Finding friends through location or shared fitness goals

[GigiSings]

The only way I'm seeing to 'find friends' is by email address. It would be helpful if I could search for friends that are: within a certain miles (so we could actually meet and get steps together), age, sex, how many pounds they want to lose, etc. 

I was trying to find someone that I know on here and even though we were both members of the fitbit community, the ONLY way was to send her an invite via email. It shouldn't have to be that difficult when we're both already members. 

Moderator Edit: Labels

[SunsetRunner]

Similar to how your friends appear on the right nav bar, is there anyway I can get people in my "Group" to show up - then choose by what metric, eg, steps, distance, etc.

[Maryruth]

Yes--I'm having an ongoing conversation with someone who we've struck up a friendship--but there is apparently no way to simply send her a friend invite?  Am I missing something?

[Valerie_B]

I may be dense.  But it would be great if it were easier to find other members in order to send a friend request.  It seems the tabs that are mentioned to get me there are non existent.  Or is this a premium function only?  Perhaps making it doable under find friends in addition to Facebook and email?  Thanks

[Lands]

Been trying for weeks just to get my wife and I to become friends, we send email requests back and forth, no way to actually accept as far as we can see?

[srudis25]

Running across the same issue!  Would like to add friends that use myfitnesspal to my fitbit friend list but seem to be unable to do this unless I have their email address or am friends with on facebook!  Very frustrating!

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[Rosedale]

Or at least a link to my groups page would be great with my rank for each on on the tile!

[jdoboski]

It would be great when using Find Friends on a mobile device, if it included the person's email address.  I see a name but have no idea who I'm sending a request to because I can't see a last name or email address.  So I really can't identify the person.

[dietcoke68]

can we have the option to have a tile for each of our groups with rankings on them please...

[SuchCoolBrandon]

This would be great. I'm in an activity group with several of my coworkers. I don't want to friend all of them, but I would love to see on the dashboard screen how I compare to them.

[Simco]

please make it clearer for newbies to fitbit. Your boards/and email support when asked directly suggest the only way to find friends is by starting with our own address book or facebook.  If none of your friends have fitbits, or it you do not use facebook (yes, there are still people out there who do not), there is another way that you do not mention.  Join a group in the fitbit community.  Then you have access to individually invite those fitbit users to be your friends so that you can then use the challenges.

[DerrickS]

I really like the idea of being able to filter your friend search by factors such as age or fitness goals. Also, users should be able to search for their friends through their phone contacts and through Facebook, but I will be sure to pass on your request for consideration. Thanks for sharing your request on the Community.

[PaigeF]

I have recently bought my FitBit Charge and I really like it so far. However, I have had a hard time finding friends to add to my app. I do not use Facebook, and I wouldn't want to use it just for my FitBit, and I also know hardly anyone's email address anymore. And even if I did know their email address, I wouldn't know for sure if they had a FitBit or not. So because of this, I have been able to add only one friend to my app and only because she told me she had a Fitbit by a random chance.

I think it would be very interesting to be able to search for people:

(1) via phone number (since that's the only contact information I usually have)

(2) near my location or within a certain city, zip code, community, etc. (like people who go to or graduated from the same university)

(3) who are trying to achieve the same longterm goal. (like a certain amount of weight loss, weight maintenance, training for a marathon, steps taken, miles ran, etc.)

(4) any other way that could allow me to meet new people and start interacting with them and motivating each other.

The social part of the app was the thing that surprised me the most when I began using it. The first challenge I did pushed me to go further and longer than I have in a very long time. I enjoyed getting to cheer on everyone, and getting their encouragement was very meaningful. I think that being able to interact with other people, especially those who I already know but don't know their email, and those who are trying to reach a similar goal, would keep me motivated and get that healthy competition in me.

[jennam44]

I would love to see an option to add new friends.. people who are not affiliated with my Facebook account or in my Contact list. Making new friends is always fun 🙂

[RoyM]

I was thinking, it would be a cool concept of you could implement a "add nearby" friends option. It could open up people to while new Fitbit community and I think it would be ideal for students living on campus and generally just people who need more friends. I just thought it would be, because the more friends, the more competition and challenges!

- from Fitbit user Rui Monteiro

[davidalary]

You need to add the option to find friends by city, region, sector...This kind of function access to find somes new friends near of us.

[Gsnthensome]

For those of us who have few friends on Fitbit that know personally, can we please have a search that we can specify state, city, age group and gender??? And it brings up everyone on the site that's not set to private? That way we can meet friends here and then actually meet up for a run or something!! Pretty sure most of us would use this if it was available!

[Kelsey5093]

I think it would be a lot easier to add your friends if you could type in a certain location. So that way you don't need their email you can just type in the city and state.

[Shell-Mel]

I like your idea. I just want to expand on it. 

We have the links to our dashboard, log, community (where we can go to look at our groups individually).

I think there should be an option to view all your groups on the one page. Just the ranking graphics to get a quick glance of how you are doing in each of the groups without going into the different pages. I'm in a few groups, but sometimes you don't have time to look at the individual group sites when you just need that snapshot for motivation.

[azi371]

To expand on Fitbit local, it would be helpful to have an option to find people in the area who are looking for someone to work out with. Having a workout partner is a great way to meet new people and helps motivate you during your training.

Moderator Edit: Labels

[chungj28]

It would be nice to be able to suggest friends to people we are already friends with (like Facebook has that feature).

i have friends that I am friends with but are not friends with each other. I would like to suggest those friends to each other so that they can be friends on Fitbit... but not having that option is stupid. There is a remove and block option.:.

[clumsypanda]

I was really annoyed to find out that you have to have someone's email address to add them on fitbit.  That is archaic.  Every other app I have ever used in my LIFE is able to find friends in my phone's contact list by phone number.  I have over 150 contacts in my phone, and 4 of them have email addresses.  The whole reason I wanted a fitbit was so I could add my friends and do all these challenges and fun things.  You should be able to access your full contact list and add people from there with only their phone number.

[ksam550]

How about being able to Add friends by City/Town, Country, GOALS etc...this will greatly help in stepping out from the Virtual world and being able to achieve it together with a Walking/Gym/Workout buddy...

[ksam550]

Also, it could have the feature of searching Nearby Fitbit Users...since quite a few people are using the watches these days. A friend request option could be created if they don't accept its fine but it would be helpful in working out together.

[ksam550]

And please reduce the Distance limit from 50 kms to 5 kms...

[ksam550]

Please make it a City/Town mandatory field when entering the profile that would show on the User Profile. I have personally ended up adding users from Australia while living in Canada.