Include Manually Added Steps in Leader Board and Challenges

[THitch]

Please make modifications to show the manually added steps in both the Leader Board and the Step Challenges.  While I understand that the change to exclude the manually added steps (implemented this week on the Leader Board but earlier in the Challenges) is related to individuals who cheat the system, the feedback in the Fitbit community seems to suggest that your core and very active customers WANT this feature for valid reasons and are offended that you've put the need to address cheaters above the desires of your committed users.  

As suggested in the community forum posts, if you feel it necessary to differentiate the steps manually entered, this could be accomplished by showing the total steps as the primary total and including the manual steps as a subset of that total (e.g., Rob H. Total 95,993 (12,000 manual).  That will better expose the "small number" of those who are cheating the system.  Seems it would better to cater to the 95% of the users who are doing it right versus the < 5% who are cheating.

My husband and I have been loyal Fitbit customers since January 2014.  We believe in the product and most importantly, the purpose of the product so much so that we have personally purchased or influenced the purchase of Fitbit trackers for 15+ individuals.  Although some of these individuals have come and gone in our Fitbit world, we still have a very competitive and active group of Fitbit friends.  For different reasons (running, using treadmills, elipticals, forgetting to charge the Fitbit, etc.), we often enter a portion of our steps manually.  The inability to see our total steps, whether manual or otherwise, on the Leader Board defeats what I believe to be the purpose of the Leader Board, which is to encourage activity through friendly competition.  

Thank you for your consideration!

[Stallion]

100% agree. Surprising to see how many want this feature and a company that is (was) known for it's custoimer service has gone deaf on this one!!!  The motivation to compete has been eliminated for those of us who excercise on ellipticals, stair masters etc that do not record or fail to record accuratly the steps counts. Please make the change or risk those of us moving to other solutions.

[Iloveboise]

Please put it back the way it was! Leaderboard has been great motivation and I bike commute a lot and would manually track exercise later. Now my tracker is useless.

[SunsetRunner]

Please allow manually entered activities to count toward the leaderboards and challenges. Stop penalizing honest people for the small population of cheaters. You must realize there are any number of ways to cheat other than manually entering an activity? For example, a person could do their own workout, then give their friend their tracker for while their friend goes on a run, and then could do the same again, all in the same day. Human beings are obviously not perfect and sometimes we forget or are unable to wear the tracker for whatever reason. It doesn't mean we didn't put the effort in!! 

[Honestytracker]

I'm extremely disappointed with this change. Please, please include manual steps in the 7 day leader boards. This device is not accurate when running on a treadmill so manually added steps are necessary.

[SunsetRunner]

Good point @SunsetRunner

There are other ways to cheat.. there's no benefits with cheating.. though it may happen.

Wishing a wonderful day

[allan473]

Sounds like a plan. Garmin has some nice watches and trackers.

[JuliaProf]

I know status is "declined", but it would be more reasonable to  include manually added steps in leader board... Reason not clear... 

[JuliaProf]

I wonder if there should be a new thread as the status on this feature request is "declined". 😞

[redwagon]

i agree with everyone on here. i might just have to retire fitbit because of it 😞

please inlcude manual entries in the leaderboard step total. 

[MacP]

FitBit support says, "we know every step counts" - apparently not.  Manually entered steps don't count. That's terrible! This needs to be changed. Many fitbit wearers are snowbound and rely on ellipticals, treadmills, indoor running to stay in shape. I ran 2.5 miles and logged them in on my I-Phone, it gave me credit for 4258 steps. My fitbit synced with my I-Phone and also gave me credit while the fitbit was being charged at home. When I checked my friends page, I did not receive credit for these 4258 steps! Why allow us to log these in if they are not going to be transferred on to the friends page? Fix this FitBit!

[PureEvil]

I confused.  You get credit for the steps on the leaderboard and profile.

Or are you refering to steps in challenges.  Yes, manual steps are not supported there.

