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

[Best7797]

I have an autistic son who I purchased A charge 3 for Christmas.  Much to my surprise I can't put it on a family account.  He is 13, but doesn't have his own email or phone.  How do I get this set up?  Or am I out $120!  Please set it up so any Fitbit can be part of a family account.  Also age should not be an issue, it should be up to the parents to decide when they can have their own account.  Very frustrating!

[SuperStarJ20]

Just bought a Versa and Charge3 fitbits for our family for Christmas and the kids can't use their new Charge3 devices. What absolute stupidity! This has become the worst Christmas presents ever!!

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @Best7797, thanks for explaining why you would like to have this option. I've moved it into a similar suggestion which has a lot of votes. As the more votes and comments an idea has the more visibility and momentum it gains. You can learn more about how Fitbit decides what suggestions get released in our FAQs.

[Dean90]

Annoying as just got both my children a blaze. one child set it up all by themselves, but just found out the younger sibling cant use this unit and just wasted a few hours of my time in the process.

I understand the need for protection for children but the top tech giants out there get this spot on with family accounts and looks like Fitbit along with a few others out there haven't. All you're doing like others out there is sending a message out to children that you have to lie about your age.

its not difficult and I knew I should have just got them a smart watch that's the same make as their top end phones and devices as this well known company has got it spot on with Family accounts and adding children along with their devices.

Fitbit needs to keep up or just lose out to the other power houses  

[BigKDaddyO]

My children need waterproof trackers that also have the many features offered by Charge 3 and Versa.  We gave them those two devices for Christmas, and now realize we cannot set them up as Child accounts in a family plan.  This is so silly!  you are limiting products, when it is much easier to simply limit access and controls!  Fitbit needs to get with the idea that children need fitness trackers and lifestyle devices, too!  Please add the feature to use other FitBit devices to the Family account!  

[Best7797]

I totally agree.  I was ticked when I realized I can't set him up under a family account.

[tj1604]

Adding my 2-cents to this post - my son just opened his Christmas present - a Charge 3 - and I can't add him under our family account.  If I'd known this sooner it wouldn't have been under the tree...VERY poor choice Fitbit...make the changes necessary ASAP.  I want to monitor his device and info...and should have to be limited to the ACE.  

[Odyssey13]

Each country has certain laws protecting children. In the US, the age is 13 and in some European countries, the age is 16. The Ace was created so that children could wear a Fitbit and be protected under a monitored (by a family member) account.

The Ace is also not as expensive as the other styles, so it might not be something stolen at school. I know it's hard enough to keep track of some items that leave the house for school, outside activities and find their way to the bottom of a backpack. Not all children are as responsible with gadgets as adults.

If your child is older than those ages, they can have their own account, using their own email address. Free email addresses are easy to get.

Sorry for the frustration, but laws are made to protect and Fitbit, as any other company, has to abide by them.

The problem with lying about the ages is that the Fitbit uses certain information to determine stride, heart rate and other things.

[DaveM74]

Bought my 10 year old daughter a Charge 3 for Christmas, only to find I can't set her up with a child account because it's not an Ace. WTF?! Any features that make use by a child an issue ought to be made to be controlled/disabled in the family account by the Guardian.

[Parentof4]

I cannot believe how ridiculous this is.  My husband does not like to use his e-mail, or phone and wants me to track for him, how do you set that up if I cannot add him to my account?  And what about older family members who do not have smart phones or e-mail, but you need to track their activity, they are only limited to the kid size device.  All are kept from adding them to the same account, because of the device limits.  My 11 year old son is excited about his charge 3, but now I cannot keep it on my account.   If I create another account, I have to have now use another e-mail address, that he does not have, to set it up.  If you want to limit what kids can do, have a way for parents to turn it off.  It should just be some an option on set up.  I am so irritated at how stupid this is.    

[Bmatern]

Yup. Gave my 12 year old a Charge 3 for Christmas and we are just now discovering this issue.

[Best7797]

My son is 14, but is also autistic.  I thought monitoring his sleep would be good because of this.  Yes I could set up his own email account, but he doesn't have his own phone so we have nothing to sync it too.  I tried syncing to kindle fire, but it would not work.  I'm completely frustrated and now I'm out $119 I paid for the charge 3.  Not to mention the hours I tried setting it up last night to no avail.

