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

[Odyssey13]

Due to laws across the world, children are prohibited from having an online account and using these devices. The law in the United States is 13 and under and the laws in some European countries is 16 and under. The Ace series was made especially to allow children six and up to use these services. Fitbit is abiding by those laws as any responsible business should. Lying about the age would create a problem since the algorithms are made based on gender, age, height and weight. So that would give completely wrong data for your child.

[tashalynea]

I also would like to be able to add my teenaged daughter’s Versa to my family account under MY account rather than setting up a separate account for her that I have to log into and out of to sync and whatnot. She doesn’t have a phone and she is still a minor, but the Ace 2 is way too young for her. 

[Odyssey13]

Fitbits pair to a unique email address. You can get your daughter an email address and account and still share your phone. You'd have to log in and out of the accounts to sync and check the data, but it would work.

[tashalynea]

Yes, that’s what I did. It’s a hassle to log out of my account and into hers then back into mine each and every time though. An option to add a teen with something other than an ace to a kid account would be really helpful. 

[Odyssey13]

@tashalynea  a teen in the USA can have their own account and any Fitbit they want. The age for most European countries, based on their individual laws, is 16. 

[tashalynea]

I get it. What I’m saying is that it would be helpful. Also, she is 15.

Regardless, I just came here to say that it would be a great option. I understand the current options. I simply think there should be this specific option. 

[mckenmea]

Just bought a Charge 3 and am extremely frustrated and disappointed that consumers are limited to the ACE product being the only option to legitimately set up a child's account. 

Surely there is a solution where you can set up other devices as a child profile and hence lock out some of the features?. The family account isn't a genuine solution or seriously catering to the wider FITBIT products. 

I feel deceived and ripped off from this purchase of the gift for my son. The inability to connect a child is not made clear on packaging or at point of sale and would have changed my purchase decision.

There is no FITBIT device appropriate for my children who is an active swimmer

Will need to look elsewhere for a solution and won't recommend FITBIT to our parent community. 

Disappointed with this given FITBIT is such a good choice for adults.  😞

[StarmD]

This request to allow assigning any device to a family account has been active for two years and remains “not currently planned”.  Tone deaf way to manage your backlog and render your device irrelevant for children.  What pre-tween wants to wear your childish looking Ace?  Right. None.  Unfortunately I didn’t contemplate this gigantic functionally gap and didn’t save the packaging to return your device.  How about an explanation about why this is not prioritized in your backlog.  Doesn’t require a “kid’s view” for every device. Just to set up the app. 

[JCRetail]

I agree with all the comments about adding additional options for devices for older children.  I bought my 11 year &13 old children a Versa Light because the Ace was too young for them.  Please create a better family plan for parents.

[EP81]

Echoing the sentiments of those above me, why the heck would you limit the devices that can be tied to a child's account?  When the Versa and Ace are so close in price many people are going to gravitate towards the more feature rich and nicer looking device.

So we got our daughter a Versa for Christmas and now as we go to set it up, it tells us we can't make an account for her as she's too young so we logged into my account to setup the family access and device, and then we're presented with the Ace or Ace 2 to setup with no other options available.

Now our available options are to 1.) Return the Versa  2.) Lie on account creation 3.) Complain in the forums.  Looking at the previous comments #3 doesn't seem to do much other than voice our disappointment, this has been a requested feature for a while now and it's still in the "Not Currently Planned' category.

Comon FitBit, fix your family / child setup procedure and let your customer's children use whatever device they'd like.

[Wyzarde]

From the topics I've read on this site, and my personal experience with designing and implementing hardware/software interfaces, it unfortunately really looks like Fitbit are at best providing only lip service to parents concerns and desires to allow Child Accounts to use devices other than the Ace series, and have no intention of addressing this. I would be very happy to learn that I am making unfounded assumptions and I'm mistaken in my expectations.

What we (the parents) are talking about is keeping the child accounts behaving the way the are (ie. limiting personal information exposure for children, particularly as regards to advertising) but opening up the device choices.

My two kids (9 & 11) were sent Inspire HRs by a well meaning and generous relative living on the other side of the world. The packaging was damaged in the excitement of opening, so I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't be taken back, even if the store was just down the road. Plus the features that these Fitits have have are what the children want, not the limited set available on Aces. They've already gone through Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 and are ready to graduate.

It now looks like I'm going to have to hack around the age restrictions and the duplicate email restrictions in order to provide them with accounts.

Fitbit have now locked (yesterday) the discussion on this topic that's been going on for over 18 months: https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Allow-More-Fitbit-Devices-than-Ace-to-Family-Acc...

On a more positive note, Fitbit have recently allowed Child accounts to graduate to full accounts: https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Transfer-Fitbit-kids-account-data-to-a-standard-...

