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

[MustacheMan]

Two years later and nothing!?!?!?! Come one guys. I just bought a Charge 4 to use primarily to track my son's sleep since he's waking up a lot every night. We wanted HR feature and waterproof. The Ace just doesn't cut it. It's very simple guys. If ANY device is paired to a child account you just deactivate the social media features. Get it done!

[amieb817]

Are there any updates??? I also bought my kids waterproof fitbits and would like to include them in my account so I don't have to set up there own.

[Ekimerikson]

I must agree with the almost 1,000 others that are reqeusting that a kids/family account be able to use my old tracker.  I understand your desire to prohibit this so that a person/family has to purchase a "kid" fitbit device rather than recycle another device.- however in my case - you're missing out on my son having a new Charge 3 ($99usd) rather than a Ace 2 ($69usd).

I also understand the desire to be compliant with regulations - however that is a software issue - not a device issue.  

PLEASE allow for a software update on devices to allow minors to use adult fitbit devices. 

PLEASE note that this appears to be ONE of the (if not THE) most requested feature suggestion - and prioritize it as such.  

(my return window is not that long)  

Thank you! 

[Pinkwig]

Please allow other devices than the ace for a kid account. Our daughter is 11 and wants the features of a charge 3 to track exercise etc. Can you please disable certain social media settings if a charge 3 is set up as a kid account, instead of banning the whole model? It will make Fitbit so much more attractive to the many discerning teenagers out there! Thanks. 

[spiffen]

No updates that I can find! Let’s keep hoping!

[jhurne]

I cannot think of a technical reason why limiting child accounts would have to be limited to Ace devices. It would have had to been purposely designed this way, but the reasoning behind it is totally beyond me. Why would you limit what devices parents would buy for their kids? Wouldn’t Fitbit make more money by removing this restriction?

Unless Fitbit doesn’t really care about kids and families and has decided to focus on the adult market only. But why?

ugh

[DebGrrratt]

We're having the same issue. Just bought Charge 3 for my 12 yr old. Looked at the Ace but knew he wouldn't like the style of it as it looks like it's for under 10s. Now i can't set him up on a child account. Very disappointed!

[Holly_Me]

What the heck @Fitbit????  It's been two years.  My daughter just saved her money (she's a tween and doesn't want the baby fitbit) and has bought a used one and now can't use it!!!!  I know companies are greedy and want all these parents to buy brand new ones - but give it up, some of us want to teach our kids to be good stewards.  Shame on you all.

Why I'm a loyal Garmin user and gave up Fitbit 5 years ago when it kept falling off my arm!  She will be selling her fitbit and will be buying a Garmin.  Good riddance to you!

-Holly

[CinnamonT3]

My kids are very competitive and enjoy workweek hustling with us.  The Ace 2, while waterproof, does not track stairs.  So he wants a Charge 3.

Also, my husband and I  will sometimes upgrade our fitbits and pass the old ones to our kids.  Gives us an excuse to buy a new one for ourselves and know the old ones will still get use.

The child accounts have the avatars, which are fun, so the kids like to use them.  

What happens if this is not possible is that parents just help their kids set up an adult account, which gives them access to things not available in the kids account.  Changing this policy will help ensure kids are only accessing what is appropriate for their age.

[Wendy1979]

Same here, my almost 10 year old is very happy with her Versa Lite,  but we have to lie about her age for her to be able to use it. 

My husband said it might have something to do with the data the other devices collect, and that it's not allowed to be stored for children. 

[saralou2000]

I would love to see more than just the Ace 2 be linkable to an adult account. Either that or create a child's watch with more features. Currently, I would love to get my daughter the inspire HR. But she is not 13. And I can't link the inspire to my account for her to use in her kids account.

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi @saralou2000. Thanks for sharing your suggestion about having more Fitbit devices for kids with us. This idea was already requested in the Feature Suggestions board, so I’ve moved your post here. The status of this request has been updated as "Under Consideration", so don't forget to add your vote to show your support! To learn more about how Fitbit decides which suggestions get developed, visit our FAQs.

[Kmestus]

I believe that instead of just the Ace and Ace 2 all fitbits should be allowed to be used under a child's account.

[Treehgr1]

It's awesome that someone said this 2 years ago, all these people are also asking about it and it's still not a feature ....  It's ridiculous that I can't set up a 12 year old with a regular Fitbit in the family app.  Fix this please.  Wouldn't you think this would sell more fitbits?  The Ace2 is for little kids.  Get with the Program Fitbit!!!!! 

