Streamline starting and stopping exercises

[SunsetRunner]

 Using the exercising feature on charge 2 was ok.  Push button to start and push ( hold for sec or two ) to stop. Now it takes much longer and have to go through all the tiles i do not use to get to the ones i dont.  Like the charge 3 a lot,  but need some common sense changes.  

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject and updated label

[LanuzaFitbit]

Hello @SunsetRunner.

Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback with everyone.

Let's see what other users have to say about this.

[dnamurphy]

I agree with this. On the Charge HR, I could press the button and a "quick excercise" would start. Press and hold again would stop it. I could classify it later, but it was quick and easy.

The current shortcut ("quick settings"?) is superflous, and should just be put under the main settings in the watch menu.

As a use case: as the OP says, it's annoying to fiddle with sliding tiles to start an exercise: I want to jump on my bike in the morning, press the button and it starts tracking my exercise right away.

[Neeke]

Using start and stop exercise feature on original charge was nice.  I knew when I had started and ended the feature because it would vibrate.  Now I have to push/swipe so many times and it's hard to see in the sunlight.  Feature with start and stop using side button would be great.

[patrick1688]

Can we reduce the number of clicks to start an exercise on a Charge 3?

[MarcelBK]

Hey @patrick1688! Nice suggestion, thanks for sharing. We look forward to hearing what other community members think about reducing the number of clicks/tabs to start an exercise on the Charge 3.

[JenL11]

Starting and stopping exercise on the Charge 3 has unecessary extra steps. For example if I start a workout, then I have to click 'let's go'.  To finish, I have to double click, then tap 'finish'. On the Charge 2, I could just double click and start, and hold to finish. Please consider making this easier. I continually start a workout and forget to tap 'let's go' and my workout isn't recorded. Thx

[Alcocalories]

I agree totally .. it is regrettable that ending exercises requires more keystrokes than the predessor Fitbit .. what were you thinking of ?

[Rich_Laue]

I disagree. The reason that their are extra steps is because of how easy it was to end an exercise on the charge 2 with many complaints that exercises are accidentally being terminated   

One of the largest suggestions for the Charge 2 was to make the process to end the exercise more forgiving and less accidental.

[LondonMatt]

I'm more aggravated by the start exercise process than the end exercise process. I agree that the extra step is unnecessary (except maybe in situations when waiting for a gps fix, i.e. running/walking/etc). In addition to the fact the extra button press shouldn't be needed, the descriptions aren't helpful. The fact that the first stage is "start" and the second stage is "Let's go" repeatedly trips me up. Last weekend, I pressed start on a tennis activity. And then I, errm,  started playing tennis. After an hour, came back to the device to see it was waiting for me to press "Let's go". If the extra button press is truly needed, then at least call the first  press "Get Ready" or "On your marks" in stead of "Start".

I'm more relaxed about the ending process - I do quite a lot of pausing and would not want to inadvertently end and exercise when trying to pause it. That said I'd have though that the pause screen could simply have two options on it, one for "resume" and the other for "end excersise" rather that require the fiddly double hit of the physical button followed by screen jab to end.

[Tryn_2B_Fit]

@LondonMatt is absolutely right!!  Same thing happened to me but I was playing basketball. 45 minutes in I looked down and it was saying "Let's Go".  I also hate it when I'm trying to start a jog that I have to fumble my way through swipes and presses and taps then stare at it to make sure it actually started.  Currently I have gone back to my Charge HR to track running because of the ease to start/stop the exercise.

[Rich_Laue]

The reason this was made harder is because all of the complaints on how easy the Charge and Charge HR was to get into exercise mode.

People where getting upset when they found many understand recorded exercises and even more upset when their exercises where closed prematurely. This was especially noticing when wearing gloves or boxing. People said that it was impossible to get a complete workout/run recorded..

[dnamurphy]

Presumably the solution then is to provide users (customers) with the power of choice? You could provide a switch in the App that defines the button macro to either:

1. Quick start exercise (press and hold down to start/stop)

2. Launch the "Screen wake" / "Notifications" toggle screen

I'm pretty sure the screen wake and notifications toggles can be put in Settings. I would probably provide a notifications toggle in the pull-down message notification screen (above "Clear All").

