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!

[gailfit]

I agree with your comments. I have always been aware of the limitations like not measuring weight training and Barre work as well as the treadmill inaccuracy. I was told by fitbit support to put in my waist band! That is the reason I switched to manual. I try to use treadmill on weekends when I have the time for a hard 5 mile workout. I notified friends that I am searching for another workout tool

[Debvurlis]

Well Fitbit should understand the repercussions of what they've done. In the end it will be their choice whether or not to fix this. It will also be our choice to switch to another brand of tracker.

[cracker55]

I posted earlier and have enjoyed reading the following comments after me.  I have been emailing back and forth with Fitbit as well in the hopes of them hearing me.  Unfortunately the responses I have received are all going back to the challenges portion of the system.  For me, the challenges are time consuming and take time to get invites, but my friends are my friends and it's fun to compete on a simple level.  I don't get why they have made this change and furthermore why they can't make it an option to be able to toggle on/off when you set up your fitbit.  I just ran 4 miles the other day on the treadmill and my surge registered 5000 steps... That would mean that each of my steps would be approximately 4 feet.  Considering I am only 5'10 I would almost have to do running lunges...  So, how can I fix it?  I can't now... and am stuck knowing that my steps are wrong compared to what I really did.  I have fiddled with the settings on my stride length as well in the hopes of cheating their system since they won't let us be honest with our manual entry and that doesn't work.  This could be the end to my 2.5 year relationship with fitbit.

[Mcore]

Hello @THitch! I want to start off by appreciating your loyalty to Fitbit and having faith in our products. I'm very happy that you and your husband are enjoying this awesome experience and that you are very interested in helping us improve features that are currently available to Fitbit users.

Let me say that you do have a valid point. Thank you for taking some minutes of your day to address this since I see, from the amount of votes your request has received, that other users are definitely interested in this option to be available in Fitbit Challenges. I believe that only steps from your tracker count towards challenges because it's best to get all the steps tracked from the same source and under the same terms to keep the challenges as fair as possible, however, your proposal makes a lot of sense and it can be taken into consideration. Hopefully with the support your post has received, it can be implemented in the near future.

If you have any other ideas or requests, please keep on sharing them or vote for the ones you like. I wish you both the best!

[cracker55]

@Mcore, I am curious as to what level of connectivity you have with the app developers or whoever can make this change.  I read your post and immediately said, "yay, it's going to be changed back in one way or another in the near future".  However, as I read it again I realize I may be reading it wrong.  The word that you use, "Hopefully", scares me in this situation.  I feel that even though we are gaining traction and would like to see some change ASAP, the word hopefully leads me to believe that there is disconnect between your review and the developers review.  How is it possible to get this escalated and switched.  As noted above not just from me but from others as well, I am really on the verge of switching away from FitBit and I have been one of your loyal followers and even "marketers" to my town telling anyone that asks me about how great your product is along with how great customer service is.  

While I agree that Customer Support is amazing and wouldn't want to change a thing about it, I am concerned that this side of the company (Developers and Reviewers) don't see the same VALUE in the company's philosophy of pleasing the customer, and in this case followers of a product.  We all can attest that FitBit has now become an app on the phone that most likely is on the first screen, but also as necessary to check on a daily basis as Facebook or Twitter or other social avenues.  But, lately that challenge isn't there.  It's ironic that you change the Challenges to reflect better to help avoid the cheaters, but in turn you have lost the personal drive from me to Challenge myself to win at my steps.  Go back from day 1 of my fitbit dashboard... I have consistently been 1 or 2 on my list... To wake up the other day and be 4 or 5 and more importantly KNOW that it was a change such as this really makes a difference in my motivation for the day.

[ktousi]

Not just challenges but leader board as well!

[JSnyder]

I understand the reasoning behind your decision to remove manually entered data from the "friends" calculation but do not agree this change.  As the manually entered data will no longer be available as motivation for the rest of the family, I have no reason to continue using the FitBit product.  While I prefer your product, bsed on this change I will go back to my Garmin which allow me to coordinate the GPS from my bike with my fitness monitor.   