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi @Kmestus. Thanks for taking the time to explain why you'd like to have more Fitbit devices available for kids with us. This idea was already requested in the Feature Suggestions board, so I’ve moved your post here. The status of this request has been updated as "Under Consideration", so don't forget to add your vote to show your support! To learn more about how Fitbit decides which suggestions get developed, visit our FAQs.

[InclineVlgMom]

Sadly, although this thread has been ongoing with many others
echoing the request I made over a year and a half ago, there has been NO
RESPONSE AT ALL
from the company. Not a good way to show your customers how
much you care about their satisfaction.
I will never buy another FItBit, and will change platforms for my next
device.

Stephanie

[MustacheMan]

Yeah.... we won’t either. We bought our first one and clearly we need not invest in Fitbit for our other children. -April

Sent from my iPhone

[JoelG1]

The Ace doesn't have the features that my 11 year old daughter really needs. The female health component is what we really want.

The COPPA excuse is a lazy one from Fitbit (coming from a child privacy compliance expert and software developer). The software can be setup to allow parental control for any devices. Come on, Fitbit.

[DrBeccaFB]

I agree with allllll of the others here! I don't want my child using the social media aspects of the other devices; however, I don't even use those myself on my Charge 4. Why can't other devices be allowable for minors? I am a parent and can/will monitor my child's internet usage appropriately. Just make some contract/terms for us to sign saying we won't hold y'all liable if our kids use social media through the app. Allow options to disable it. I don't know... SO many companies have figured this out. Why haven't you?

[JMac101]

It would be a huge benefit to be able to use older trackers instead of binning them.  Please allow the charge 3 and others to be used on the family app for children, it's hard enough to get them to move more, but having to spend more money to do so is not fair, especially in this climate!

[Nightwing50]

Let other trackers besides ace and ace 2 be added fie kids under the family account. We just bought 2 inspire HRs for our children and we can’t activate them. They are to young for there own accounts. The way it is now children under 13 can only have an ace or an ace 2

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @Nightwing50, thanks for explaining why you would like to have the option to add more Fitbit Devices than Ace or Ace 2 to Family Account. I've moved it into a similar suggestion which has been updated as "Under Consideration". You can learn more about it here. I hope to see you around.

[Sekhmet]

Just chiming in that I agree with others that it's ridiculous that child accounts are restricted to the Ace models.  I have an Inspire HR I want to set up for my responsible, 10-year-old, 5th grade competitive swimmer... but if we want to set it up to track her activity, we have to lie about her age (which will skew her data) and create an account just for her.  What a huge gap, Fitbit.

[Lizkiz]

I have just upgraded to a Versa 2 and my son (10) would love my old Charge 2.  To save the planet and not buy any more plastic than is required surely the responsible thing for me to do is to let him reuse my old tracker.  Oh..... but I can't because Fitbit have not opened up the family accounts for other trackers.  I do not understand why.  The Child Online Protection safeguard is surely the family account and not the tracker in any country?!

[Abelle27]

This definitely needs to be a feature! 
If you can add kids ages in and control whether socials link or not from the parent account then even better. 

I have a 9yo son with autism and have just purchased the Charge 4. It is PERFECT for most special needs kids. The biggest downsides are not being able to stop him from changing alarm times, reminders and other settings, not being able to input his data and having to sync it to my phone rather than him tracking things on his iPad. There are plenty of families who would give this to ages 9+ and the ability to have a level on control on up to age 13/14 or so would be a huge benefit. 

The Ace does not have enough features.

I needed something to track sleep, heart rate and steps with built-in timer, notifications/reminders and that was waterproof. There is literally no such thing in a kids activity tracker. The huge bonus with Charge 4 is the GPS and guided breathing. These features make it perfect for many older kids, tweens and adults with disabilities. If you enabled parental control you would sell so many of these to special needs families including NDIS participants. This topic is always discussed at length in all the parent groups and it is one of the most commonly asked for recommendations in the NDIS, Autism and Parents Facebook groups too - there is just nothing with enough features and many people end up with an Apple Watch or Ace/Vivofit Jnr plus Spacetalk Watch/Mooochies even though it is overkill - because nothing else has the features they need.