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

[garry24]

Fitbit are idiots.

They don’t listen to customers. Won’t last long.

Sent from my iPhone

[Julietann46]

Please allow the child account to add a Charge 2. I gave my son my old Charge 2 and he loves and wants to be able to track it on his phone but it will not allow me add the charge 2. Please help and add this feature.

[Kattymac79]

I don't have a Fitibit, but I just bought an Alta HR for my 10year old birthday.  As I don't have my own Fitbit I was slightly frustrated that because of her age I would have to create an account to create/add her Child Account.  But I did it.  However, I was then incredibly frustrated to discover that you can only use the Ace with a Child Account.

Will now have to go through the faff of deleting the Child Account and my account, then creating a new account for my daughter with a fake birthday. Even worse is she will know that I have changed her birthday to get round your rules.  This is completely against the e-safety advice we teach our kids and I really feel like Fitbit need to sort this out quickly.  PLEASE Add all devices to the Child Account.

[morbli1973]

Just purchased a charge 3 for my 7 year old son. Great device, but very dissapointed that I can’t add it to a kids account. 

[TanyaH1357]

I am so frustrated. I bought an Ionic and want to give my Blaze to my granddaughter - we are going to walk together. She is 9. I went through all the drama of setting up for her to find that only the Ace can be used. For goodness sake! Please add options for all watches. She is so disappointed!!!!!!!

[Magdat]

Hi. I'd like to get this done for my Alta, to repurpose it. Otherwise it's just sitting in the closet unused. 

[JohnKmx]

Fitbit....please fix this this!  I called into customer support because I could not figure out how to register a new Alta to my son on the "My Family" account.  The support rep informed me that the Alta is not meant for kids and only the Ace is supported.  He suggested that I create an individual account by lying about this age.  This is absurd.  My son likes the way the Alta looks and it fits him perfectly.  What is the point in placing this restriction?  

[Garrym247]

They do not care about customers. I have 5 devices I bought for family but they could not care less that I bought 2 for kids but can’t use them.

Sent from my iPhone

[Blumie]

Hope this is updated!

[AStewart351]

I'm in the same boat.  I bought my daughter a Charge 3 for her birthday and just now found out I can't register it under me.  She only has an ipod that the app won't work with.  Not even sure where to go from here!  Please let us parents register something other than the Ace!  She's heartbroken right now!!!

[lady_appaloosa]

Lots of us frustrated parents here but not seen an official moderator update other than the one in June 

HEY FITBIT MODERATOR COULD YOU UPDATE US IF FITBIT IS EVEN CONSIDERING THIS? 

[monica4ay]

I just purchased a Versa and wanted to give my 11 year old son my Charge 2.  I called today and they said that the Ace is still the only device available for family sharing.  This means that I will have to create a second account using a different email address and sync it to another device in order for him to use it.  Very frustrating. Why should I have to buy and lower grade product with less features in order for my child to use it?   It shouldn't matter what device I choose for my child.  We should be able to sync any device to our family account.  I would like to know the reason other than marketing to make us buy more products that we don't need.  

[ahersch17]

I just bought a Versa for myself (an upgrade from the charge 2). I'm planning on handing down my charge 2 to my son,  but I was disappointed to see I can't add that device to his profile on the family account. It would be great if Fitbit allowed any device to be added on a child's account, rather than just the Ace.

[Legis]

Account is account. Device is device. I have no idea why these two should be coupled.

account is used for social network. It is ok.  But device just provide the data. Anything about social network?  The app developer should modify the app. 

[smj34]

Legis, the objectives are to let kids use other devices than just the Ace and to be able to view the data in same place as the parent does...not requiring extra steps to log out of one account and into another. Most are going to be viewed in the app on a parent’s phone/tablet so requiring multiple accounts makes it burdensome. 

[LBWeiner]

My son just received a Charge 3 as a gift, he is an adult sized 12 year old. It is ridiculous that I can’t set up a child account for him and his Charge 3. Kids grow at different rates, Fitbit should recognize that one side does not fit all.

[_jns26]

Yes, PLEASE add more device options to the child account! 

We have a Charge HR and a Blaze for our 10 and 11 year old and would love to be able to connect them with a child account.

Looks like there are quite a few of us that would appreciate this change 🙂

[Goblinski]

I just discovered, to my surprise, that the only device that can be added to a kid's account is the Ace.

