Lock Touchscreen to Clockface

[Thob86]

I'm finding over the course of the day and while sleeping my Surge's touchscreen becomes switched from the watch face to one of the other screens. It would be very helpful if there was an ability to hold down one of the physical buttons to lock the touchscreen on the watch face and repeat to unlock. This would prevent accidental navigation away from the watch face. Please consider adding this functionality in a future firmware update. Thank you.

Moderator Edit: 

The latest Surge firmware update added a function which reverts Surge to its clock screen after 15 seconds. Some users would prefer to continuously view another data tile, such as Steps, Heart Rate, or Distance. This is no longer possible for more than 15 seconds outside of starting an Exercise log.

This existing Feature Request represents a good solution to the issue, and I encourage anyone who might be interested in this new feature to vote or comment in this thread.

[MarieP]

Yes, I vote for a change and I hope it happens very soon. This has been a frustration for far too long. 

Thank you for the consideration, but please take action NOW.

[Paul57]

I'm happy to find out from this discussion that there is a workaround for getting a constant HR display, putting it into exercise mode, but it is klugey, requiring four different actions: left button press, tap, swipe right, lower right button press.

Again, I hope Fitbit has learned the larger lesson from this "fix": don't just listen to complaints from users who want a feature changed. You don't know how many more users like it the way it is, because they aren't complaining. (This is a lesson I learned early on as a software engineer designing portable industrial electronics.) Do some market research to see what all the users want. This could be done with a survey on this site.

[Will01]

@AZEducator I agree the Apple Watch is definitely more expensive. Also the Surge was capable everything I needed. Those were the final two choices that it came down to when I was deciding on a health band. The price is what ultimately made me choose the FitBit and before the upgrade it was perfect.

I never used any of the exercises (with GPS) on my FitBit though. And you do need the phone's GPS for that in the case of Apple. So the Apple Watch would not be a good solution for a person that does use the built in GPS in their FitBit.

Hopefully FitBit will just fix this error soon so people can use their Surge as a health band again.

Sent from my iPhone

[MiltoninGA]

Please offer us the setting to "park/lock" which tile we want as the main tile. The constant swipping to get to our screen used battery life. More importantly, I want be interested in the stats from one tile for one activity and then wish to change it to another.

[MarieP]

@MiltoninGA  - In one form or another, many have been making this "plea", suggestion, appeal, (whatever you want to call it) since March. No one at Fitbit seems to care. If you follow this thread, the last time the "moderator" (Matthew) chimed in was April 13. I am typically very patient as I have programming background, but the non-response from the company is past absurd. Obvioulsy, our frustration and voicing have had no impact on their bottomline. If you haven't yet, it is time to post this thread on the review whereever you purchased this item. I just did on Amazon.com. I hope you will all do too.

[Scottysize]

Here's the reply I got:  

Hello Scott,

Thank you for your suggestion and we apologize for the delayed response. We're constantly striving to improve Fitbit products and services, and we very much appreciate all of the input we receive from our customers. As of the moment we currently don't have firmware update for Surge tracker. But rest assured that this will be passed on to our engineering team for future reference on future firmware updates.

Thank you so much for your feedback and for participating in our community. 

Sincerely,

Ana T. and the Fitbit Team

[leonrosen]

extremely frustrating to think the firmware isnt being constantly improved.

[bamacoast]

All this time and that is all we get. We want this fixed now. My next post
will be on amazon to post a review and to think they made this change
without notifying fit bit surge owners. I want to return my fit bit for a
refund.

[DiOnna]

@Scottysize - Unacceptable response! Fitbit's delayed response to your core customer base regarding a fix to this issue is unacceptable. Everyone on this board paid $250 for a fitness tracker, not a watch. I guess we now have a choice to accept the change, return the product or voice our complaints with other social/media options.

[CalifGramma]

Thank you, @Scottysize, for posting the email you received.......  So what this email says to me is after 2 months+ FitBit still doesn't have a Surge firmware update on the radar........And it sounds as though this has not yet even been discussed with their "engineering team".

