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.

[Joggingon]

I'm approaching 70 years old and would appreciate an alert when I hit my maximum heart rate, or within 5% or so of reaching it.  Then I would know I should back off a little bit.

[Charles_Gardner]

so here is what I see as the reasons for stalling by FitBit folks.   1)  CPU (on the watch) not strong enough to handle the cycles required to constantly report HeartRate once it reaches any of the warning levels on top of other things already implemented.   It would have to cycle (via a scheduler) every minute or two once a wearer is in one of the warning zones.  So we would have to agree on a cycle timing such as once in the warning zones look every 1 maybe 3 minutes and warn again.  At the highest warning level every 30 seconds.  But within a normal rate just when you report miles and speed numbers.  Trying to prevent draining smart phone or watch batteries.

2)  Not enough execution memory space (on the watch) to allow a full integer (32 bits) to hold 2 to 3 values.  Binary values for flagging purposes may solve that and let our "smart phones" figure out the urgency of the heart rate value.   "0000" & "0001" etc.  That value passed to the phones to do the processing rather than the watch.

3) warning coming too slow to prevent someone like me (as an example) from dropping dead on the trail or running path.  Perhaps some liability issues which could be solved by disclaimer.  Careful not to make over blown claims about saving lives.

Clearly I have no knowledge of the code or hardware but these might be their considerations.   But still needs to happen.   Its a "look will we let you know about your heart rate as best we can and as soon as we can, but we cant say that in all circumstances it will be soon enough"

[mthughes]

Which may or may not be the case... either way, other companies have successfully implemented it in their products... which leaves me with the logical conclusion that Fitbit doesn’t give a $&@?!

[Baldrunningman]

Hi Charles. Thank you for the info.
But, and it is a very big but, other brands have been able to do it in a number of devices eg Garmin.
And what really upsets me is that they have made no effort.
Regards
Stephen


Sent from my iPhone

[Slowlydoesit]

@mthughes i was thinking along the same lines. 

Except we’ve previously been very clear on this thread that:

• we don’t care if it screws the battery life
• as a stop gap, adding the alarm to the iPhone app would be fine, and that’s already displaying my live heart rate

It is infuriating that while I’ve been waiting for this feature they have had time to break the graphs in the app for my purposes by adjusting the scale between days, without locking it to 10bpm chunks. That makes it impossible to quickly compare my heart rate graphs between days because the scales are different.

I’m a software developer. It recently took me a day to add a similar-sized feature to an existing iPhone app, having never worked on a mobile app before.

Given that there are other features being shipped to the app I can’t see any reason this hasn’t been built except really poor product management decisions.

[CaseyNeistat]

It seems like it would be very easy to add a heart rate alert feature and I am wondering why FitBit will not do it? This was a suggestion 2.5 years ago with 1000s of comments and 5000+ upvotes. 

Not only would it be great for runners to know when they are in a target zone, I also think it would be invaluable for professionals (of all sorts) to be able to set an alert when you deviate "x" beats away from your average resting BPM. For example, when I played college football we would sometimes have heart monitors applied where the whole goal was to workout as hard as possible while staying UNDER a particular heart rate. This was very difficult and resulted in some amazing conditioning workouts.

Alternatively, lets say you work in a high pressure situation, like someone who gives speeches or perhaps someone who trades stocks. It would be great to be alerted when their heart rate rises so they can use their awareness to stay calm.

For myself, and clearly from the various posts on the internet this would be a fantastic feature for many users. It also seems as though for most fitbit devices this could be done simply through a firmware update, it only needs to trigger the silent alarm feature when heart rate achieves a selected level, in the software it would be just an if-then line of code. I don't see why they wont do it.

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @CaseyNeistat, thanks for explaining why you would like to have this option. I've moved it into a similar suggestion which has been updated as "Under Consideration". You can learn more about here. Keep adding your suggestions!

[Charles_Gardner]

I agree with that. But those were just possibilities. In Case they are
listening I’d get a new one even though my charge 2 is working just fine if
that feature was in it.
--
Thanks, Charles

[JVSM]

Any updates on the potential of adding this feature

[Baldrunningman]

JVSM

I'm like you - I am waiting for the team at Fitbit to fix this long
standing issue. Hopeless is the word I am thinking of in regards to
Fitbit. I have had my Ionic for nearly 2 years, just three weeks short,
and so many people have added their thoughts and comments to my original
complaint. Fortunately i have a second hand Garmin - Garmin for running
stats, Fitbit for all day stats!

Regards

Baldman

[Nicola_grec]

Hey fitbit , can you make a feature for locking a heartrate zone , so that it vibrates when I go lower or higher , if I run I will stay in the fat burning zone or other zone .

[DavideFitbit]

Hi @Nicola_grec, thanks for taking the time to share your feedback with us about the possibility to lock a heart rate zone or to have a vibration/alarm when reaching a certain heart rate zone, this feature suggestion already exists so I’ve moved your post here as it currently has "Under Consideration" status. 

Keep sharing your ideas with us.  

