Keep clock face/device screen on for longer

[horse482]

I work in EMS and love my new Ionic, but when trying to count my patients heart rate and respiration's I keep having to push the button with my other hand which I usually have on the patients arm.  This makes it hard to watch the clock, and flicking my wrist doesn't always work.  It would be nice if there was an option to keep the watch face active for more that 20 seconds, maybe give the options for 1 minute and 2 minutes also.  I understand that will cause the battery to not last as long but that would be my choice.  Thanks for your time. 

Moderator Edit: Title for Clarity

[LizFitbit]

Hi everyone, thanks for participating in this thread. The option to keep the clock face on for at least 60 seconds is in development, and our engineering teams are aiming to release it in one of the next two major Fitbit OS updates on Fitbit Versa and Fitbit Ionic in the Fall. We are excited to share this progress with you, but ask you to remember that these plans are subject to change as development progresses. 

Also note that there are existing third party clock face options which can stay on permanently, available for smartwatches now in the Fitbit app gallery. Please also note that this will not be retroactively applied to other Fitbit trackers such as Blaze, Charge 2 etc. Thanks for your patience and participation.

[NurseCristine]

Hooray!

[rushjamison]

@LizFitbit . So in your response you did not mention the Fitibit Alta HR will not get the update?  Will that ever be fixed?  Is there a a significant reason behind excluding this feature.  I am new to this fitbit world and what it sound like to me is that we should just upgrade to more expensive product.  Companies do that all the time so I get it is part of the game and doesn't really bother me. I also hear that this would be an easy feature to add from people who are developers.  If it is simply to get us to upgrade can we just get that confirmed?  At least we would know there is fix verses sitting in limbo which is the worst thing to do to customers.

[rockintheblaze]

The thing that you have to remember .. and I am going to be honest here, but nothing is broken. I happen to be a developer myself, for Garmin. We are not talking about high end models .. but the one on my wrist is less than $200.

But can the Fitbit products be improved .. well likely yes, but you need to understand the following.

The products do what they were advertised to do .. and we bought them.Overall I love my Fitbit Charge 2 as it is small and more durable. I also have a Blaze that I never use.

Fitbit is under no obligation to change things just because people think that the display should stay on longer. As users do we love this .. maybe not, but it is the way things work.

That is why I have a Garmin, cause I can make the thing dance and sing, something that my Fitbit will never do. However they are very different animals from what most of us are using.

The thing .. Fitbit is not going to put a ton of effort into products that are / or could be discontinued. It is the evolution of products. They may fix any issues but adding features that were not in the original game plan, not that likely.

They would love us all to buy the latest and greatest .. which in this case is the Versa and Ionic. So if you want this, you go out and buy one of those. Because the older models cannot run user created apps etc .. we are at the mercy of Fitbit. I have not bought in as I think that the Versa is plain ugly and the Ionic needs to come down in price before I would consider it.

It may be harsh to hear but we bought them (hopefully) knowing what they do or won't do. We cannot be upset at Fitbit if they do not cave in to every whim that users may come up with.

[Kayrog]

Thank you for letting us know!

[MonroCoury]

@rockintheblaze

While I do agree that investing money and efforts in improving entry level - midrange products might be asking for too much in many cases, I think that in this one it isn't.

For one, today's latest and greatest are tomorrow's midrangers. I have the versa, and it will be great to know that the company will take care of me, and keep my watch at least fairly updated. I don't want to buy a new watch every year. Also, being a Python/Java/JavaScript developer myself i don't see how ain'ta custom timeout is such a difficult task for a company with the resources of Fitbit, when 3rd party devs are making watch faces that allow for it (for the pricier versa and ionic). Also, the alta hr and the charge 2 are not cheap for what they can do, they don't even have waterproofing, and in the case of the apes hr, even the ability to choose exercise type, and time it yourself is missing. There are so many trackers out there that cost the same, yet have way more features. I was able to get a deal for the Samsung gear fit 2 pro for only like 15 dollars more than the alta hr, need I count the huge differences between the 2?

I'm not trying to bash Fitbit here, but I do believe that i have the right to criticize Fitbit. I love the versa, it's probably one of the nicest watches on the market currently, but I don't think it's fair or professional on any company's part, to ask users to buy the latest and greatest of they are to expect decent support. I tend to give credit where credit is due, but i don't where it is not. Giving the user 3 seconds to read time and their (varying heart rate) is simply put silly, and a bit dumb too.

[MonroCoury]

 That's not even mentioning the fact that not waterproofing them in and of itself is a deal breaker for many, including me. Again, there are waterproof trackers for less, of others could do it, why couldn't fitbit.

PS: sorry for the typos, stopss swipe keyboard and the forum doesn't let me edit.

[rockintheblaze]

I totally agree .. they can send me the code and I will do it for free.

I think that you and I know it is something that is well within their capability and likely very simple to do. However .. when do you stop the scope creep and say that enough is enough ?

I know I get asked all the time for more things in my apps and I base my response on if it makes sense. I do it mostly for myself as I am not getting paid to do these apps for people.

My primary thought is that Fitbit has no obligation to continually add features / make things better .. but anything they do is a bonus. You have to remember .. it is not broken.  Bug fixes are one thing .. but this is not a bug fix, this is an enhancement so it has nothing to do with support at all. 

I do agree that Fitbit has fallen way behind and is now trying to catch up and well not doing a very good job of it as Garmin has now passed them, even if their devices are mostly more advanced and more expensive.

Fitbit has already said they will do it only on the top 2 models. The rest of us .. are out of luck. I am ok with that as I knew what I was getting going in. If I was not willing to accept their device I would not have bought one. However I got mine from the pawn shop, no sense paying retail when it is not all that feature packed compared to the rest.

