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

[Lesterbean1020]

I too feel my child should be able to use my old Alta and be able to use the child app. This would be super helpful! 

[Fleur4]

By limiting the child's account to only 'entry' level products is ridiculous.  I want to be able to pick the model that I want - that was marketed - with the features like waterproof for my child, but then just like their Apple accounts, etc. be able to put in place the proper monitoring and oversite.

They should be allowed to use their device, and I as a parent should be able to oversee their device.

This should work based on 'type' of account, not device - meaning that ANY model should be able to be set up as a child device OR adult device.

By limiting the child account to only the ACE devices means that by default Fitbit is actually syncing and collecting information on children with any other devices - a loophole, not adherence to the policy!  

[TedHoward]

FYI
If you criticize Fitbit's design choice, even in a purely factual manner, your comment will be removed by Fitbit.

[SunsetRunner]

Fitbit doesn’t care what we the consumers want.  They’re obviously not interested in listening to the multiple comments urging them to reconsider the family account. They are only interested in attempting to get us to purchase their products.

[Goblinski]

I have mentioned it before in this thread, it has been also mentionned later in the thread, I'll say it again:

- There is no way on Earth that Fitbit's honchos have not read this thread

- There is no way on Earth that what we are requesting is technically difficult, challenging, expensive, etc - not for a company who does this for a living.

The only possible explanation is that Fitbit WANTS you to register your kids as adults, so they can gather the same level of info they get from adults while still having plausible deniability. It is not difficult for them to figure out that if they have an army of 13 years old subscribers that have the pulse, stride, height, weight etc of 7 year olds, it's not an army of malnurished 13 year olds.

I, for my part, swap my ionic with my kids' ones on a regular basis. I'll leave it to Fitbit to figure out why the huge differences from one day to the next.

No one from Fitbit will take us seriously. This here is just a box to scream in.

[Lordfortress]

Oh you Fitbit Guys. I gave my 9 years old my Charge 2 and in the recent trip to NY he was so excited counting steps, climbing stairs, tracking run and biking. Hey, I can live with the frustration and disappointment that you just caused me but I am not looking forward to get home and tell him that he won't be able to link his Fitbit to the Fitbit account. I will have to tell him: "Fitbit sucks" and he is going to bug me every single day and on to switch to Apple Watch (this is the only Apple product I dont have). I could even go and buy a Fitbit Ace, but it doesn't have everything I know my son will enjoy.

There are lots of fantastic recommendations in this forum that you guys should read. So guys, dont suck and quit being lame. Improve your product.

[SunsetRunner]

It’s obvious fitbit does not give a flying frack about it’s customers. Good thing we only have the one my daughter bought. Will not buy another fitbit product ever, not that they care as evident in this thread. 

[Syberex]

Very disappointed with the support on this feature. Not a big change, but still not resolved for more than a year! Lost a loyal customer

[Curlygirl93]

Would agree with disappointed consumers who have non-Ace devices they would like to use for their child.  This should not be a hard thing to fix and sours the experience/discourages parents who want to buy more products but can’t.

[Funcat996]

I was ready to buy my son the kids version of the fitbit, but found it would not monitor his heart rate or have a relaxation mode which are the top 2 reasons I was buying one.  It is extremely frustrating to not be able to put in his height weight age, to get an accurate read.  I'm kinda bummed considering the charge 3 was about double the cost of the ace.

[cecilia.pearl]

It is also not waterproof.  Can't wear in pool, only shower.

[Jbbaehr]

My 8 year old (daughter) thinks the ACE is for babies. She loves the Inspire. Fitbit get your act together you’ll be lucky to sell the ACe to anyone over the age of 5.

Open up your family accounts AND allow Synching of multiple titbits to a single device.

[TedHoward]

Showed our son's to a friend. Their response was 'our daughters have one but it's a huge, ugly, clunky thing.' I confirmed it was an Ace. I told them to *NOT* buy an Inspire for their children since it won't work.

[Kparent]

It would be great for our kids to use our old devices. Please add the surge. 

[Jimci]

I don't understand why fitbit is willing to lose sales over such a simple fix. The fitbit ace and ace 2 do not meet my child's needs but the other devices have the features he needs (e.g. breathing exercise to calm down).  It seems like a simple solution to open up the parental controls to be used with all their devices. 

[SoyDad]

No age limitation printed on the box for the Fitbit Versa.  If you are not going to allow children to utilize the Fitbit Versa, then PLEASE make that age limitation visible on the packaging. I now have to explain to a grandparent why their granddaughter cannot utilize the Versa gifted to her. 