[DaveBorlase]

I had a massive heart attack last year and try various exercises to see which keeps my heart rate below the recommended 120 beats per minute,  but there is no time of day shown on the dashboard, so although I can see the heart beat,  I  have no idea at what time this occurred.  If the 24 hour clock was shown above the HR,  I would know which exercise was most beneficial. 

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @DaveBorlase, thanks for explaining why you would like to have this option to check that information. I'd consider checking with our support team so they can double check the information from their end. Have you checked this post? It might help you. I've moved it into a similar suggestion which has been updated as "Under Consideration". You can learn more about here. Keep adding your suggestions!

[ecrab7]

Well said.  I am in the cardiovascular group and getting back into shape to finish hiking the AT after a heart valve replacement surgery.  Today is the first really vigorous day hike I've done so far and during the hike certainly could have used this option. I like my Fitbit 3 but certainly would upgrade if this option came out on another model.

[GeorgieSnow]

It wouldn¹t be an upgrade. It¹s perfectly operational software that exists
and was standard on all exercise tracking until a few months ago when Fitbit
suddenly removed it for reasons known only to them and at the detriment of
their customers. Now I get a heart rate report on long walks I don¹t set to
be tracked ­ the report just appears. But it¹s a shortened report again ­
while it has a heart rate readout and tells me how long I walked, it doesn¹t
tell me the distance I walked or a per kilometre pace, so again it¹s only
reporting half the story. The Fitbit customer care factor is minimal at the
moment.

[Charles_Gardner]

You would think some in their software development group is trying to kill
off FitBit


--
Thanks, Charles

[Runner0001]

I'm a "get rid of sleep rating" supporter and was curious what other issues are "under consideration". I found this, something that would take a developer thirty minutes to do in a firmware update and it's been going on for five years. Five years? 

I have a Charge 2 and when I put it in run mode it doesn't even show my heartrate. Maybe I could tap the screen but I'm not talented enough to do that and not fall in the crappy dilapidated potholed streets I'm forced to run on without falling and breaking something. However when I get near my max rate it does start displaying my heartrate at the top instead of my miles traveled. I kinda assumed that was a safety feature or some such. It seems to me if it can do that, having it vibrate wouldn't be that much more difficult. Five years? Unbelievable.

[Runner0001]

I didn't know you can pay for a future tailor to you’re feedback. That changes everything. Thanks for the input.

[ArtemusReturns]

lol. I love the way I accepted the Ts&Cs for commenting and immediately left this forum and was shot over to a product sales screen. Nice move.

In any case, I'm interested in upgrading my fitbit and looked at a number of them at local department stores today. I'm not going to buy another fitbit brand device. And, I'm not going to buy it because, in large measure, I want a heart rate feature such as we keep keening about, for years now as one poster said.  It's going to be bye-bye fitbit (as a company) for me soon. I fully agree, if you don't like being ignored and the features don't suit--buy elsewhere.

[Spiyda]

Yep,

same here..  I've already discarded my aria for much cheaper and far more reliable scales.

The same is true of the three charge 3's I've bought. Charge 3, The standard wristband caused an allergic reaction onmy daughter and we had to but a chinese wristband to enable her to wear it.

My Charge 3 has had to be rebooted a couple of times.

I bought fitbit products and joined the community thinking that they were a market leader and would produce a quality product, be receptive and forward looking.

History has proven me wrong.The Charge HR straps fell to bits in months. The Aria proved even less reliable suffering from broken plastic parts that made the readings uselessly inconsistent. The Charge 3 is as little better but lacking in major funtionality that we are no longer allowed to suggest.

All development effort goes into new products leaving the existing user base feeling abandoned and unsupported.

Not being allowed to suggest improvements of features as part of the terms and conditions of the community is ridiculous.

Once a company becomes inward looking and unresponsive to critisism or suggestions, you know its on the downward spiral.

Shares are near their all time low with a bleak financial outlook.

If I were a fitbit moderator, I'd be dusting off my CV and looking for alternative employment.

I suppose the possibility exists that someone might buy the company, so hang in there guys, there may still be a job in the future !

[JRxxx]

I was tired of waiting and bought myself another sportwatch.

[GeorgieSnow]

Clearly they¹re not going to do it. I only joined this forum 18 months ago
and I¹m sure this issue is dead to Fitbit. Trouble is I have bought a Garmin
with the heart rate zones warning feature during exercise. The device is
very unreliable on several features and especially so when monitoring my
heart rate. I¹ve been on an ECG machine and compared. The Fitbit is way more
accurate. Sometimes the Garmin tells me I was running with a heart rate of
200bpm. I know that can¹t be true for many reasons ­ most of all my
pacemaker is monitored remotely and no such heart rate, or anything close,
ever happened. In short I¹m disillusioned with the whole industry of
exercise monitoring and tracking. There are way more claims than reality.
Buyer beware.

[DaveBorlase]

Unfortunately there seems to be no response from the company on any issues..

[ylvare]

Please keep me posted if this is enabled.