I can tell you one thing .. is that MANY people complain about battery life and that is probably the one reason why we will not see this .. as battery life will suffer and that will drive the marketing people mad. You do not want to lose the marketing war because your device is sub par. I know Apple bla bla, but they are special as people buy them for the experience of it being Apple, not that it is better.

Oh re water proofing .. I have a Vivoactive HR on my wrist ... great device but I would not take it near water as it will fail. But the marketing people said .. it is water resistant. I personally will never get my devices near any water .. any of them because of the possibility of turning them into bricks.

[MonroCoury]

@rockintheblaze

like I said, almost all companies get requests that just don't make much sense, and as such need to be ignored. I could be mistaken, but I just don't see how asking for a software limitation to be lifted can be considered too much. It might not be a bug technically speaking, but having used the Alta HR myself for like 10 days, I can tell you it's easily as annoying as one.

See the main difference between your work and fitbit's is that yours is offered for free meaning you're under no obligation to maintaine your product. Fitbit, on the other hand, gets paid for their products, so on top of maintenance, they have to provide a certain quality that matches the retail price. It is my humble opinion that with the alta hr and even the charge 2 (tho to a lesser extent) that just doesn't apply.

You know what's funny tho? With the versa and ionic, the always on display isn't really necessary if you ask me. For one, many watch faces already has it, and for 2, you can increase the timeout to 20 seconds, which is more than enough to read the stats. Fitbit is adding the feature to the wrong products.

With regards to battery life, as long as you can customize the timeout, and you have the choice to disable the always on mode, i just don't see how that can be a problem. In fact, it'll be far less significant an issue on the alta hr and charge 2 than on the versa, you know given how the versa has less battery life already.

With regards to waterproofing, a 5ATM rating is certainly sufficient protection. I have exposed my versa to water heavily, and so have many others, and I'm not aware of any problems that have resulted from that. Also, I'll need to check that but I think when the company officially announces waterproofing, they're responsible for water damage under warranty. Just search on YouTube, many waterproof fitness trackers at the alta hr's price have been water tested.

[MonroCoury]

Also, is it just me, or does the 3 sec limitation combined with the lack of any control over exercises and the lack of waterproofing feel like twisting our arms into buying more expensive Fitbits?

It won't work I'm afraid, most will likely choose a competing brand.

[benegesserit]

The Flat Jarvis clockface lets you tap the screen three time to keep it on, and then tap it again three times to turn it off. It also displays seconds. This seems to me to be an ideal compromise between usability and battery life. 

There are other clockfaces with Always On options too, and it's in the API so not difficult to create more. Flat Jarvis is just the best implementation I've seen.

[Workinhard]

+1

[NurseCristine]

That’s awesome - great first step - now if we could see the seconds - not
so tiny - it would be perfect!

[benegesserit]

If you're talking about the Flat Jarvis clockface, the paid version includes the ability to change the size of the different elements, so you can make the seconds bigger.

(No, I'm not paid to advertise it  I'm a nurse who saw the potential in it, asked the developer to add seconds to make it useful for medical people, and am thrilled with the results.)

[NurseCristine]

Totally appreciate it... not ready to pay quite yet, I still have an old
school pin on watch with a sweep second hand and the VS machine has a
button I can press. 
Thanks!

[KJoyce]

Thank you Fitbit team! This is exciting news. Looking forward to the
update!

Best regards!

[Kayrog]

Compromise is good but one of the points are, when your working out like
doing pushups, we dont want to have to tap the screen. We should be be able
to look down and see our heartrate immediately. This is a fitness band
after all, so fitness is the most important thing. Every other hour of the
day I would still love always on, to show off these cool watch faces but I
guess that's not as important as always being on during a workout!

[benegesserit]

There are always on clockfaces. Go to clocks and search for always on.

Flat Jarvis is just a particularly good implementation, as it allows easy access to keeping the screen on while not excessively compromising battery life.

[jns72]

i too wanted to use charge2 as watch and activity tracker.

was considering change to ionic but as discovere that too wont display clock face permantelty will now go to Garmin

[amgreenwood11]

I think there should be some type of setting where you can choose to have the timer on all the time or not. I just got into school and i thought that the time would be on at all times and now i am second guessing getting this device instead of the apple watch. 

[MrsBlovestea]

I too support this. My 3 yr old daughter has a heart arrhythmia and I need to check her heart rate daily. Most electronic meters don’t work because she is too small, so I have to do this by hand. For my Versa to work as a watch I need the screen on for at least a minute so I can’t count for 30 s. Continually tapping on the screen causes me to lose her pulse rate. I love my versa but currently think I have to go back to standard watch. 

[AisaNella]

I’m in school to be a CNA and I’m learning to take vitals! In order to be in uniform I need my ionic to stay on while I’m working. I would love if there was a backlight delay longer than 20s. Maybe even 5 minutes would be great in my case! I love my ionic and I would love to be able to use it for this!

[RBream]

Would like to have the option to have the stopwatch display on constantly during workouts so that I can see at a glance how much time has expired.  For example, when I'm holding the plank position and I want to see how long I've held it by just glancing at the stopwatch display on my Charge 2.  

[sunshinyday69]

Not sure if this was mentioned previously, but I would love to see this feature (constant clock) on the smaller Fitbits as well.  I currently have the Alta HR and prefer a smaller Fitbit vs. the larger models because I have small wrists.  I would love seeing a display similar to the Apple watches (“Flexible Retina Display”) where you can always see the time--even when it is bright outside.  That is a problem with these displays as well--when it's bright out I have a very hard time seeing the display.  

Just some thoughts--love your product!

[fowlerat]

A major failing of the Charge 2 HR - need screen to stay on longer or the display time be customised via the app