[WalkingDahlia]

All Fitbit has to do is allow parents to make the choice of what device they want to link to their child's account. It's not to protect Fitbit and it's not over liability and it's not looking out for keeping devices from getting stolen. It's just stupid, and it's has stopped us from becoming a Fitbit family. I like my Fitbit and I constantly network my friends into Fitbit challenges and other fun things, but the next time I need a tracker it may very well not be a Fitbit device. This is infuriating.

[JuliusS]

Please make other devices devices available. I would like to pass on my Alta hr to my daughter but cannot. Poor ux!

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@thewarden1618 wrote:

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

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[Mostghst]

I see this listed as a new idea.  We all had this same complaint years ago with Fitbit.  Their answer, that took years, was the underwhelming ACE.  It’s not hard to limit software on a device based on the type of account it’s setup under.  This has been a consistent ask from parents for years now.  If I had bought the Charge 3 for my daughter so she could use it swimming I would return it and buy the crappier Apple Watch. Unfortunately my daughter got it as a gift from the grandparents and doesn’t want to part with it.  It will be the last Fitbit item I ever setup.  It’s this problem that made me upgrade my Charge HR to a Samsung.  

[wisel]

I just purchased a Charge 3 for my 11 year old.  She does not have a cell phone, and I want to be able to set up on my phone without her receiving my text messages and missed calls.  She MUST have the Charge 3 as she is a competitive swimmer - swims 2 hours per day daily.  The FitBit is something that she wants to use to start tracking her training.  There is absolutely no reason why this model cannot have options to turn of certain features to set up for a child without a phone.  This should be posted CLEARLY on packaging.  Complete fail on FitBit.  

[Mange_J]

@wisel until your daughter gets her own phone you can connect her tracker to any computer that has bluetooth.

If you dont have a tracker connected to your phone you can select to not push your messages to her tracker.

Agree that Fitbit failed on this ace matter.... too.

[Slots65]

Bought my 10 year old son a Charge 3 for Christmas as we wanted a waterproof device with the same features as my wife and I have (both Charge 3) knowing this whole age thing would be an issue. Not happy about it, but we never even considered buying the Ace as it didn’t have the features he or we wanted.  Seems to me that the age of the user should define whether the device, Charge 3, Versa, etc. allows or denies linking to the social connections rather than limiting patents (customers) to fewer, less feature rich, products. 

[nikkireynolds]

Merry Christmas, everyone. Seems we, too, bought into the idea that the Charge 3 (the best tracker for my xcountry running son) was the perfect holiday present. Alas, based on all these requests and no response to this issue, we will have to return this product (but will not be purchasing an Ace). He’s gonna be super bummed when we tell him we have to take his gift back.

[AlanaCarina]

My kids both got a charge 3 each for Christmas, it is extremely frustrating that I can not link them to the family account because the ace is the only “kids” Fitbit. Not only that, but I can’t create them their own account because guess what..... THEY ARE KIDS, and would be breaching fitbit’s own terms and conditions to do so. 

So after contacting Fitbit via email, and not getting any solution to my issue, they directed me here, to voice my issue to the Fitbit community, because apparently they can’t be bothered to actually help their customers, they would rather have us whinge to each other which after seeing everyone else’s comments here solidifies my thoughts that i should have gone one with gone a  garmin after all.....

[RonanG]

This is a poor response to software decisions made in the past, perhaps before Fitbit thought kids would use their devices. 

The right answer is to eliminate technical debt, rewrite bits of your application so flags can be set to disable social sharing (for example) while allowing the range of devices to operate legally.  That way the regulatory requirements for various jurisdictions can be met.

In the meantime is there a money back program for customer who bought a Charge 3, which does not mention age in the requirements on the box?

[Spatialmongrel]

I agree. I have an old charge hr I wanted to give my daughter, it fits on the smallest setting. I was very surprised to find that the family account only works with ace. Not cool.

[WalkingDahlia]

I'm really surprised that Fitbit still hasn't fixed a mistake that's so egregious and so easy to rectify.

[mune0387]

I completely agree. I have gotten myself the charge 3 and gave my daughter the charge HD I previously owned but now I cannot set it up for her as a family member. It only allows to set up the ace. 

[Cad1]

I would like to add my daughter’s Alta HR as a family member device. Currently I can only add an Ace as a device for a child. It would be great to be able to add her Alta HR.