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

[SMacken]

Same as all other comments.  Bought the Charge 3 for my son for his birthday and can't believe that Fitbit are limiting children's device to the Ace.  Don't highlight that in any of there sales info before you buy it.   Don't see any response from Fitbit anywhere through the thread to explain if there is any logical reason for this??!!

[dsoxman]

I completely agree with the overall consensus on here.

I just got my 11 year old daughter a Charge 3 that she used her own money to buy.  Just like so many others, I was in complete disbelief to find that the only device I can choose for her is the Ace.  Before seeing that, I had honestly never even heard of the Ace.  While I understand the need to comply with the law concerning minors and the sharing of information via social media, I find it hard to believe that they can't make that an option that parents can easily disable.  If this doesn't get changed soon, I am going to return the Charge and look to another company for a device for her.

[el_street]

Well, I went ahead and ordered the Garmin VivoFit Jr 2 for my child. If you
order through Google Shopping, you can get a 20% discount through Feb 3.
Tracks steps and sleep, and is more kid-friendly than Ace. I guess it's a
blessing in disguise that FitBit never acknowledged our concerns.

-Lindsy Street

[AdamGUK]

Sadly still no fix for the full range of devices on a child account. Perhaps I should return the charge 3 to the retailer for a refund

[admumbai]

reachanuj (@reachanuj) tweeted at 0:06 PM on Sat, Feb 02, 2019:

@FitbitDev @FitbitSupport @Fitbit - This seems really annoying with no action taken by @Fitbit . Please open up Fitbit family for devices other than ACE. Developers, please listen.

Moderator Edit: Formatting

[drsmrhodes]

My daughter, age 9, really wants to wear an activity tracker. She is too mature for some of the other ones for kids and after some research, I bought her the Ace. She hates it! It's too hard and bulky. We even tried alternate bands to see if that would help, but the attachment piece is still rigid. She wants something that sits flat, like a watch, with a band like a watch. I gave her my old Blaze to try (I'm a Verso user now), and she loves it, even thought the size is a bit big for her. I'd really like to have other fitbit options for my family account. In the meantime, I purchased a small band for her to wear the Blaze. Parents should have more ability to choose what's right for their children, in both durability and responsibility. Please don't make me switch brands...if one family member needs to switch, then we all switch.

[jrohs]

Agreed.  There are a ton of users who are asking for this, and it's completely reasonable.  When will it be resolved?  A true family account is an amazing branding and marketing opportunity - why on earth would you not support it?  

[cmclellen]

I’ve just bought my daughter the Fitbit charge 3 not aware that she would not use it with the app...ridiculous that only the Ace has the capability. Fitbit should have made it clear on packaging that the Charge3 could not be used by kids

[otosan]

Just bought my 10 year old daughter the Fitbit Charge 3 and didn't know that she can't use with the app...
I purchased it over the phone and they never mentioned anything about it.
Totally ridiculous, returning it for sure.

[Tonde76]

Booga-23 there had some suggestion about why there is only Ace for children. But if the tracking features are be the reason, then there would have to be GPS or other chip on trackers themselves, right? And I really think that trackers lack any extra chip to save battery and production costs. So it is actually the application that uses phones GPS only syncing heart rate, pedometer and such with the tracker.

If it is so, then I guess it would be quite easy to code the child view on the app so that it can't use GPS or allow to input any nutrition data etc.

Then, why Ace is the only option for child's tracker? Coding may not be that simple after all, but I think more probable reason is that this request is not popular enough. The most requested feature now has little less than 10k votes while this particular feature has only 378 votes.

I believe that Fitbit has a some sort of popularity/effort ratio they use to decide which feature they try to implement to application. And sadly, with those votes, this feature is not on the top of list no matter how easy it would be to code.

Though hoping that this feature would see the light of day, now the only choices we have are to buy Ace, lie about child's age or switch brand. But keep spreading the news, maybe this feature would get more votes!!

[Jimci]

Yes, they need to allow this feature to be expanded to all their products.  I have a Charge 2 that I was going to give to my child and buy a newer model for myself. My guess is they think this will force the consumer to buy the kids watch. Instead they are going to lose customers.

[MSS-1]

I can believe this! I should have stuck with Garmin! At least they understand the concept of Family! I need to be able to give my kids the right product to track their fitness. @Fitbit when is this going to be fixed?

[SunsetRunner]

Ugh.  My teenager has special needs and we thought getting him a FitBit would help him with reminders and trying to nail down his sleep problems.  Unfortunately the double bump (heart rate monitor) on the back of his Charge 2 bothered his sensory issues badly.  It took a while for him to explain the problem so we were past the return date.  So I waited and am trying again with a Charge 3 - so far so good.  We gave the still-new Charge 2 to his 11 year old brother... and I can't make him an account, nor add him to a family account?  This shouldn't be a problem. 

[Nschneepy]

We just bought our son a Charge 3 for his 9th birthday. He wanted the Charge 3 instead of the Ace because he is a competitive swimmer and wants to wear it in the pool. Disappointing! This was not clear when I was buying it.

[haldorsa]

Really???? We bougth a Fitbit Charge 3 for our daughters 12th birthday today, and when I was about to set it up, I realized that it was not possible. If we had known this, we would not have bougth this watch. It is great with at parent account, but I really think that we parents know what is best for our kids. Is it US regulations or norwegian regulations that controls this????

[RBowers1980]

Both my son and daughter have a Charge 2

[RBowers1980]

Both my son and daughter have a Charge 2.  I don't understand why we are not allowed to either create an account for them or have them under a family account.  Not good enough Fibit.  I didn't see a big not suitable for children under x on the box!  Sort this out please.

[fmenear]

Has this been changed?  I want to buy my kids each the alta hr.  

[jasco]

Two boys with new Vívofit devices in my family due to Fitbit’s failure to embrace what their user community is looking for.   Their strategy of trying to force us to buy the Ace is not working out for them!

[cecilia.pearl]

I did the same x 3 grandchildren. Because needed water proof. Love what they got.

Sent from my iPhone

[el_street]

Same. Bought mine a VivoFit as well.

[Kkinch]

I agree 100%.  Was going to get all my kids AltaHRs...  My daughter was not interested in either of the 2 colors the ace comes in.  At least offer more choices there! Guess I have to either set up a fake acct for her or look into other brands of trackers for them...

[Manta05]

This situation seems like a case where the product and sales teams stepped on the toes of the Dev team.  My daughter has a fully featured android smartphone that is set up with a law abiding children's account.  The ace seems like a great device for some, but it's a little young for the pre-teen age group, especially one on a swim team.  Creating an account that disables the device's ability to share children's data with the FitBit databases and only allowing them to share data with the child's phone or even the tracker itself should be possible for a fitness tracker if it is possible for a fully featured, network connected smart phone.

[Jackrow1]

I am shocked to find out that the charge 3 i purchased for my son cannot be set up. 1. I seem tobeed to set up an.account for myself-I dont own a fitbit! And 2 he seems to be limited to the ace? 

He is sn avid swimmer so I wanyed something to track his swimming. With additional features.

Please sort this feature out-listen to yoyr consumers please! If only I had kniwn I would not have purchased fitbit. Different choices will be made for my other two children when it comes to them, unless the feature gasp is addressed.

SO DISAPPOINTED

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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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!!

[Sputty68]

This is crazy, My son is 8 years old and a very good club swimmer, bought a Charge 3 as it is waterproof.  No sensible reason why a charge 3 can't be added to a child account, where's the logic?