[Tymjennings]

I agree. New challenges like eating better, getting more sleep and Fitbit should give insight on how to reach goals or improve. Great ideas you have !

[cpabaraboo]

I'm a bit perplexed by this decision.  I understand the desire to prevent people from cheating in challenges.  However, the 7 day 'leaderboard' tile on my dashboard is not a 'challenge'.  Does Fitbit really think people are cheating just to keep their dashboard 7 day averages high?  Really?  I'd like to see some data to support that.

I work from home and my desk is a treadmill desk.  I walk 10 - 14 miles per day while I work.  I also log my treadmill time religiously.  I work as hard as anyone else for my step counts and I find it demotivating that they are discredited without so much as an explanation.  Status: Declined.  Whatever you say, Fitbit.

Lately I'm tired of looking at my dashboard and seeing the 7 day averages tile being so far from reality.  So, my solution is to remove the tile from my dashboard entirely.  Although, it's a shame because I did like seeing how I compared to my friends and I did find it motivating.

[Barkavious]

I couldn't agree more with everything said here. It is silly to get your weekly report and not have the numbers match up from your weekly total and your leaderboard. Fitbit should record and reflect all steps - not matter how they are entered. I didn't realize it was done to catch cheaters. Who cares? If that makes them feel good about themselves then let them do it. Why should the rest of us who just want accurate numbers have to pay the price for that? Sometimes I forget my Fitbit and enter the number from my iPhone health app. Or, if I go to a gym in a hotel I leave it in my room so I don't lose it and then manually enter steps after using a treadmill. But, now none of that matters. Have had multiple exchanges with customer service about this, but no resolution.

[MLLLLLLLLLL]

Fitbit keeps shutting down this chain, I think they know this was a bad decision.

Sent from my iPhone

[TBug]

Having been a FitBit user for many years, having used 3 differnt types of devices, I am disapointed in this decision. With many of us now using excercise equpiment to get steps (e.g. eliptical or steper) the fact that we can not count these with our peers is odd. A challange is between a group of friends, not a public display to the whole world - why would cheating even be an issue. It seems this decsion is going to get people moving less not more, as the motivation to get steps however posible is lost. The weather in many parts of the world makes it difficault (if not just simply dangerous) to go walking for miles outside.

[JuliaProf]

I really wonder if anyone in the fitbit world actually see these posts. Totally agree with comments!

[JenGregorcy]

This is a great idea, and I'm disappointed that it was rejected. It makes challenges less fun, as you cannot get "credit" for real steps you've taken.

Today, my fitbit did an update (without my prompting and no chance to postpone), and it reset my steps to zero for the day. I lost 6000+ steps I had from my exercise this morning. I manually entered it, but now it doesn't count.

I was under the impression that this site and these challenges were meant to motivate us to better ourselves. I really don't care if someone else cheats... I would like to do my best and have it reflected in my numbers.

FitBit folks, please reconsider your decision. It would be a good gesture toward your users, as many here believe you've made a wrong decision on this idea.

[Langdale]

I am bitterly disappointed that my steps added manually are not included in the friends leaderboard. I am new to fitbit and find that this daily challenge with friends is what motivates me to get out and get moving. Having just returned from a camping trip where my tracker ran out of charge I am truly peeved that now I enter my manual steps they are not reflected in the leaderboard. (I had a separate pedometer, the battery on which by the way lasts for-ev-er! Why have fitbit made this decision for me? Who are they to determine who cheats the system or not and why does it matter to them? I am not a cheat, nor am I friends with anyone who is a cheat. We all know our friends and would quickly spot suspicious activity anyway, I certainly don't need or want the fitbit police on the case. If the fitbit police really deem this necessary then perhaps they might consider having a battery that lasts like a normal one and doesn't need charging every few days, this is insane.

[cpabaraboo]

I have been a loyal FitBit customer since 2014.  Fitbit has replaced my device (free of charge) several times.  If the people who make device support policy decisions were in charge of the user dashboard - I might not be leaving FitBit for Garmin.  I only wish I hadn't convinced my friends and family to pick FitBit - I imagine it will be harder to move them over with me...

