Make “premium” features free

[NSJS]

Dear Fitbit, 

Until recently I have been very impressed with the caliber of Fitbit products. That was until you started providing features that consumers have to pay extra for. When I spent AU$270 on my Fitbit Charge 3, I did not expect to have to pay an extra $80 per year to utilise its features. This is a view that seems to be reflected widely in the Fitbit community. 

My suggestion is that Fitbit stop charging its loyal consumers for features that ought to be included in the purchase of the Fitbit device. The purchase price of a Fitbit device ought to include all features present and promised within the device. For example, if and when Fitbit finally releases the SPO2 feature it promised when we purchased the Fitbit charge 3, I expect that to be a feature that I can use without additional payment. 

I look forward to hearing your feedback on this proposal.

[SunsetRunner]

Sleeping heart rate and Sleeping restlessness always was available until recently.    Fitbit pretends to not understand what we are saying.   We have been explaining this since the changed started.    They will change or they will not allow the posts to keep our community up to date.  Many of my posts have been "not allowed".    Don't dare explain or speak the truth to who ever is in charge, so maybe we need to start calling the company and speaking to someone who has "a clue" what we are talking about.     Those two stats always were available before as has been mentioned by many of you, it is collected by the device itself.    If they want to offer additional exercises plans etc, that is entirely understandable. In fact I have paid extra to some of the companies that offer that before I had my Fitbit.   I found the exercises way too hard for me at the age of 70.    What is important to me is my overnight heart rate and to be able to monitor that as I have a-fib.   That said I will be looking for a company that does that and I will be not looking to replace my device with a Fitbit in the future.   Good going Fitbit, a good way to loose customers.    There are plenty of companies that have good customer service.    

[Ronald1]

Well said @SunsetRunner 

[Ronald1]

Hi @ Razmus An excellent analogy. 

[rudyten]

I think the premium services are only Scripts, Programs, that RAN your data thru them. So when you pay premium you are paying to run your data through them.

The Data is yours, that is ALL THE RAW DATA COLLECTED by your device if not then we would have a real problem.
Now you can take YOUR data and connect to other websites and ran YOUR data on their Scripts, Programs for some amazing analysis and graphs.

I agree that Fitbit is just trying to figure out where to squeeze pennies from. lol...but that is the nature of all companies.
And yes, ignoring Requests is an ART that fitbit seems to be getting good at. hahaha

[Ronald1]

Hi @rudyten I agree that having your data analyzed should cost. However, am I paying for a graph analysis or medical input? This cost was Not declared at POINT OF SALE  though. If this evolution of the Fitbit ecosystem continues unabated, well then they are really in for financial woe. I choose not to pay for Strava’s packages as well. The cost of data in ZAR is EXORBITANT so I don’t stream music as well. All FITBIT devices are no longer STAND ALONE. This in effect is translated as (whichever way one looks at this) “so I gotta pay Fitbit for wearing their device AFTER I paid for the thing...” 

Geez Louise 

[groundzero]

I would pay monthly to have the old app dashboard back.

[Nia1s]

I completely agree, we already have to pay for the device, why should we have to pay for the stats in the app? 

[draeath]

I would love to have access to the raw data as a base-level feature, leaving the analyitics and visualizations as they are.

After all, the device is collecting this data regardless, and the work you supposedly pay for with Premium is not the raw data, but the processed and visualized results.

Maybe this is already present in your data downloads, but I'd love to have access to it via an API at a granular level instead.

[sbugsyk]

I agree, this is outrageous.  I am on my third Fitbit which means I have spent HUNDREDS of dollars on these devices and bought my most recent device about 6 months ago.  I have always been excited about the new features they come out with, but I think it's absolutely insane that I've spent all this money on a device and don't have access to all the features.  Those should come free with the purchase of these expensive devices.  If this doesn't change, I'll be looking at other brands when this Fitbit dies.  I refuse to pay for another device that doesn't come with free access to all of it's features.

[Ksajxai]

My main reason for buying 2 Fitbit HRs (me and family) was advertised Sleep tracking, Sleep stagesa and smart alarm.

I'm really outraged with ridiculous paywall for sleep insights. it takes like 5 minutes for you to update the app and make this one feature free. I dont want Fitbit Coach and other stuff for hundreds of dollars

I have to use the same data from Oura ring to fill gaps about my sleep in Fitbit dashboard

Just waiting for device to break so I can switch from this mojeygrabbing company

[TonyAus]

I strongly object to Fitbit collecting my personal data (for example heart rate during sleep), having access to that data from Fitbit's reasearch use and then witholding that information from me unless I pay a significant extra fee of around A$150.

I think this is very morally wrong and very different to Fitbit selling a serice such as excercise programs or weight loss programs (I don't have a problem with Fitbit charging for these other services. My heart rate during sleep is fundamentally my data and nobody has the right to sell it back to me. 

