Allow us to choose between "Active minutes" or "Active zone minutes"

[ophelialnc]

Please include a data field for real time active minutes, an essential metric you took away to replace with Active Zone Minutes or be able to choose which I want to see. I had to return my Charge 4 because it was missing this info. I just need a field that tells me how many total real minutes in a day I spent in active heart range. I cannot use active zone minutes in the same way.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @rwb196884, thanks for explaining why you would like to have the option to choose between "Active minutes" or "Active zone minutes". Thanks for sharing your feedback. I've moved it into a similar request.  A lot of users are asking for this option, I hope we receive updates soon.

[EME593]

Active Minutes is a very good motivator; it would be nice to have the option to see Active Minutes or Active Zone minutes on the watch..

[KavithaChikkam]

Fitbit team, please allow users to see Active Minutes. Active Zone Minutes may be helpful, but it is very discouraging, we need the ability to see both, if not the Active Minutes, what we used to see earlier.

[bfox]

First we are forced to accept the arbitrary "sleep score" and now our active minutes are replaced with "zone minutes" with no option to revert.  I'm a cyclist and Fitbit has NEVER been able to properly track heart rate while cycling (and won't accept input from more accurate devices).   So now an hour of cycling doesn't count for anything in my fitbit stats.  Bad sleep tracking, now unreliable activity tracking.  My Versa is two years old now, unless active minutes comes back in 2020 I'm out.

[ngre]

I agree, I'd much rather see active minutes than zone minutes.  I try to go for a ~30-60 min walk or jog every day, but the zone minutes are useless becuase some minutes are tracked with 1x and others are tracked with 2x.

Why remove a perfectly straightforward feature for something more complicated and less useful?

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @EME593, thanks for explaining why you would like to have the option to choose between "Active minutes" or "Active zone minutes". Thanks for sharing your feedback. I've moved it into a similar request.  A lot of users are asking for this option, I hope we receive updates soon.

[Jellybeanqueen7]

Can anyone recommend a device that will track my active minutes?

[zirc21]

I'm also interested in recommendations. My fitbit has basically become an expensive watch at this point. I've been trying to mentally keep track of my activity minutes throughout the day. I'm not hitting my goal every day like I used to.

[Livbridge]

I've had Versa 2 now for just short of a month, trying to get used to the Active Zone Minutes. But I can't. It doesn't make ANY sense. 

I have a strict workout regime where I will try and get x amount of time in per week. But the zone mins are throwing me off massively; a half an hour run has given me 72 zone minutes before - because it factored in my heart rate after the workout and then doubled up the time spent in cardio. I'm now having to do mental maths every time I use my FitBit to calculate each workout properly... You would think a fit watch would cover the basic, bare minimum of workout TIME. It blows my mind that Fitbit decided to delete the most useful feature of its watch. I would rather the Steps were axed to be honest!!

[MinnieStar]

Please allow user choice between the previous Active minutes & the new Zone minutes. I switch my Blaze & my Ionic, mainly because my Ionic does not like to do heart rate sensing but my Blaze is great. I don’t like the Zone. 

thx

[iHiker]

If anyone here is waiting for Fitbit to provide us the option for the useful Active Minutes instead of the useless Zone Minutes, don't hold your breath. I have read some very compelling posts here for providing that option, but it will take a LOT more of us to complain for Fitbit to even consider providing the Active Minutes option. Fitbit is shoving Zone Minutes "down our throats" and adding a totally silly "Get in Your Zone" challenge game. I am a robust 72 year old male with a resting heart rate between 54 and 56 bpm. My Zone Minutes have ranged from just over 800 per week to over 1300. My Active minutes would range from just over 500 to over 800. Doubling my Cardio and Peak minutes is misleading and, as a poster previously mentioned, aren't really "minutes" if they're doubled.

Fortunately for Fitbit they've sold out to Google, if regulators allow the deal to go through. Fitbit is already losing market share and if the Google deal falls apart, the company could shrink into oblivion just like Blackberry. I just spent the past 10 days with the new Apple Watch on one wrist and my Fitbit Versa on the other. The ONLY thing I miss on the Apple Watch is the superior battery life of the Fitbit. I'll get used to it!

[Phoenix211]

Is there an update please on whether the Fitbit app will have a separate tile for Active Minutes and Active Zone Minutes.  For someone like me that uses more than one device, this change has proven troublesome.  Should I use my Blaze or Surge, I don't see any Active Zone Minutes registered as these devices aren't compatible.  It's only when I use my Versa Light that this is acknowledged and I find this rather frustrating.

[SunsetRunner]

I have a Versa 2 which also saw a change from active minutes to Zone Minutes (or Active Zone Minutes). I've gotten used to the new Zone Minutes and at some point, I wasn't missing active minutes that I saw a while back.
That said, there is inconsistency in the tracking, on the watch, the phone app and the dashboard, and the confusion about the data, along with the similar names - active minutes and Active Zone Minutes (or Zone Minutes, used interchangeably) makes it frustrating using Fitbit at all.

As others have mentioned, it would be nice to see both, or choose which one is the main one on our watch, with the other available easily, in the background.
Most of all, it would be a welcome relief to see consistent, hiccup-free data, in both Zone Minutes and active minutes, as well as all other data.