[keplix]

it would be nice to fix the pilates exercise to count towards active minutes.  

[vjlynch]

It is clear there is a lot of interest in restoring the ability to include manually added steps in leader boards and challenges (the fact that the inability to do so reverts to the original design, as pointed out by several moderators in other requests for this feature, is an interesting fact but not a justification). While I appreciate it was a reasoned decision that was reached in an attempt to circumvent cheaters, it also has made Fitbit completely accurate and therefor less useful for many of us. For example, when I use my Garmin device to run, transfer the activity with FitDataSync, and wear my Charge HR the rest of the day, the steps included in the leader boards and challenges is just wrong. That makes the entire Fitbit experience quite frustrating, and leads me to not participate in challenges. In fact accidently ran my Charge through the wash a few weeks ago and have yet to purchase a replacement because what’s the point? The step counts in leader boards and challenges are wrong so why continue to use it? 

Thus, I propose a compromise. Allow users to 'opt in/opt out' of including manually added and sync'd steps in  leader boards and challenges. This seems to be a fair compromise with a straight forward software fix: whomever starts a challenge decides whether to allow manually added and sync'd steps (have a little button to click). Have a similar option for leader boards. 

We all appreciate that a few people will try to cheat the system and Fitbit has an obvious interests in stopping them. But we are adults and I personally resent the implication that we cannot be trusted in an essentially no stakes competition with my friends. After all cheaters in this case are literally cheating themselves, but I suspect most people also feel Fitbit is cheating us out of a user-friendly and in the end accurate experience.

Vinny

Moderator Edit: Added Labels

[vjlynch]

It is clear there is a lot of interest in restoring the ability to include manually added steps in leader boards and challenges (the fact that the inability to do so reverts to the original design, as pointed out by several moderators in other requests for this feature, is an interesting fact but not a justification). While I appreciate it was a reasoned decision that was reached in an attempt to circumvent cheaters, it also has made Fitbit completely accurate and therefor less useful for many of us. For example, when I use my Garmin device to run, transfer the activity with FitDataSync, and wear my Charge HR the rest of the day, the steps included in the leader boards and challenges is just wrong. That makes the entire Fitbit experience quite frustrating, and leads me to not participate in challenges. In fact accidently ran my Charge through the wash a few weeks ago and have yet to purchase a replacement because what’s the point? The step counts in leader boards and challenges are wrong so why continue to use it?

Thus, I propose a compromise. Allow users to 'opt in/opt out' of including manually added and sync'd steps in leader boards and challenges. This seems to be a fair compromise with a straight forward software fix: whomever starts a challenge decides whether to allow manually added and sync'd steps (have a little button to click). Have a similar option for leader boards.

We all appreciate that a few people will try to cheat the system and Fitbit has an obvious interests in stopping them. But we are adults and I personally resent the implication that we cannot be trusted in an essentially no stakes competition with my friends. After all cheaters in this case are literally cheating themselves, but I suspect most people also feel Fitbit is cheating us out of a user-friendly and in the end accurate experience.

Vinny

[JuliaProf]

Not sure if anyone from the fitbit design team actually reads this post.  I just wish someone would respond. 

The ones who are not honest about their steps will eventually quit wearing a tracker, my suspicion.

[RachelBall]

I have recently been experiencing some syncing issues where my steps aren't being recorded.  Even when the syncing starts to work again, it will not auto update the steps that have been done over the period where the sync was not working.  For example the other day my sync didn't work for 24 hours so lost over 20k steps.  Whilst I could log these 20k steps manually against that day they didn't count within the 7 day total which is what everyone uses as a competition with their fitbit friends.  Meaning for 7 days my total is incorrect.  Therefore my suggestion is for any manual steps logged to contribute towards this 7 day total. Though this is solved now I think it would be a useful feature for the future for circumstances when syncing isn't working so that individuals don't lose out on their step count.