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There are numerous videos, reviews and also questions herein on the community that are fairly disparaging of the fact that you cannot upload your own personal music to the Sense.
My question isn't about if this will be added.
So this is not asking for the feature to be added.
What I wish to know is what was behind the business decision made to n
Hi @SunsetRunner. Thanks for sharing this suggestion about being able to store your music on the Sense with us. This idea was already requested in the Feature Suggestions board, so I’ve moved your post here. This will help us to keep the forums organized and make sure the suggestions don't get confused, or split a popular vote. Click on the thumbs-up to show your support and keep adding your suggestions!
I check this thread periodically in hopes of seeing resolution. In reading the thread it appears that:
It was a feature on older models and has now been removed saved for what looks like a business deal to try to drive subscription revenue to Deezer over Pandora and Spotify.
It was marketed in misleading fashion to a number of users. (I pulled an Inspire out of the drawer that had been given to me as SWAG at a tech industry conference, and upgraded to the Sense based on believing it had GPS and offline music storage given I spend a lot of time paddleboarding, kayaking and rollerblading where I do NOT want to run the risk of damaging my smartphone or of being interrupted by phone calls when gasping for air.)
FitBit has been flat out silent on
Its misleading marketing mentioned repeatedly here
The technical reasons for removing a high value feature
The business reasons for removing a high value feature
Any forecast as to when they might restore the high value feature.
Like Oracle and Larry Ellison, FitBit appears to have decided to build customer loyalty through Stockholm Syndrome.
Cutting a sweetheart deal with a small market share rival (Deezer) for quick $ when a loyal FitBit customer base aligns with a share dominant (Spotify) is a risky proposition likely fueled by market arrogance over the loyalty trade off between smart watch/music subscriptions. As this thread suggests, FitBit has overestimated its market dominance. It is a common flaw of market pioneers. Those second to market can usually eclipse the share leaders rather quickly, or, as my mentor would say, "the second to market usually finds the first to market dead on the trail with an arrow in their back."
Whatever product manager made this decision should be given a penalty box assignment, if not a pink slip. Either that or rethink your market research survey constructs, because this was a woeful misread/misinterpretation of customer wants and needs.
The longer this goes unresolved, the deeper the market resentment grows. Consumerized IT buying behaviors switch quickly over such stuff.
Instead of notifying me that you've moved my comment in order to organize the blog. why doesn't someone from FitBit respond with a solution to this problem?
I've returned my Versa 3 and will probably look harder at my other options with other manufacturers in the near future if something isn't addressed about this major flaw!
@LizzyFitbit , I agree with @LMG-SA : can you at least give us some indication of whether our voices are being heard here? I get that you want to catalog to prioritize your backlog but a response to the loud user voice I think is occurring here would be nice as well (to your users)
I just unboxed and installed my Fitbit Sense and Oh, what a disappointment. I upgraded from a Fitbit Ionic and paid €90 extra. Never expected to loose this obvious feature on a GPS tracker/smartwatch, made to use without internet or a phone. Sad to see all the people here have the same comments, but no serious reaction from Fitbit.
@LizzyFitbit My reason for posting wasn't to ask about adding the feature. It was to ask about the reasons behind removing it.
Look I realise that this was a decision made as a sweetheart deal for Deezer/Pandora/Spotify.
It took no consideration for your users as indicated by the numerous requests to add the facility and the complete silence from FitBit. For me this is the straw that broke the camels back. It was either you or a Samsung watch and from your misleading advertising I mistakenly chose FitBit.
I will buy the sense right now if it will be able to stream music from Spotify without the phone. The only two basic things you want from a fitness tracker is to be able to listen to your running playlist without having to carry your phone and a GPS...if at this point with all the new models you are putting out you are not able to realize that on your own, and instead of improving the features downgrading them, then why will I get the sense if I can just keep using my Ionic that does all that I need?
Ok,let's talk logic here... Fitbit decided to prefer subscription services over the wishes of their customers. Well, they must have had a reason for that...
But having that in mind, what's the point of having a GPS in the watch when you cannot play music without a connected phone anyway??? Why draining the battery for no reason? Does this make any SENSE? Or does GPS just look good in advertising campaign? The choice you give to your customers is what separates the top players from the mediocre ones. In Sense there is no choice. #bringmusicbackonfitbit
This is a big miss for the SENSE watch. Why FitBit would remove that ability to upload music to the SENSE watch was a huge miss for the development team. I was looking for a watch with all the same features as the iWatch but for a more reasonable price. The music storage was the main reason I bought the VERSA. I thought with the SENSE it would have been a home run in a watch but I was very disappointed when I found it did not allow for music storage. I immediately returned it and now I've heard music can be loaded to the iWatch. If this is true then i will be switching even though it is at a slightly higher cost.
Dear @Moderator, how many votes does it take for us to know if fitbit will do anything about this? As I look at the board, this looks to be the fifth highest in votes. I would, however, distinguish this topic more as a "Bug" than the "Enhancement Requests" that the other top votes seem to be requesting. So, I am curious, as your technology strategists plan out their work, how many votes on this 'bug' will it take to get this feature added back to the device?
Just un-wrapped my new sense all ready to load it up with my playlist, only to find that feature has been removed, so back in the box and back to the shop it goes, sorry fitbit removal of the storage is a ridiculous idea
I definitely would say the lack of music is more of a "bug" than an "feature suggestion", since this feature existed in prior models. This is a deal-breaker for many who have posted on this thread. Nearly everyone here said they will return their Sense/Versa3.
I asked a Fitbit representative (via social media) how many votes is needed on an Enhancement Request to get it to the internal Fitbit employees and this was the response,
I just purchased the new Sense & couldn't believe I couldn't transfer personal music on it like I could with the Ionic. I have to decide if I even want to keep it now... Talk about disappointing.
It is something that all your customers would appreciate if you can give us the personal music storage option back so we have the comfort of storing our own songs in the watch. The whole point of having a smartwatch is so I dont have to use my phone when running. How is this an upgrade from ionic if you remove the personal music storage option?
Does anyone want the old music app back? Want to be able to get my own music my way, not by paying more money to a company. Bring back the music app like on versa lite!! VOTE
@Samila@LizzyFitbit I think we all want it back 🙂 But FitBit has not responded at all to our concerns. I think Fitbit is appalling the way they have treated their customers. I think we also have a legal right to our money back as the adverts I have seen to not specifically say we have to join a premium service to get music on (for me) the Sense.
They have lost my custom from here on and once I get enough money saved to buy a better watch I will be going elsewhere.
Of course what they could do to keep my custom is to just add the Music App so I can load my own libraries but I think they would then be in trouble with Deezer/Pandora/Spotify as I'm sure they have had a sweetheart deal with those expensive subscription services.
Pretty disappointing there is no option to store local music files. There is absolutely NO chance I will be using any outside subscription services.. So I feel like I wasted a good amount of money, not realizing this feature is missing/has been removed from a prior series.
Hi @mmavi. Thanks for sharing this suggestion about being able to store your personal music in your Fitbit Sense with us. This idea was already requested in the Feature Suggestions board, so I’ve moved your post here. This will help us to keep the forums organized and make sure the suggestions don't get confused, or split a popular vote. Click on the thumbs-up to show your support and keep adding your suggestions!
Hi @Munnesa. Thanks for sharing this suggestion about being able to store your personal music on your Versa 3 with us. This idea was already requested in the Feature Suggestions board, so I’ve moved your post here. This will help us to keep the forums organized and make sure the suggestions don't get confused, or split a popular vote. Click on the thumbs-up to show your support and keep adding your suggestions!
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