"As of the moment we currently don't have firmware update for Surge tracker. But rest assured that this will be passed on to our engineering team for future reference on future firmware updates."

I am so glad i returned my 2 FitBit WATCHES......... both Kohl's and REI (if you are an REI member) have a no questions asked return policy...... 

[envirorich]

To everyone monitoring the thread, having worked for a very large Tech Company I can relate to the non-responsiveness from Fitbit. Our company seldom responded or took action on feedback about product change suggestions and ideas in these forums. It wasn't until Social Media started gaining traction that we put value on this type of feedback. To this day we have a knee jerk reaction almost to the extreme of handling customer complaints in Social Media verses our message boards. I might suggest that everyone in this thread hop on Twitter, Facebook or whatever and share your distain and hashtag Surge and Fitbit. Most likely you'll get a better response, especially since they went public last week. A lot more eyes are on them and a Board that they have to answer to now.

[feehowell]

I posted a comment on Fitbit's Facebook June 20th. Here is my comment and their reply.

My Comment

Re Surge watch - locking choice of screen You guys are going to lose a lot of customers with returns and bad mouthing if you don't release an update soon on flexibility to lock choice of screen. Have you been reading your forums recently? https://community.fitbit.com/…/fea…/article-id/16908/page/10 several,people,have already returned their watches and changing their minds about buying them for presents. We need both choices of default to clock face and also locking a chosen screen. Heart rate seems to be the most popular. Read your own forums guys. Even respond once in a while and show you support your customers.

Reply

Appreciate the feedback, Fee. This idea is under consideration. Our team are always on the lookout for new ideas and stay tuned for future updates.

[AZEducator]

Obviously they are not reading the posts.  This is not a new idea.  This is them taking away a functionality some of us had when we purchased this thing.  It is not adding anything new.  We want the surge to work the way it did when we purchased it.  I am still not understanding why it even needs to lock on any one screen.  Let us put it on whatever screen we want and have it stay there like it did when I purchased it.  Don't say to use exercise mode as non of the exercise modes monitor flights of stairs.  

[AZEducator]

@envirorichI said this before and I will say it again.  This is not a change, it is wanting the same functionality I had when I purchased this thing.

[feehowell]

I think Envirorich has the right idea. Let's flood Facebook andTwitter with our requests.

[bamacoast]

After over three months since this thread started we find out today they are doing nothing to correct this problem. That tells me we as fitbit surge owners have absolutely no value and fitbit just don't care. What about the hunreds maybe more who does not even know this thread exist. I an planning on selling my surge and going to another brand. The least fitbit could have done was warn owners that if they wanted to be able lock on a screen do not install the update. They have my email address. I get plenty of emails wanting me to buy other fitbit products. Fitbit you can be sure i will never buy another fitbit product. Thanks for not listening or being concerned with your customer input.

[AZEducator]

I still don't know why they felt they had to correct a problem that didn't exist to begin with.  Let us display what we want, not what the programs think we want.  I don't want it to lock on any screen, just like it was when I purchased it.  

[DiOnna]

All - Please take your complaints to @Fitbitsupport on Twitter. Hopefully, we will get a quicker response if we flood their feed.

[feehowell]

I have tweeted today. Please join me and flood the Twitter account.

[demon803]

Tweeted also
#surge
#fitbit

[AZEducator]

Done,  I tweeted, I also facebooked

[leonrosen]

Ditto

[Subunesss]

When I wear workout gloves. They hit the button to pause/start constantly. It get annoying. So now just wear the surge upside down which is also annoying

[bamacoast]

It appears that fitbit has employees watching for negative reviews. I posted a review on amazon yesterday and a minute later two individuals posted five star reviews. Fitbit is doing this. Anything similar on your tweet

[Paul57]

Didn't see any comments jusr now about the screen lock on their FB page. Where do you put them?