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

[Myfear]

Not in their interest. Maybe we need to be more public about this in Twitter and FB. There are Fitbit accounts available to tag evrywhere .... 

[Jimbob163]

Just bought a charge 3 for my daughter who started triathlon. Cannot believe I can not create a child account for it. Will have to give it back. She is gutted.

[Daddycrod]

I'm with the rest of the parents. We are the parents, not you. There is nothing in or on the packaging saying there is an age limit. The ace is a horrible device and does not give my child the feedback she needs. Other trackers do not have this issue so please don't say it's regulation that is driving it. Please fix this do we can stop lying about our kids ages

[Beetree]

I think it’s important to note that it’s not just fitbit but Garmin does the same thing only allowing the one device. They just did it s but better with a slightly better tracker. Fitbit (and Garmin and all of the others) is stuck with the legality of child trackers. I don’t think any of the companies do a great job of making the age requirement obvious but they do have a good return policy. I do think it should be swim proof. Maybe have a way to disable other tracking features on other watches so older models aren’t going to waste when parents upgrade. 

[admumbai]

I cant believe this. Its 2019 guys!. Kids can wear another fitbit. Is this a deliberate attempt to sell Ace? Please!

Let the product manager speak

[Ojospeligrosos]

I really wish the option to do other trackers will be available my daughter loves the charge 3

[admumbai]

Are the product managers at FitBit hearing?
Open the ecosystem guys!

[Heatherp85]

It is ridiculous that this request had been made almost 6 months ago and not a single change has been made to this. I am extremely frustrated. My kid was so excited to finally get a fitbit. She is a swimmer and was very excited to take ownership of her fitness but can't have her own account because she's 11. What message am I sending her if I have to create an account lying about her age? Fitbit doesn't care about this topic unless I shell out for the specific Fitbit? Spoiler. I probably spent more on the waterproof fitbit and now I might as well return it. Do better, Fitbit. 

[Bobbie621]

Hi, 

I gave a child a Flex 2 as a gift because I received it for free (I already have a Fitbit device) However, we can’t assign it to her child account. She is very upset that we can’t use it.  So, I am forced to set up an adult account in order for her to use.  I recommend allowing other devices (other than Ace) to be used on child account.

Thanks

[blessedmama3]

Allow other trackers other then the fitbit ace to be added to the family account. 

[MarcelBK]

Hi @blessedmama3, thanks for taking the time to share your feedback with us, this feature suggestion already exists so I’ve moved your post here.

[RaineeLane]

In was going to buy my 6 yr old the flex 2... The Ace is too expensive and it's not even waterproof!!! But now, I'll just keep my money. No point in a tracker I either a) can't set up under a child account or b) isn't waterproof (which is the same as not childproof in my house)

[FittyBittyDaddy]

Chalk up another vote to add this functionality to the Family Account.  I bought the Charge 3 for my 9 year old who is a year round "professional" swimmer.  She would benefit greatly from this device since it tracks swim workouts and it's waterproof (unlike the Ace).  Just because the Charge 3 was not designed for children, doesn't mean that you should restrict use by children. Just allow parents to add any device they choose, as well as give them the ability to restrict access to certain functions/apps within the device. 

[AlexandraFitbit]

Hello @Bobbie621 ! Thanks for sharing this suggestion, I moved it to this similar post so you can add your vote to it. Please keep sharing your ideas with us!

[Twm23]

Please update the app and allow other devices to be setup for kid accounts by parents. Allow parents to regulate and make the decision as to whether their children are able to have these devices linked to their accounts. 

[-TallPaul-]

Hi,

Just wanted to add my vote to make all Fitbit devices compatible with children and a family account. 

As as far as I can see all Fitbit’s are slaves to their setup and syncing device so fairly simple to restrict a device to a child friendly status and hand all the control of sensitive stuff to the guardian(s) of the family account. 

