Heart rate zones alert feature

[kingtut1975]

 Many fitness enthusiasts and individuals of whom base their workouts on target heart rate zones would really appreciate a heart rate alert feature implemented into the new Fitbit Ionic as well -if possible ALL Fitbit watches. This feature would allow a Fitbit user to manually set their Fitbit watch to alert the user once their targeted maximum and minimum heart rate has been achieved while performing a workout. Â The watch would vibrate on the user's wrist alerting the user when their selected heart rate has been accomplished or met allowing the user to more cater their workouts to stay within a selected threshold. Â Implementing this feature will also serve well as a safety feature which can alert the user when their calculated heartrate is dangerously high or above the maximum threshold that they set enabling the user to adjust their workout accordingly. Â Some Fitbit users I can imagine and many other individuals have cardiovascular/heart related issues which prevent them engaging in a workout that is too intense therefore a heart rate alert feature implemented into the new Fitbit Ionic would make the watch more marketable to the present customer base, a broader audience of fitness enthusiasts, and desirable to a whole new market of individuals of whom have cardiovascular/heart issues and will really appreciate a heartrate alert feature implemented into their fitness/activity trackers. Overall, implementing this feature will likely increase popularity of the watch, increase revenue, and appeal to a wider range of individuals that are taking steps to improve their health through daily workouts but are limited to what they can do due to cardiovascular/heart concerns. Â Implementing this feature can likely be as simple as have software engineering add it to a software/firmware update which will allow it to perform identical to the silent/vibrating alarm feature already included in most Fitbit watches anyhow.

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity, format & labels.

[AlexandraFitbit]

Hi @rlosure! Thanks for your reply and for trying what I suggested, can you explain then what it's your suggestion about? 

[rlosure]

Yes I can do that. This suggestion is very personal to me, and could possibly save lives. My mom just passed away October 20th. She had went 4 days without being heard from. We were confused to what happened, but she was wearing her Fitbit when she was found. (Sorry if this is tmi or inappropriate) She had been healthy, was young, and this was a complete shock. I wanted to see what happened so I got on her Fitbit account. I noticed the last day of activity was October 17th. It said she had only walked 35 steps that day, but it logged over 200 active minutes and over 1000 calories burned. I believe it recorded an incredibly high HR which accounts for the calories burned. This got me thinking about how we could've helped her. What if Fitbit had a feature that sends an alert when the HR gets too high or too low? Fitbit is notified, a message is sent to the user and if they dont respond authorities are notified to send help. GPS can calculate where the Fitbit is to know where to send help. Your phone number can be registered with your Fitbit account so there can be multiple ways to contact the person who owns the Fitbit to avoid accidental medical responses. They can be called, text, emailed, an in app notification, and it going straight to the Fitbit.

[rlosure]

Sorry @AlexandraFitbit I wasnt sure if I needed to tag you for you to see this. I'm new to all of this. I usually read posts but dont usually comment. 

[danielhodges]

Heart rate alarm would be sooooo useful for aerobic training. +1

[Slowlydoesit]

While your team are considering this feature, we keep losing chunks of our lives. I don’t know what your priorisation system looks like but I can’t imagine many features represent as much social good as this one. 

I bought a FitBit when I first got sick with ME and it was very useful when my whole life revolved around recovery, because I was constantly checking it. It was also useful in confirming that yes, controlling my heart rate was important. 

Now I’ve recovered a little, I’m back working part time and doing what I can to look after my kids. It’s impossible to remember to look at my wrist every 10 minutes. 

Currently my Alta HR provides a great chart that I can look at while I’m stuck in bed to explain exactly how i managed to screw myself up again.

Caveat emptor- we should have checked better before we purchased. But we’re all struggling just to get ourselves showered and fed. Poring over spec sheets isn’t something we do, especially when it’s a feature you just sort of assume a heart rate tracker is going to have.

I can only work part time. shelling out for another heart rate tracker hurts, and feels wasteful when I already have the right hardware on my wrist. 

To explain the slight sense of desperation in this thread, this is why we all need the feature so badly:

https://www.healthrising.org/blog/2018/11/15/anaerobic-thresholds-fatty-acid-problems-and-autophagy-...

“My resting heart rate was high (89 beats per minute (bpm)) and could have resulted from pre-test jitters.  My heart rate at anaerobic threshold – the point at which most of my energy is being produced anaerobically – was a mere 98 bpm. That suggested, if the resting heart rate was correct, that I had a quite small activity window before my system spiraled into anaerobic energy production causing me fatigue and pain.”

To be clear, this isn’t deconditioning. Crazy stuff happens to us the day after we’ve gone anaerobic:

https://www.healthrising.org/blog/2018/11/19/workwell-cpet-deconditioning-dilemma-chronic-fatigue-sy...

Because the payback is delayed, and you can’t always sense when you’re over-exerting, heart rate tracking is the only way I’ve found to stay reasonably active whilst not hitting the wall. 

[ArtemusReturns]

It is really unbelievable with with all the fairly useless vibrating alarms there is nothing on the Alta HR to monitor maximum HR, which for me is a must have alarm. At 68, I need to know when my heart rate is getting into the danger zone from exercise and that 120 bpm is the max and I need to rest. A "MUST HAVE" feature for this device. Thank you.

[Ganeshcbhanage]

I got 1 Fitbit verse for myself, and 2 Fitbit charge3 for my dad and my in law. I bought it assuming that it would alert them of their high heart rates, if any.. this would help them to mitigate high heart rates, when it still could be handled..but after these purchase I am reading that this feature is not there. That’s a bummer.. Humble request->do consider this feature..it would save lives I believe

[ArtemusReturns]

This is in theory soooo simple. All the components already exist, just re-rout one. Unhook one of those "cute little" notifications that mean so little and rewire it to the heart rate scale max side to vibrate the watch if you hit the max. They could code this in less than a week. Test it for a few weeks on various products and wa-la. Piece of cake.

