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

[Jim_Bob]

It would be useful to be able to select different models for kids other than the Ace series when setting up family accounts for cildren.

I just bought an inspire for my child, and I cannot set it up on a family account as you only allow the Ace series for kids apparently.

i would also say that this limitation is not made clear when deciding on a model.

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @Jim_Bob, thanks for explaining why you would like to have this option. I've moved it into a similar suggestion which has been updated as "Under Consideration". You can learn more about here. Keep adding these suggestions.

[Allik130]

I find it ridiculous that it has been so long as Fitbit has not cured this failing in the family app. There is a huge population of children too big for Fitbit ace yet too young for their own accounts. This should not even be a question- we should be able to select the appropriate device and pair on a family account. I bought an ACE for my one child and will pair it but my daughter is adult sized yet 12. I bought her an Alta HR brand new yet can’t link. Don’t push your ACE products on people and fail to offer them full functionality of the app! This is unfair to families and pushes people to lie about kids’ ages and create separate accounts. None of my Fitbit have ever lasted long enough to pass down to anyone- my newest chargehr 2 just stopped charging altogether and I just purchased a new Inspire I am waiting on. I’ve poured plenty of money into your products after the last ~8 years and have 6 kids total. Please fix the App to allow different devices!

[Julia_G]

Agree @nicorocks - you are not subject to US federal law - but Fitbit is, and must comply! 

[Abitarani]

This conversation thread has been going for at least 3 YEARS and there is STILL nothing on the website to explain to parents that they cannot pair any other models for their kids without lying about their ages BEFORE they buy something. Is that what you want us to do? My child is so excited to have a Charge 2 and she is heartbroken that all her hard work gets erased at the end of the day with nothing to show for it! If parents really want to spend more money on devices for their kids buying advanced models, how is this a bad thing for your bottom line? I should think any company who stands by their devices would take a flying LEAP toward making it easier for people to spend more money than they might have intended to! All it requires is a permission in the app that already exists (because it works for the rest of us, right?), surely that isn't more complicated than any of your other features.

[Zjokke]

Hello,

I have the same request for the Charge 3. My 10 year old son didn't like the design of the Ace and preferred the Charge 3. Certainly because it is also delivered with a smaller wristband.
After purchase, I then noticed that creating a Family account is just not possible.

Can you please allow Charge 3 to be used as a child device in Family accounts?

[clarence20]

I ran into this today as I bough 2 Fitbit Alta HRs for my kids.  Then I found kids can only add Ace or Ace 2 devices.  This is quite limiting and frustrating.  Needless to say, they aren't going back to the store so the only course of action is faking their ages.  Sorry, this is a usability issue and not the customer's fault. I think I can decide which device is suitable for my children.  They don't need a kiddie device.

[KKV]

We are another family who has a kid who is adult sized, cannot fit an Ace. We bought a Charge 3, but cannot link it through family app. I would MUCH RATHER be able to give my kid whatever FitBit device I want, but have her linked to the benefits of FitBit through MY account than creating her own. Is this a problem you are working on? How can I have her use this device otherwise? 

[MartinaEthiopia]

It would be great if other fitbits were allowed. We currently have a fitbit ace and ace 2. The ace devices are not good and the ace is already not working right but my 12 year old son will not use an Ace 2 as too childish looking so it will probably mean moving to an "adult" device. If I can't sync to my account there is not much point making him stick with fitbit device so he may move to other platform. 

[hovy33]

I'm sure it's somewhere in this thread.  But why are the other models not allowed.  I understand the need to a child account but why can all devices not be used.  What is the specific technical or legal reason that an Inspire or a Charge cannot be used by a child?  It's pretty insane that this has been going on so long if there isn't a specific answer as to why.  What information does an Inspire, Charge or Versa collect that and Ace or Ace2 does not and that violates the law?

[nicholasgoodman]

We ditched our FitBits over a year ago and only dug them out to monitor our inactivity during our COVID quarantine.

Our son was excited to inherit our old Flex 2; but of course it cannot work as a family device.

I echo @hovy33 sentiments: why? why? why? why?

I've seen some "community legends" talk about laws, but what laws are we talking about here?

No official FitBit moderator will acknowledge the reason, only saying "it is not available and we value community feedback!"

Humbug! I work in software, too, and understand what that kind of deflection language means. For sure the underlying problem is lousy coding or software design internal to the actual devices; there is probably an expensive software fix that FitBit doesn't see value in addressing.