[Kiernla]

I, too, want to see how much time I actually spent moving, rather than a calculated "time" based on achieving certain heart rate ranges. It's asinine that I have to go to the app or website and calculate it back out (missing minutes I moved and didn't hit "fat burn") rather than just seeing it on my tracker. 

[MartijnBen]

I upgraded my Charge 2 to a Charge 4 and i'm very unhappy with the active zones. I'm in a wheelchair and work out 6 days a week on my ergometer, rowing machine and lat pulley. I've been doing this for years now and I want and need to log my activity manually because this is the way to see if I reach my 400 minute goal every week. This is a key motivator for me and this is gone now. My workout today looked like nothing in the new active zones mode and this just sucks. Happy to see i'm not the only one. I will send my Charge 4 back to Amazon and will go back to my Charge 2 till it really gives up. Just add the option for it please!

[Phoenix211]

I think that it would also be a good idea to add both options to the app.
This idea means that you can use older devices and newer versions properly
within the same app.

In Europe there is a requirement to maintain electronic devices for up to
10 years after they're discontinued. By making such a change it seems as if
we're being forced to use only the most recent devices.

[Lovestofly]

Yes please consider this! I’m so upset I recently got a versa two and loved it, stupidly I allowed the update, and now I have these active zone minutes! I hate them. The first couple days I got no minutes even though I was working out, now it’s the opposite. I got 120 active zone minutes yesterday even though my only workout was 30 minutes on my spin bike. Today I have done nothing except walk through the mall to run an errand, and already have over 100 active zone minutes minutes. 

One of my favourite things about my Fitbit, which I’ve been using for seven years, was that it told me exactly how much time I had spent being up and about and active, without having to use timers or anything like that. It was so useful for my daily log, and also a good way to know how long I had spent on a jog, walk through the mall, or bike ride. I have no interest in having extra minutes created because of my high heart rate, which is always high! I’ve been told from the time I was a little girl I have a high heart rate, turns out it’s true! I also tend to be anxious and that rises my heart rate, today I got seven active zone minutes sitting in the car with my teenage daughter driving. 

Please consider going back to active minutes, or at least give users an option

[Lovestofly]

Also, since this change, active minutes are no longer accurate. There are still some clock faces that show them, and you can see them on your dashboard on the website…but they are wildly inaccurate. For example this morning I woke up at 7:45, took a shower, participated in a one hour seated meeting, and went to my kitchen to make a smoothie. I’ve currently got 25 active zone minutes, and 14 active minutes.

I should be logging zero activity for these actions. Based on Fitbit’s new algorithm, I’m almost done my workout for the day!

[Lovestofly]

Yes I wonder if I can still return my versa 2, I’ve had it for two weeks!

I think I would like to find out more about the fossil smart watches and what they track.

I just loved seamlessly tracking how much time in my day I spent active. 

[Lovestofly]

For me it was very recent. I got my versa two under two weeks ago, I believe it was Saturday that I was prompted to update it which I did, I wish I had done more research and realized this would happen. 

[NickyN]

I agree - zone minutes are useless, I want them to reinstate active minutes

[Lovestofly]

This morning I paid close attention to my heart rate and I figured out why I’m getting so many active zone minutes when I’m not active, it’s because besides being based on heart rate, there’s no 10 minute threshold like activity minutes had.

The heart rate only needs to be elevated for one minute to count. Which is ridiculous because with people that have busy daily lives, heart rates go up and down all day with quick short bursts of activity, anxiety, etc.

For example this morning I ran down to the kitchen, was running around the kitchen giving my kids breakfast and making my coffee, and my heart rate went up. When I sat down after only a couple minutes, I had gotten two minutes. I don’t want them, it wasn’t exercise, it was just moving around, but this is what keeps happening to me, and I am ending up with far more active zone minutes than I want, and an inaccurate measure of how much actual fitness enhancing activity I am getting. 

[SunsetRunner]

No Heart Rate when you use the clip!

I can see how Active Zone Minutes is helpful for others, however, for those of us who do not track our heart rate it is disappointing to not see active minutes.

I purchases an Inspire because my One finally died and it was the closest I could find.  Unfortunately the Inspire was lost to me.  Inspire 2 with the clip option was my solution.  Fitbit offers the clip, which is great, in doing this you should know we are not monitoring our heart rates though. 

Need active minutes back.

[Angryupdate]

Was NOT warned of new update that would delete active minutes and turn those into active zone minutes..the calculation is unsafe for elderly as many can't get their target rate that high. It is disheartening and unfair..no warning that this was going to change, would NOT have updated..my whole work program is based on active minutes, not zone.

[NickyN]

I hate active zone minutes, they spoil my enjoyment of my Fitbit, which is now just a watch with a pedometer. Bring back Active minutes - I am motivated by ‘how long I exercise for’ not by a stupid made up number that bears no relation to my actual time spent exercising. I am having to use a stopwatch now to time my activities. I won’t be replacing my Fitbit the next time it breaks down. Does anyone know of an alternative make of watch that does steps, minutes of exercise and distance walked?? FitBit are not interested in having satisfied customers, next thing they will probably take the step counter away!!!!!