[Jgkolt]

As we exercise the wrist based heart rate becomes less accurate. Even though there has been high interest in this request there must be strong reasons why we feel ignored .One may be because of the accuracy when exercising .the second is if there is a concern this could be construed as a medical device which may require other more expensive and time consuming work .

[ArtemusReturns]

@Jgkolt.  Understood and agreed as the "medical device" concept. I'd shy away from that too. Tagging a vibrating alert to a number the user sets in the heart rate range area, and a disclaimer that this is a fitness device, not a medical device, should keep the company out of harm's way.

I'm not sure where you get the data from that the device is less accurate as heart rate increases. That seems an odd concept given the device is worn on the wrist near the pulse, and the pulse is an extremely dependable indicator of heart rate. But, of course, a person has to wear it correctly and follow the instructions on placement to get any accuracy at any heart rate. Can you elaborate on that comment a bit more, your source, expertise, etc.? I'm not suggesting it isn't so, I'm just trying to calibrate the statement for my own use. Thank you!

[Slowlydoesit]

@Jgkolt Other devices have sorted the medico-legal side out and added the feature. It’s not marketed as a medical device and it doesn’t claim any particular accuracy.

[Jgkolt]

@ArtemusReturns I would also wish they would add this feature and asked for it a long time ago.  I am not an expert in this field but just a customer who had to return his Fitbit for a Garmin to have this feature. I like the devices but it is missing this key feature. I have read many articles over the years where they talk about how the accuracy of wrist based hr devices are less accurate than ekg or chest straps.  Below are are articles I googled that talk about them being between 6-9 bpm in one article and 27-29bpm in another article.

https://www.livescience.com/56459-fitness-tracker-heart-rate-monitors-accuracy.html

https://www.acc.org/about-acc/press-releases/2017/03/08/14/02/wrist-worn-heart-rate-monitors-less-ac...

https://www.businessinsider.com/heart-rate-trackers-are-less-accurate-when-you-exercise-apple-watch-...

@Slowlydoesit My point as we speculate why this has not been completed when there seems like there is a strong community request for this feature must be something bigger. It may not be marketed as a medical device but a lot of the requests are to use this device because of a medical condition.

Either way, I hope they chime in on either a plan for this feature to be added natively or why this option is not on the short-term roadmap.

[ArtemusReturns]

@Jgkolt. Thank you! I was just trying to fill out the assertion with some detail. I appreciate the feedback.

[seadreaming]

I would just like to add I tried a third party app.  It seemed to work but I couldn't look at any other screens (workout length, calories expended etc.) while I used it.  I found that frustrating.  Still hoping fitbit adds it to its next update!

[alex-w]

It would be great if the Heart Rate icon on the Ionic showed different symbols signalling the various heart zones.   The circular symbol is not really useful.

For example the Polar watches have three symbols that show up around the pulsing heart.  So you can see at a glance where you are at.  Additionally you can set up alarms to alert you when you have moved up or down a zone.   

This should be an easy task for the FitBit development team.

Suggesting to use other apps is not helpful in most cases because it is unnecessarily time consuming and often not practical if you want to use the excellent FitBit own exercise App.

[arsabah]

@YojanaFitbit

It has been a year since this post was created and it has gotten almost 5 thousand up votes. Could you explain more in depth what the process is that this issue has not be resolved? From the outside it seems like a simple software patch, but clearly it is not if it is in such high demand without a current resolution. 

I would like to understand the issue, as I really do not want to have to buy an alternate mental health device to replace my fitbit, as I would be driven insane by wearing both. 

[kielym]

As an Ionic owner and runner, I would love heart rate zone alarms. 

[kielym]

As an Ionic owner and runner, I would appreciate this feature quite a lot. My TomTom Spark 3 had it before its battery died. I miss it a lot.

[MrsGeoK]

At this stage in my life, I'm not that concerned about the "heart rate too high" alert that is one of the common requests in this thread. I'm more looking to know that I've racked up at least 150 minutes in cardio/peak zones over the course of a week - the minimum recommended adult activity level recommended in Canada. Ideally, however this is (eventually) implemented, it will allow users to customize their heart rate related activity goals AND set customized heart rate alerts.

[CapeWkEnd]

As we rely upon our FitBits for more each day, are you considering developing an enhanced heart rate monitoring app so that we can detect and be alerted to sudden & unexpected heart rate increases as well as possible AFib?  Currently I can see summary of heart rate increases, but the ability to also download this in more detail & share with a doctor would be a fantastic addition!

[yavigol]

Actually the heart-rate zone based alarm is one of key features, I expected Versa to have.  Unfortunately such a basic training feature is not available.  I am VERY disappointed especially given that (1) Versa is positioned as an advanced fitness tracking device and (2) the feature technically should be not that difficult to implement.

[hazbot]

This is the reason I bought a Fitbit, I'd hoped/assumed it already had this feature. As someone with cardiomyopathy I have been reccomended by my doctor not to exceed a specific bpm in day-to-day life, and this would therefore be a lifechanging feature for people like me.

[Mecfs]

It’s looking increasingly like there will be no movement on this issue. I’m
seriously considering swapping to another make if it does not appear by the
start of new year.

[shopper159]

I would to see an ekg feature. 

[SunsetRunner]

I would really appreciate this feature.