[AmyLanglois]

I'm extremely disappointed that the only option for a child under age 13 is the Ace 2. The previous Ace 2 that I purchased for my child junked out after 8 months and Fitbit wouldn't stand behind the product. The new model of the Ace 2 looks like it is made for a toddler. It's not attractive to a child over the age of 6. Give us more options. Put the control in the actual hands of the parents. 

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi @Honeywill05. Thanks for explaining why you'd like to have more devices options to be added in the Family account. This feature suggestion already exists, so I’ve moved your post here. While this isn't currently planned at this moment, we have left voting open so we can keep tracking this request over time. To learn more about how Fitbit decides which suggestions get developed, visit our FAQs.

[Shubj]

My child has an Inspire and I want to add it to a child account however only Ace can be used for a child account. I find that ridiculous, please change the code and allow for other use cases for a parent/child account. Not every kid wants an ace.

[sportjohan]

The comments are locked on the Feature Request discussion mentioned by  @Wyzarde  but you can still add your vote:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Allow-More-Fitbit-Devices-than-Ace-to-Family-Acc...

If enough people vote they are more likely to add the feature.

[DisappointedCus]

I bought an inspire hr for my 10 year old only.to discover it cannot be set up for her. I'm extremely disappointed and annoyed and feel I should be facilitated to set it up for her as a child account. Fitbit need to be much more transparent about this issue and it should be stated strongly on their website and products that only the Ace kids watches are suitable for children. I'm now left with a fitbit that is no good to me and a very disappointed child. Not good enough Fitbit 😡

[Odyssey13]

due to laws across the world, children are prohibited from having an online account and using these devices. The Ace series was made especially to allow children six and up to use these services. Fitbit is abiding by those laws, so your daughter can't use another style unless you lie about her age. Lying about her age would create a problem since the algorithms are made based on gender, age, height and weight. So that would give completely wrong data for your child. 

[DisappointedCus]

I have no problem.with the laws. My problem is with fitbit not making it known that their other products are not suitable for children. Fitbit has a responsibility to advertise responsibly so that parents do not end up buying unsuitable products. I am angered to see that this issue has been commented on as far back as 2 years ago and fitbit still has not addressed the issue. It should be stated clearly on the website and on descriptions of their products that their products except the Ace childrens are NOT suitable for children. This is an issue for Fitbit to resolve to.protect potential customers from buying unsuitable products. The laws are not a problem. 

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @DisappointedCus, thanks for taking the time to share why you would like to see this option on the Fitbit app. This feature suggestion already exists, so I’ve moved your post here. While we don’t currently have plans to release this feature, we always appreciate the passion and creativity that comes out of this Community. Since we know this idea is important to many of you, we have left voting open to continue tracking interest and will post another update if anything changes. To learn more about how Fitbit decides which suggestions get developed, visit our FAQs.

I hope to see you around.

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi @jeighsun, thanks for sharing this suggestion with us. This feature suggestion already exists, so I’ve moved your post here. While this isn't currently planned at this moment, we have left voting open so we can keep tracking this request over time. To learn more about how Fitbit decides which suggestions get developed, visit our FAQs.

[Kapallamom]

Children over age 13 are still children.  It shouldn’t be assumed that kids 13 and up will only use an Ace or Ace 2 or that they all have their own phones.  It should be possible for kids accounts to be set up with other devices bring Ace and Ace2.

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi @Kapallamom. Thanks for sharing your suggestion about allowing other Fitbit models to be set in the Family Account. This feature suggestion already exists, so I’ve moved your post here. While this isn't currently planned at this moment, we have left voting open so we can keep tracking this request over time. To learn more about how Fitbit decides which suggestions get developed, visit our FAQs.

[JuanFitbit]

Hi everyone and thanks for sharing this suggestion, which has received votes from other community members. I’m happy to let you know that this suggestion has been picked up internally at Fitbit and is being considered by our team. This suggestion will either remain ‘Under Consideration’ until released, or else move to ‘Not Currently Planned’ if it’s not viable right now. Further updates will be posted here.

Please remember that if a suggestion is chosen for development, it can take some time before updates are available or a release is finalized, so thanks in advance for your patience. To learn more about how Fitbit decides which suggestions get developed, visit our FAQs. Fans can continue to vote for this feature suggestion while it is under consideration.

[nickorocks]

As an Australian we are not subject to US Federal Law, and i'd like my kids to be able to use the best device for their needs.

[Jimnz111]

What a load of horse cobblers Fitbit. It’s a watch that sends data to the app for goodness sake! It’s not a social media platform! The app I can understand restrictions, but the watch hooked up to it should be irrelevant.

i don’t know which rock Fitbit has been hiding under but err kids actually do stuff like swim and need waterproof models!

I’m so pissed as had brought the charge 3 not knowing this, and only switched to Fitbit due to garmins awful watch we kept having to replace.... 

fitbit grow a brain as these kids are your potential life customers, and this is definitely not a good start to future customer sentiment