My kids got ionics as a gift, and I have to choose between the following:

- Return the ionics, and get my kids an Ace each. Thanks but no thanks.

- Return the ionics, and see what Apple has to say on the subject of allowing their customers to decide what they want to spend their money on and how they use it. Might happen, or not.

- Delete the newly created Fitbit kids accounts. Create separate emails for my kids. Set up separate adult accounts for them. Add two extra inboxes to my phone, just to keep a check on it.

The comment from the Fitbit support representative was "We only allow Ace for kids' accounts, because we don't want to track for kids as much data as we track for adults".

Fair enough. Probably makes sense from a legal perspective.

How about you allow ALL fitbit devices to be used with a kid account, and collect ONLY the data that you are legally allowed to collect per your kids' accounts guidelines ? Would it be too difficult ?

I don't mind NOT having all the features of the device being used, when the device is paired to a kid account. I DO mind being restricted to one subpar device, when more advanced ones (with a larger screen, which is what matters to me most) are available.

Cheers

[MarcelBK]

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

[Megalopolous]

I would also like to be able to use the charge 3 registered for my children under the family account.  I initially purchased the Ace, but then returned it and upgraded to the charge3 when I realised the Ace was only Wayer resistant.... my kids spend half their activities in the pool. So I am now another frustrated parent having to set up their accounts as “adults”

[PDiddy3112]

Is there any hope that this will be changed anytime soon? If Fitbit is really worried about child protections, then it would make more sense to allow more Fitbit types to access the safer child account where the information stays safe, rather than forcing parents to create and individual account for a child just so that they can use other types of trackers. Obviously there is a need here. 

[Goblinski]

This is beyond the kids' accountd. It's about the Family accounts altogether, and the direction taken by Fitbit in handling it (the fact that so far it seems the direction taken is not handling it at all is another subject).

Current Family setup: Either limited kids accounts which don't require an email but are compatible only with a specific device, either separate accounts requiring one email per account, and given some sort of connection so one can track the other.

Why call it "Kid" account in the first place ? What if we're all technically challenged in the family, or we don't all have email addresses, or in general - we have a good reason to NOT want or can having one email per device in order to use it correctly ?

Why not group accounts ? What if I'm a coach or group trainer or anything, and have a two dozens of fitbit devices which I distribute to the group prior to training and then get back at the end of the session (let's for the sake of argument, say that I have figured out the legal side) ? I will have the info as coming from Device 1, Device 2, Device 3, etc. I will know which is which.

But wait - Fitbit won't know. The way things are set up, they seem to be insisting on having ONE device PER user, tied to them the tightest possible, for the longest possible time, and the profile they are building with the information collected seems to be "fat" enough for them to not be liking the legal risks that would come with collecting the same data for kids.

If I knew enough fitbit users, I'd organize a full month of daily swaps of fitbit devices, from users with the most different "specs" possible. An athlete wearing it in the morning, a kid mid-day, a middle aged overweight me in the afternoon - just to drive the data nuts and stick it to the individualized personal profiles 🙂

Rant mode off. I am not holding my breath. We will not see this feature, EVER. We will be getting an occasional "Oh, excellent idea, thanks for posting", and that'll be it.

Cheers

[AshleyRener]

The kids account should allow more fitbits than just the ACE fitbit... I have a Blaze fitbit my daughter loves but can't connect her to the kids account because it's not an ACE. 

[Dannydesch]

I find it quite ironic that this idea is marked “interesting” by the moderator and nothing has been done on it the whole year. I just bought a charge 3 for my 11 year old and was not told at the store she won’t be able to use it because of some claimed legal reasons. In which country, anyway? It does not make any sense at all, isn’t the whole point of a child account that I can set it up and I myself can decide what to allow and not, as a responsible parent?

now I’m forced to set her up as an adult and I won’t be able to monitor her as closely. Totally negating the whole objective!

I don’t even have a Fitbit myself, al, this hassle just to enable her to have a device that does more than the basics!

fitbit clearly does not grasp the concept of user centred design...

[Megalopolous]

Just the complication I don’t need at Christmas.  Daughter paired with Mums phone account, son with mine, so unable to have a Fitbit of my own or for my wife as too much hassle. Hmh