Id like my kids to build up a fully functioning database of their health that they can maintain over their lifetime (that’ll be slot of upgrade device purchases too : Fitbit!) - so that includes heart rate and waterproof so they can swim with it. With the Ace only released last year, it will be several years till the next version can make up for the fact that Fitbit’s market research was off the money (literally) in this case. I would happily buy 3 more charge 3’s for my triplets (aged 6) if I could link them to my family account / iPhone - obviously my kids don’t have a tablet yet and I wouldn’t want to buy them one just for this / potentially expose them to unsavoury aspects of sharing data and details. If Fitbit were to open up their community, I could see a lot of other parents seeing a Fitbit as a way to show kids positive and safe aspects of the internet - it’s not all about games and social media. 

[Lillithbear]

I want the ability to add any fitbit to a family account, not just the Ace. Not every family lets kids and teens have their own phone and now I have a child with a fitbit and no way to track his steps. So frustrating!

[MarcelBK]

Hi @Lillithbear! Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback with the Community. This feature suggestion already exists so I’ve moved your post here. Please vote by clicking on the thumbs up button.

[jpickett]

We gave our daughter, age 10, a Fitbit Versa for Christmas. She loves it and it has already increased her activity levels. She would like to be able to use more of the features available through the family account and the app. Please allow other devices on the family account for minors.   

[JLGODBOUT]

I would love it if I could give my kids the option of which model fitbit she wants instead of being limited to just 1 choice. I think it should be up to the parent's discretion which model they want their child to have.

[Booga-23]

Like most people posting here, I too was shocked to find that I would have to lie about my kids age just to use any other device than the Ace. This was some time ago and having subscribed to this thread have seen the same question come up many hundreds of times with not a single comment from Fitbit on the matter. The only thing I have seen, but can't find the link now, was an explanation of why they are limiting use to the Ace for children under 14 years of age.

The main reason that the post stated was that there was some tracking functionality, be it geographic or nutritional that they, or were under some regulation, deemed not suitable for people under the age of 14.

I believe this functionality has been removed from the Ace by hardware, as that can be the only possible reason for the restriction. Many people have suggested that it should be done through software and at the discretion of the parent, which I have to say makes the most sense to me.

Regardless of what the real truth is, it seems astonishing to me that there has been hundreds of posts in this thread all of which have been utterly ignored by Fitbit.

The one possible recourse you could have is that, as far as I am aware, the restriction of use for the other devices is not clearly stated on any of the product information on their own website or in any of their advertising or on the products themselves.

If you have bought a Fitbit (other than an Ace) for the purpose of giving to a child (under 14) I would suggest you return it stating that the conditions for use were not clearly stated and therefore you have been mis-sold the device.

[Melgenn]

I agree that we should be able to use any device to set up a child account. I would be more willing to upgrade often knowing that I can hand my current fitbit down to my kids. If we could use any device my kids would both be wearing fitbits right now, but I am going to wait and hope that more options that they will not one day grow out of become available. 

[Debbie69]

As a new fitbit owner, I am very disappointed. About three weeks ago I bought myself the new Charge 3 after trying several cheaper, knock off products on the market - none of which worked. 

After being so so impressed with my new Charge 3, I went out and bought a second Charge 3 for my (almost) 12 year old daughter. The Ace simply didn’t have the options offered by the Charge 3 that I wanted to review and keep track of with my daughter. 

Along with many, many other people here, after buying the second Charge 3 for my daughter I quickly realized I couldn’t set it up for my child because “The Ace” is currently the only device available to set up for a child. 

Surely goodness in 2019 Fitbit Inc. is able to make a few adjustments to allow their other devices be used by children, as a child in the family account!!!

unbelievable!!!

[curlsr]

I couldn’t agree more.  We bought a Fitbit Charge 3 for our daughter’s birthday.  She swims 6 days a week and wants to be able to track her swim activity.  After setting up family and child accounts, AND agreeding to the Terms of Service, I find out I can’t even setup up her device and give her access.  Please change the TOS to allow  parent accounts to allow other devices for their child.  SO frustrating.

[Sprinks310]

Long time fitbit proponent with 7 devices across extended family, kids wanted one so bought them an Alta HR each over a year ago. No action on this topic since running into the issue in 2017 saw me buy another brand recently for myself and start posting reviews for both Ace and Alta to alert prospective buyers to this flaw before they purchase. If consistent fitbit community requests for this change can’t make a difference then maybe commercial / social pressure might. Please take the time to inform others via your socials.