Individual "Self timer" to guided meditations list

[madlion]

In the Track your mindfulness category on Fitbit home screen, may I suggest you add a "self timer" option to your list of guided meditations. This feature would allow the user to set a time for how long they meditate, and do it on their own in silence, without having to listen to a guided recording. Maybe just have a nice chime when the time is up.

[Eric_Shea]

I’m a “TM’r”. Would love to log my times. 

[saf120]

Agreed.  Is there any way to know if someone from FitBit is actually monitoring this conversation or considering changes?

[Carolokc]

No


Carol Ringrose Alexander

[mollygrrl]

It would be really helpful if you could log meditations independently of the timed sessions available.  For example:  almost none of the meditations you offer are unguided or over 30 minutes.  Insight timer is already integrated with apple health and other apps.  It allows you to log a session, even after you have done one, so that if you are part of a sitting group, you can log the meditation after (similar to the fitbit setup for logging calories).

My interest in this would be in being able to track data on heart rate and stress longitudinally including meditation times, as I am sure many people are interested.

Plus, just personally:  meditation really changed my life and mental health, but the fitbit tracker for it has a somewhat limited usability for people who already have a meditation practice.  I would prefer to be able to log meditation practice minutes like other apps:  walking meditation, eating meditation, formal sitting practice and a dialer for time because sometimes I do retreats.

[saf120]

Maybe we need to encourage other FitBit users to vote for this topic to get the company's attention.

[Setapong]

@Gwenosaurus Thank you for raising this issue.  I did suggest the same to the Fitbit support and they direct me to this forum.
First, I would like to thank Fitbit for creating this mindfulness function.  Its a very good start.  It's actually encourage me to do morning meditation, to be able to see the rate of heart beat goes down during the course.

However, like many folks here, I do not need the guided sound.  Now a day, when I use the function 1) I select the session that match my purpose which is 31 minutes 2)  I set my stopwatch to 31 minutes 3) I plug the earphone usb-c to the phone so I do not hear the guided sound 4) start the session together with start the stopwatch.  Many steps but it is working for now.

Would appreciate it very much if Fitbit could provide this option of no sound meditation with time selection and warning at the end of the session on the smartphone, or even better as @nmrguy suggested that we can activate the activity from the watch itself.

Since exercise and meditation (clear mind) benefit health as well as clean food, Fitbit is on the right track of encouraging people to be interested in the activities which they can try and see the actual result right away.  Would be better if this function is for all.

Your truly

[Setapong]

After mindfulness session, I found many times that the heart rate graph did not extend to the end of the session, only few do.

[JNSwartz1210]

I would also like a way to manually enter mindfulness minutes. I use a variety of apps for meditation depending on what I need day to day. 

[BryBub]

Please implement this great idea. 

[reubenbeau]

I would also like to see a self timer (with biometrics) added. I meditate daily but for 20minutes+ (mantra based). This does not fit with any of your current offerings yet I would love to be able to record my meditations...and even better see what was going on with my body while I meditate!

[annabobo1717]

I would also love this feature! Another idea, would be to have a Fitbit integrate with the popular apps like headspace calm and the other top meditation apps so we can get “credit” for doing the meditation. I love that mindfulness is a feature I can see on my main dashboard and it seems like this would be an easy thing to put a timer with a little bell in the beginning and end. Thanks, I really hope you add this feature soon! I’d (try to) use it everyday.

[bansheegoddess]

I need this! I find it incredibly frustrating that I can’t track it unless I play by their rules. At one point I thought about just clicking the same one minute session everyday so I can count my other official meditation practice, but then that just feels like a waste of my time. Ugh I really hope Fitbit gets with it. 

[saf120]

Yes.  I wish I could at least figure out how to delete the meditation tracker from the Today screen.  It doesn't appear anyone from FitBit is paying attention to this at all.  It's also clear the function was conceived or at least executed by people without significant meditation or mindfulness experience.

[annabobo1717]

Yes! Hopefully they make the modifications to the meditation component soon.

P.s. you can remove that section. hold your finger on it until they rows start to wiggle then click on the “X”

[saf120]

Whew . . . Thank you!!  Here's hoping they make modifications soon :).

[SteRosCro]

This would be a great addition. There are many ways to meditate and not being able to put them in this device makes it a limited tool. The opposite of what it says it trying to encourage. Steve

[KKolstad]

Exactly!!

[RevvedUp76]

Yes, I completely agree I have spent almost half an hour on this website trying to find a way to put in this exact comment. I use the Ziva Meditation technique that you can find here: https://zivameditation.com/ twice daily. However, I can't track my meditation practice, HR changes, or my mood through the Fitbit app because it is not a preset FitBit meditation. 

Also, please add a comment box to the meditation tracker for mood. This way I can also log what I am feeling and what I am feeling grateful for. The inner Balance app that I also occasionally use to track my loving kindness mediation practice (Heart Math) allows a comment feature for each meditation.

Another feature that would be great to track for each meditation session would be heart rate variability as meditation can improve this metric as well. (see the inner balance app) Thank you so much for taking these suggestions under consideration!

[Carolokc]

These are great suggestions. Thank you!!
Carol

[maddiemii]

Yes. I would like fitbit to do a better job at supporting mindfulness meditation by making a custom multi step timer.

for example 

start

2min then buzz

20min then buzz

2min then buzz

end

This would be useful for breathing, then mindful meditation, then return to breath. Having the number of steps and the duration of steps be customizable would be amazing and deepen my connection with my fitbit device. it's a simple feature that would really be very helpful.

[willowy_zenith]

I agree! 

[Ziggtron]

Has there been any response to this? I asked whether there was any timing or logging function and was just redirected to this thread. So i guess that means no?? Ive searched through the mindfulness section of the app and can only find videos. 

[nmrguy]

Nothing compelling so far from Fitbit, unfortunately.  It appears to be a product centric operation measuring metrics and user votes etc. to the exclusion of doing something bold (hardly!).  Process over Purpose kills Value.  It's bizarre, given how trivial a mindfulness timer would be to add for free sine all other forms of exercise including mindfulness are already available.  Really disappointed.

[Jjjjjjjjs]

New to the Fitbit club and here to request the option to manually track meditation sessions. Surprised this isn't an option in 2021, hopefully this upgrade is a work in progress?

[stub65]

Unable to vote for this for some reason (i click thumbs up and nothing happens and I've tried two different browsers)

I'd like to echo some of the above comments though.  Need to be able to manually track meditation (ideally with a timer that logs data while running the same way that the guided sessions do now). Fwiw, I'm a premium member and i still don't want to use these guided sessions.