Of course, the preferred solution is to allow other devices (beyond the Ace and Ace 2) on the family account for minors.  This is my first experience with a Fitbit product and I am not impressed.

[Rms97]

My husband gave son his old Charge 3, only to find out that he can't use it on the child account.  Why is that?  Can't the child account portion of the app not allow social postings.  This is very frustrating.  My 12yo struggles with his weight and was very excited to get the Fitbit and we were hoping it would help us to motivate him to move more.  Now he is going to be very disappointed that he can't use the FitBit his dad gave him.  Will you please work on a fix for this.  As it is now, I am going to have to lie about his age so I can get it to work.  *sigh*  this defeats the purpose of havi bbn g a family account to me.

[Itsarunningthng]

I’m having the same issue. I think it’s kinda sad that I have to buy a new device to link to a child profile or lie to set up a regular account. 

Been a fitbit user since the beginning. Was super excited to hear about the child account and then quickly disappointed when I could set up my old model for my child. Counter productive as being forced to buy something new vs allow a child to continue to use an older model is so wasteful and unnecessary. Won’t happen in our house. 

Fitbit please make all models available under the child profile. 

[Njmommy]

Just bought my first Fitbit ( was a Garmin and Apple Watch user).  Bought my 10 yr old the inspire model as well the HR model for me.

I don’t understand why I can not add her as a child account with the Inspire.  

Then I see this discussion has been on going for over a year and Fitbit STILL has not fixed this in their app?

This makes no sense.  And I am considering returning our fitbits.  Why has the company has not responded and altered their app, which can only be beneficial for them???

[Aladriel01]

I recently received an upgrade to my Fitbit device. It seemed like the perfect time to let my 11 year old just my old HR 2. But, I was surprised to find that I couldn't use it on a family account. Would've been a great way to see if my daughter really liked your products or not. Guess you didn't want me to introduce her to them.

[Tommo_N]

Hi, bought my 11 year old daughter a fitbit. She wanted the Inspire HR as she didn't like the look or feel of the Ace/Ace2.

When i went to setup her fitbit app and account it said she needed a kids account linked to my account via the family account, which I did, but then found the only options to add trackers for her were the Ace or Ace 2!

Why do you feel that children only want one of these trackers? To be honest, if she was 7 or 8 they may appeal, but going to high school, they are too kiddy for her.

In the end I had to sign her up as being 18, installing and setting up her Inspire HR, then changing her date of birth to the correct year.

Long winded and very short sighted of FitBit in my opinion.

Not sure who or why its been decided that children can or should only have one of these 2 types of tracker.

[markchia]

I'm in the same boat as many of you. My mom got my 7 year old an Ace and she loves it. I have a "hand me down" Charge 3 that my 10 year old is begging for. I was just amazed that I couldn't add it as a child device. Then, when I went to create an account for the 10 year old I couldn't! Either option would be fine. With neither option available, I'm left with either NOT creating an account for my daughter, and she really wants to see the data believe it or not or simply having to "create a typo" when I enter her DOB. The money's been paid for these devices. Just make the software work please!

[TennisChickRob]

When entering children into the family connecting them- I would like you to think about not limiting the ages of children to under 18 - families come in all kinds of sizes -& so many don't have the traditional family dynamic - 

As for me - my children are both older than 18 yet my son goes to college and still lives here part  time & my daughter and I are so close - but she is married and lives a town over + 

We would like to connect the three of us together - yet your app limits children to be younger -

Please consider not limiting the ages & let any age people be in the group together - and maybe I need to add my best friend to our group too - not just immediate family? I'm sure some people don't have family that close and would need to be able to add their " family" which would be their closest friends!?thank you for reading this! 

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi @TennisChickRob. That's a fantastic idea, and thanks for sharing it with us! I'm sure others will love to have the option to add their children in the Family account, even if they're older than 18. We rely on feedback like yours to help us develop products and features that we know our community wants to see. If your suggestion receives votes from other customers and gains popularity, it will be shared internally with various teams at Fitbit. To learn more about how Fitbit decides which suggestions get developed, visit our FAQs.

Watch this space for status updates! About your second idea, please consider checking this help article about closed groups where you can add people that are important to you, participate in challenges and share tips between each other! In the meantime, try visiting our Lifestyle Discussion Forum to talk with other members about all things health and fitness.

[jimr67]

My first experience with Fitbit, don't even have my daughter's device working yet, and my impression is "what a terrible product and company." Obviously they should support Family Accounts for any of their devices OR label their products with the minimum age requirement. Clearly they don't care or they would have acted on all of this feedback in the last two+ years. Figured I would just shout into the wind as well...