[Debvurlis]

I really hope Fitbit really takes a hard look at this. They stand to lose a lot of customers and gain a lot of bad press. Sent from my iPhone

[Mcphee90]

This is a great idea for when Fitbit dies during the day as its faulty or when Fitbit can't be used in water activities

[Slchipman]

I have spent a lot of time on chat and emails with customer support trying to solve this issue caused by the app update. I do not like the new updates features and want to revert back but can't. I object to the leaderboard changes. I can walk and run in the pool for a few hours each day and count my steps. Big I wear my Fitbit in the water, it only records every fourth step on average. Do I manually enter these steps and they are not cheating. They are actual steps. I cannot walk 25k steps a day on concrete or my knee is in so much pain that I can't sleep for days. Please put back the tracking for is so we can manually track activities and have them count on the leaderboard. If some are cheating, so what. Those of us that do it accurately are benefiting from our exercise and bring motivated to keep it up. I have been really unmotivated since thus change. Why use a Fitbit if it won't keep proper track???? I want it fixed ASAP before a lot of us quit wearing our bands. And why can't customer service becawarevif this issue rather than acting as if it doesn't exist? They still can't tell me this. Maybe they need to read these boards. Please put it back the way it was!

[Debvurlis]

It just seems they don't care. Some customer service. I'm done. Sent from my iPhone

[MLLLLLLLLLL]

Fitbit needs to count manually inputted steps or offer refunds to all those that joined to compete with friends.

I understand that the technology is not yet good enough to track steps on a treadmill but manually logging steps offers a solution where the technology lags. I ran on the treadmill three times this week so far (Mon, Tues and Wed) and Fitbit under counted my steps by 0.5 mile, 1.5 miles and 0.7 mile, this isn't a hypothetical, this happened three days in a row.

If people have "friends" in their Community that cheat, that is their problem, why make everyone else who uses the Community as a challenge to stay in shape have their efforts misrepresented. The easiest solution is to report two numbers, one with and one without manually lagged numbers, that way if there is someone questionable in your group, you can discount their numbers but don't penalize the honest people.

I fear this is more of Fitbit trying to now allow other gadgets to be used and reported to the community. I hope that's not the case but if it is, why would Fitbit care because people have to own a Fitbit to be part of the community (ie Fitbit got paid).

Fitbit should either offer a refund, fix the issue with recording treadmill steps or revert back to allowing people to manually enter treadmill runs that count towards the community leader numbers.

[jja262]

I have been following this forum closely as I am as disturbed as anyone regarding this most recent change to the leaderboard.  Based on everyone's comments it raises two interesting points for me -

1.  Who is cheating whom?  Fitbit has made themselves the moral police and yet they are cheating 1,000's of loyal users out of steps by not allowing manual steps to count, for not only the leaderboard but for challenges as well.

2.  Why won't Fitbit do what THitch suggested, by showing on the leaderboard actual steps and the number of those steps that were manually posted?  I would posture that it is because it would show how inaccurate the Fitbit is in recording actual steps and Fitbit would be afraid of how their competition would use that information.

The bottom line is, they should have left well enough alone.  The Fitbit is not a health device or else it would be being regulated and monitored by the FDA and need to go all sorts of additional approvals.  It is a wearable fitness device whose primary goal should be to get people to be engaged in Fitness.  This latest move does just the opposite - it has a chilling effect on those of us who enjoyed competing with family and friends on the leaderboard knowing full well we all engage in different fitness activities in order to stay fit.  Let's face it, Fitbit is trying to take the fun out of fitness.   

Like everyone who has responded, very disappointed with big brother Fitbit. 

[Doon]

I agree 100%.  Pleas srtongly consider the suggestion of showing manually entered steps as a subset of total steps on the leader board.

