this problem? 

[LJW4545]

It would be great if kid's wearing the Inspire can still be added to Family Account. My bigger kids do not wear the Ace - but that seems to be the only option to add them to my account. Seems silly to limit it that way.

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @LJW4545, thanks for taking the time to share this suggestion about allowing to add Fitbit Inspire to your Family Account. I've moved it into a similar suggestion which has been updated as "Under Consideration". Click on the thumbs-up to show your support.  

I hope to see you around.

[LJW4545]

It is shocking that his has been suggested so many years ago, and still an issue for so many.  Why on earth is this limited to the Ace only?

[Gorengan]

This has been going on for so long now that my entire family has switched to Garmin products. I am sure a number of others have as well

Sent from my iPhone

[LJW4545]

I am sure you're correct.  I had no idea this was an issue...and recently upgraded some of my kids to non Ace devices...so I feel kind of stuck 😞  But I will definitely keep this in mind, about Garmin, it is good to know there are options that suite my family more.  Thanks for your comment.

[HealthySpace]

After 4 years, I would expect this issue to be resolved. My 12yo got a Charge 4 and I cannot add it to my account. I came here to check if there was a solution but it looks like there isn’t one. I’m disappointed. 

[ProfM]

Restricting child accounts to only allow ACE devices is unnecessary, frustrating, and not customer centric. Devices and Accounts don't need to be linked in this way. It's seems obvious to allow any device, e.g. Charge HR, to be linked to a child's account, but still enforce the legal compliance requirements for children and social media.

[Neesa74]

I can not believe that this complaint was stated 4 years ago and nothing has been done about it! Clearly with the likes and comments here this is a real problem!! Please fix this issue!!! 

[Sdrenth]

I have a Fitbit premium account and I’m very upset that I cannot set up my old Charge 4 for my 12 yo as a child account AND this has been requested for over 4 years. Nor have I seen any valid replies from Fitbit. 
when will this be fixed?

[bigdaddyblack]

Seems ridiculous to pile on here, but just got my 11 year old an Inspire 2 for her birthday and can't set up a child account even though this issue is at least 4 years old. C'mon Fitbit!!! This should be an easy fix!

[evilyeti]

Same story here - bought a Fitbit Luxe for my daughter, with custom armband, etc only to find out that only Ace devices show up there. 

Looking at the last 4 years of feedback - clearly nobody at Google is looking at that community here, after acquiring Fitbit in 2021. That's not how you compete with Apple watch 🙄. 

I guess it's an artificial way to inflate user numbers... 

[TeacherJane]

My kids are ready for a Charge 4 (which we bought for their birthday), but the "Ace" app won't let is set them up. Tweens need more range in device preferences that can be managed by parents until 13 yrs old.

[Odyssey13]

Hi @TeacherJane  there are laws that make it necessary for the age restrictions - click to learn more. It's the same if you have a Nintendo and a child under 13 wishes to sign on online. The link I posted is for the US, but in some European countries, the age is 16.

[KS.]

Please allow parents to comply with laws that limit child access to social media by implementing this suggestion. Frankly, I don't understand why you wouldn't want to support sales of your full range of products, even if the family account limits the features of some trackers. Hand-me-downs, presents, and upgrades from Ace devices are all resulting in parents being forced to lie about the age of their children and give full access of a Fitbit account to minors - only because Fitbit is putting them in this position. Support ALL devices via a family account so parents/carers can comply with laws and keep our kids safe. Don't you want to help keep our kids safe?

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi @TeacherJane, thanks for taking the time to share this suggestion about allowing more Fitbit devices to be connected in a Family account with us. We wanted to let you know that there are two similar ideas already posted in the Feature Suggestions Board. You check them here where you can add your vote to those existing suggestions:

Allow More Fitbit Devices than Ace to Family Account

Create a tracker for teenagers, they are not willing to use the Ace 3

Thanks again for your participation, and keep adding your suggestions!

[BryFalcon]

I am very surprised & disappointed that i can't set up a charge 4 for one of my children under the family account. We should be able to set up whatever device we want to use. 

Only having the Ace 1, 2 or 3 as options is very frustrating! Especially after going to the trouble of setting up the family account. I appreciate the limits of the child account, being able to monitor their friends, etc.

Really need to open the family account up to all Fitbit devices! Looks like this request has a lot of support.

[GlennH05]

We’ve just purchased a Charge 4 for our 12 year old. I’m furious your company hasn’t resolved this issue 4 years later. I won’t be replacing my own (now outdated) device with another model from your brand unless you fix this issue. Totally ridiculous that your software hasn’t been updated to accommodate other models of your devices on family accounts (particularly for older kids and teenagers).

[Sarah-epieikes]

This would be a great option. I have an old but functional charge 3 that would suit my son much better. 

[DadOfLou]

My daughter got this device for her birthday and the only way she can get to use it is to masquerade as a fifty year old man, i.e. me. That seems ridiculous. Couldn't we just allow this device to work with a child account?

[Hec15]

I recently bought a Fitbit Charge 5 for my 11 year old daughter and it is very frustrating not to be able to configure the device for her, she does Speed Skating at a professional level and trains 2-3 hour 6 days a week so I decided to buy a more advanced Fitibit like the Charge 5 to track her activity. Please add all the Fitbit models for the family account! Right now I am tracking her activity with my settings but would really like to put her age, weight, height etc for the information to be precise. Understand that there are people that can afford to buy the more expensive versions of Fitbit for their children and it is absurd not to be able to use the app properly. 

[JML12]

Very disappointed that Ace is the only options for children.

My child was gifted a versa and while trying to set it up as a family account I found out that only Ace devices are available.  I have never even seen an Ace device in my town, nor does it look that appealing for my child. I feel like kids want the nicer version, like what they see see parents using. 

- I feel like any device purchased should be suitable for any user. A parent should be able to set any device up for a child and have certain things be disabled or unavailable for children…a child mode.

- I also feel like this isn’t very well advertised. Like I said, I have never even seen an ace device where I live

-I also feel like with over 1500 votes this should be looked at. Some of these comments are from 2018 and this is still an issue. Fitbit, I feel like you should look at what your customers are saying and asking for…of course while protecting children 

I have spoken to support on the live chat, and while the person I spoke to was pleasant, I got no answers and was directed here. 

please fitbit…correct this issue.  It doesn’t look like it’s just a small problem with this many comments and likes. 

thanks 

[Vazeery]

Not sure if this will bolster the perceived need for this feature- namely, the ability to "Family Add" but even more importantly to be able to add Parental Controls to ANY of your devices. I am the father and legal guardian of a young adult in her mid-20s. She has special needs among which is to be protected from the risky aspects of the social media. We love the features of being able to message other Community members on the devices and I am sure those features will only grow to absorb the ever-expanding touches of social media . Unfortunately, and as will all her other devices, she cannot use them unless they are configured in such a way that someone else can check on what exactly is being done. Think Apple iPhone Screen Time. No one expects that level of control over your FitBit devices but you really need to consider a basic feature like this for all your Devices. Frankly, I am surprised that after 4 years of dialog on this issue, there is still no material update. You're Google, man, c'mon!  🙂