To me this is no different to Fitbit taking my credit card details or my driver's license number or anyother personal information and then trying to sell it back to me.

My heart rate data during sleep is not yours to sell Fitbit ... especially back to me!!!!

[SunsetRunner]

Trying to reply but it takes me off in another direction. Good going Fitbit.

Moderator edit: personal info removed

[Iain_K]

Its data about US, gathered from US using a device that WE have paid several hundred dollars for in many cases.  Access to that information should be free to the user in my opinion.  But of course corporate profit will win the day every time. As long as some people will pay a premium for the data, then they will continue to charge for it.

[wilcoxon]

Premium makes perfect sense for added coaching and possibly for synthetic computations (sleep score details).  It does not make sense to hide our data behind a paywall.

Sleeping Heart Rate should absolutely be free.  Yes, there is the other heart rate data but the sleeping heart rate combines a few things together (sleeping measured HR, resting HR benchmark, and sleep period).  The combination is handy but is not something that should be paywalled.

Similarly for the restlessness graph.  I only recently got a fitbit but it's my understanding this data used to be available prior to sleep stages.  Even if it is different, it is again data collected by the fitbit and not coaching or synthetic computations.

I paid $160 for my device and there was no indication that I would be required to pay a monthly subscription for access to (some of) my data.

[MrShoubs]

Yes, I purchased a device, there was no mention of premium at the time, so not something I was buying into. The device should cost a lot less if there is a subscription. This is not what I bought...

Also, with GDPR, If it is data about me, then should it be available on request?

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @wilcoxon! Great suggestion, thanks for sharing your feedback. I've moved it into a similar request. Post a comment or click on the thumbs-up to show your support.

[RWFarley]

All of the data recorded should be available to the person that generated them.  If Fitbit wants to charge a fee, it should be for a value added  service!  Simply collecting my data and selling it back to me is not appropriate.  

Fitbit can charge for analyzing or presenting the data, but I must have access to my data for my own purposes!!!  Let me choose between Fitbits presentation/analysis and my own Tableau or Power BI presentations.

[Sandytrain]

When I bought this device, I didn't expect to have to pay a subscription to have access to all the information it is tracking. I may return it to Costco if I remain annoyed with this or find I'm not getting enough information that comes with the device. Like others have stated, you'd expect to have access when you buy something. Like a Garmin, you don't buy it and then have to pay to use it. Not to mention the bar code scanner doesn't provide accurate information. Sure glad I don't pay for that information.

[PhM92190]

I agree to the comment by @rudyten that "The Data is yours, that is all the raw data collected by your device". At least in Europe this is correct, furthermore Fitbit has the obligation to provide a means to retrieve all these raw data unpon request.

Otherwise they shall be fined or banned from selling their devices in Europe.

Moderator edit: all-caps

[deepxtz]

I completely agree, this is a cheep scam

[Sandytrain]

I agree and am contemplating returning my fitbit to Costco. For the price I paid, I get very little that I can't get from free apps like My Fitness Pal and other apps (the calorie counter has much inaccurate information). The sleep part should be free if it's counting my heart beats, that information should be mine. Just believing the basic chart of awake, REM etc is information I kinda know, like when I'm awake, I know that. The important information is knowing how they came up with, if I was in REM or not, and I'm not going to pay more on top of what I paid for the fitbit to find that out. So it counts my steps...that is not worth the price of the watch. The time can't be adjusted to stay lit for more than 3 seconds either. When I talk about these things at work, I get replies like, "Yeah, I'm not sure I want to invest in one since I hear so much negative feedback about them." So...that said, the people posting here are not the only one's who will or will not purchase your product. When they hear, "I have to pay for the features that should come with it," they decide not to buy it. So if you're making your decisions by how many votes you get here, I think you're making a grave mistake. One vote here goes a lot further than you realize! If heart beats get added soon, I might keep it, but otherwise, I have no use for it.

[Rich_Laue]

@rudyten that is correct. Fitbit gives you the ability to download all the data Fitbit has on your account. 

The stats are the result of fitbits computational and not part of the collected data. 

I know it is hard to believe, but yes done companies as well as some people really would like to be paid for their time and offer little extras to those that are willing to contribute. 

[joggerj]

ALL the data that is being collected should be made available to the user.  If they want to charge for telling us how to improve our health based on the data, please go ahead.  I have the product since it is supposed to collect and show me the data.  It's shameful that it's hiding part of the data and trying to convince us that we need to pay to see it.

[Rich_Laue]

What data are they hiding @joggerj 

I have downloaded 6 years of steps, active minutes, distance, calories, heart rate, events, stairs, weight, etc. 

[joggerj]

@Rich_Laue- Can you tell me how to do that?  I do not know.