[tajenner]

I would agree that these manually added activities need to be added back to the 7 step totals.  If anyone is being cheated, it is the fitbit users that can't rely on the accuracy of the tracker when running/walking on treadmills.  I personally don't use this feature to compete against others, i use it as a benchmark to make sure i keep my average consistent.  If others are cheating the system to jump to the top of the leaderboard, then that is something they and their conscience can live with.  They are only cheating themselves and fooling nobody.  Please bring this back for users that purchased the fitbit for personal motivation to stay healthy.

[Doon]

Amen to that. 

Moderator edit: Removed personal information.

[jja262]

Just another example of why manually added steps should be included on the Leaderboard.  Today I ran on the treadmill for 5.10 miles.  My fitbit HR recorded that I ran only 4.72 miles.  I don't know about you, but .40 of a mile is important to me and adds up over the course of a week.  If the Fitbit were 99% accurate I could understand the decision to not include manually added steps, but it isn't nor has it been marketed to be. 

[DavidLWhite]

Totally Agree - Manual Steps should be included ! FitBit will lose customers if they keep making changes without consulting their users.

[SunsetRunner]

Dear Fitbit,  congratulations on alienating your loyal customers, accusing us of all being cheaters and making your product irrelevant to me now by your decision to eliminate the ability to manually input steps.  You have turned your product into just “another” tracker on the market where brand loyalty is meaningless.   

Interesting statistic recently read is that 40% of new wearables users stop using their device in 6 month.   You would think with such a horrific attrition rate your product management team would make decisions that didn’t alienate your loyal users.  The past 2 weeks have been like going thru withdraw or suffering thru a bad breakup.  I used to watch numbers throughout the day, strike up conversation with fellow users at my gym, talk about it in meetings and other social environments but now I curse your product. Your product used to be something that was part of my daily life for 2.5 yrs now it’s irrelevant to me.  

You would think that folks at fitbit would know that cheaters are lazy and after a week or two will grow tired of even entering in bogus numbers as its too much work.   I’ve been linked to several competitions outside fitbit for over 2 yrs and see them come and go.  Its obvious who the cheaters are because unless they strap the device to a crazed monkey there’s no way to pull the numbers I saw yet I didn’t care as a majority of competitors were honest and enjoyed being motivated each week.  

Lets keep things all in prospective too NO ONE is winning an Olympic metal or getting a sneaker endorsement contract because they won a weekly step competition. 

Although you don’t have 100’s of post on subject I can tell you from going to my gym 6 days a week that I’ve spoken to at least 15-20 fitbit users who all expressed the same sentiment that I expressed along with other fellow loyal users who have posted to this blog.

Give the loyal users of your product back a key feature that is necessary to keep fitbit relevant to its users.

[Debvurlis]

So well written! Agree agree agree! Sent from my iPhone

[tajenner]

Agreed, well stated and written.  Let's take away a feature that will impact the longtime fitbit users that want to live a active lifestyle in hopes to curb short time users that are lying to themselves just to win a virtual badge/trophy that is not relavant in any way possible.  Kudos Fitbit on this accomplishment!

[giacopelli]

I agree wholeheartedly that ALL totals should be included on the leaderboard. I have discovered that when I feel as if my steps (manually entered as they are from bike riding) are not counting, I'm getting discouraged and my exercising is waay down from last month. This may not sound like a real problem to you but Fitbit is the first thing in my life that has kept me motivated to exercise. If I can't use that, I'm afraid I will wind up back where I started -- not exercising at all. Please help -- add manual steps back to all totals!!

[giacopelli]

And I totally agree with mabalik!

[jubel]

@SunsetRunner couldn't have said it better myself.

[allan473]

I just discovered this problem when I bought an Apple Watch this week. I use my Fitbits (surge and one) part of the day while wearing the Apple Watch the rest of the time.

I am not in any competition or challenges but I do have friends and we like to see how we all do. The only way for this to work now is if the steps I import into Fitbit count as part of the friends tile.

Please add the ability for manual imputs to go to that tile even if you don't want it to go to challenges.