[jeighsun]

I was told it had to do with international privacy laws concerning children in the eu and other nations.

Respectfully;

Moderator Edit: Personal info removed

[Goblinski]

Don't know about community legends, when I discovered this limitation I
immediately went on chat support with Fitbit and the representative mumbled
something about current privacy laws and kids under a specific age or some
bs like this.

He didn't elaborate any further and let me decipher this answer myself.

My reading of it is "...*We get so much information out of adults wearing
our devices that anyone catching us gathering the same from kids would put
us in hot water, and it's not worth the hassle for the few extra devices
we'd sell*.."

Fitbit has done nothing to disprove this, and I have done little to not
share this opinion around - when there's no logical, hardware, software or
other reason to do something as stupid, and when the replies to repeated
questions from users for more than an year are met with bot-like responses,
there's not much left but to speculate.

[MaryEN]

So, to be clear- For a child that is under the age of 13 and wants to use a non-Ace Fitbit device, the "fix" is to set up a new account and lie about the child's age?

[hovy33]

This is so crazy and yet nobody from Fitbit can provide the correct answer as to why.  The privacy concerns are addressed with the child account being created within the Parent account as the Parent has to take the initiative to set it up and acknowledge that they are doing so.  From what I see that covers COPPA and I'm assuming maybe other EU laws.  This still begs the question if anyone from Fitbit is willing to answer, why can children under the age of 12 not use any other fitbit device on a child account other than an ACE or ACE2.  The answer should include...  because it collects xxxx data which is against some privacy law and cite the specific law and paragraph.  If that's not the case and it's a technical issue then fitbit should spend the time and money to fix it.

[Goblinski]

I suspect the kids' model(s) have been built with regards to what info will
be gathered, or in longer words - comparing the missing sensors from a
kids' model vs an adult one would give a hint at what information gathering
is going on between kids' accounts and adults' ones (or what info they
don't want to / can not / think they should not) gather from kids' accounts.

[SoyDad]

Yes. But NO age restrictions are placed on the packaging of FitBit products. How are we to know these restrictions PRIOR to purchase? FitBit/Alphabet seemingly wants us to purchase their products unaware of any restrictions and then-pressured on the birthday/holiday to make the gift work-hope we just fib the age during registration. If this is not the intended model, why not put the age restriction on the packaging?

[Klambo13]

Please please make this possible!

[Jmjnichols]

I agree. I have an 11 year old who could easily use my old charge, which means I could buy a new device for myself. She doesn’t like the Ace bc its “babyish” and in order to set her up witch my charge I would have to lie about her age to set up her own account? This seems absurd.

[Jim_Bob]

So Fitbit - any response?

Regards,

Jim

Moderator Edit: Formatting

[AR30]

I am frustrated as I gifted my so a Fitbit charge 3 and cannot Setup this device as a Child account. I am eager when this will be possible. Can you please update ?

[etai]

I have just purchased a Charge 4 and would like my child to use my old Flex, as she is getting into fitness tracking now.  But before I invest in a new device for her, I would like her to try the Flex first.

Please make the Flex and other devices other than Ace and Ace 2 available for family accounts, as I am not willing to make a separate account for her since she is under the age of majority.

[Tank22310]

I simply don't understand the complexities, or lack of, for Fitbit to turn on an option to allow any of their devices to be added to the family/child account. Why limit it to just the Ace 2? I"m getting a Charge 4 and my daughter really wants my old Charge...and at under 10, I dont want her having a 'fake' adult account. I'd rather simply add it to a child account under family. Fibit, fix this!  Your customers have spoken.

[Belcher]

This was suggested two years ago.  What is taking so long?  My 9 year old and I have a virtual 5k we're running tomorrow.  I dusted off my old surge and charged it up for him, thinking I'd just add it to a family account, and....nope.  So now he's going to run under my account because I just need to have his run timed for this virtual run and I switched to Garmin after my THIRD Ionic died in less than a year (which is a completely different story and I don't know why Fitbit ever gave up on the Surge), so at least it's not going to screw up my stats.  It just would have been nice for him to have his own account because I have a feeling he's going to enjoy seeing his pace on his wrist, and he'll probably want to wear it for future races.

[Orangestripey]

I want to give my kids a tracker that has a heart rate and relax function but I don’t feel like setting up their own “adult” accounts is safe because of the community function. Either make family/child view accessible for all devices or add the relax/HR tracking feature to Ace.