[Avergirl]

Totally agree on the starting the exercise. This is my primary dislike of the charge 3 compared to the charge 2.  Just want to press a button and track it. Really don't care as much on the back end.  If it ends early for any reason, I can go in and edit exercise details and fix the end time. It's just starting it easily at the start of an exercise class that I want. All the swiping is annoying and time consuming an distracting. Please, please fix this or at least give an option for a quick start press and go for the primary exercise.  

[TobiasF]

fully agree, current Charge 3 exercise start/stop handling is cumbersome and prone to mal functioning, why make it worst then you have it working okay in Charge2 already? 

[Rich_Laue]

Many people where anoyed that on the Charge 2 exercises frequently where accidentally starting,  then to make things worse,  the exercises where tending long before the event was over. 

This has been a big problem with Fitbit's for many years,  users where insisting that Fitbit implement a 2 step process. 

[TobiasF]

@Rich_Laue

"...insisting that Fitbit implement a 2 step process." - > fair point but think they made it too cumbersome: on the Charge 3 you need:

to swipe left (1) to the sub menue

tap exercice (2)

choose the desired sportsmode (3)

tap again start (4) going to the connected GPS screen 

and press again one more time the play button (5) to finally start the exercise

that's 5 user interactions to trigger this mode and too much in my opinion, would be better after the (3) action

to utilize the side button with a long press (as it was before) to start right away

[Rich_Laue]

On the Charge 2 the user needs to

• Tap the button to get to the exercise menu
• Tap the screen to choose exercise, this requires 2 steps with the Charge 3
• Hold in button to start the exercise tracking

Since the Charge 2 does not have a touch screen another step is required. 

[TobiasF]

on Charge3 no button is used to start exercise (but to end it) as shown above total 5 steps are needed, cumbersome in my opinion

[Rich_Laue]

I realize that,  the Charge 3 had a touch screen, the charge 2 does not, thus requiring a gold of the button,  yet users found that their exercise mode mysteriously starts. 

[Pollifaxen]

Believe majority of users like the function in previous charge better. One tap starts exercise, one more pauses, and tap and hold ends the exercise.

So many times I’ve failed to stop activity after a run. It’s not user friendly.

i see that some ppl says it was too easy to accidentally stop exercise before but I never manage to do that. Maybe this depends on type of activity you are performing. 

Then, why not let the user custom size it in settings. Possibility to chose to start/pause/end with button OR by the new way with pressing start and finish on screen. 

[Rich_Laue]

Even today I saw a new complaint about three Charge 2 coming ot off an exercise before the end of a ride. 

[welljim]

The one function we all use most of the time, even multiple times a day, is Starting / Stopping our exercise session tracking. It would make a lot of sense to make the Start / Stop feature a single button press (or long press), like it used to be in previous fit bits. The exercise type can be auto-recognised like it used to be (which is also great for people that do activities not included in the standard menu), or it can be pre-programmed with a default exercise type. If you want to specifically start a different exercise type, you can always go through all the tedious menu steps that are currently required.

[LuciaFitbit]

Hi @welljim, thanks for taking the time to share your feedback with us. This feature suggestion already exists so I’ve moved your post here. Don't forget to add your vote!

[welljim]

Hi @LuciaFitbit, thanks for moving my post here. Could you please change the title of this thread to something more direct? (e.g., "Single button press to start / stop exercises"). The current title seems a little convoluted. For example, I skimmed all thread titles looking for this before I created my own thread, yet I failed to notice that somebody else had already made a post about it. I think a more appropriate title would attract more votes.

Thanks

[TJMcDuffin]

The title says enough. I shouldn't have to hit "start" twice back to back to start tracking an exercise. I selected the type I wanted, when I hit "start" the first time, that's me confirming I want to start tracking. I don't know how many times I'm missed part or all of my workout because I didn't hit "start" a second time. It's infuriating, and pointless. 

Please, get rid of that useless, and required, second  start click. 

Main Screen --> Exercise --> Type --> Start. THE END.

Thank you very much otherwise for a great product. I do love it, and what it offers me in terms of tracking and calorie burn. That one "feature" is just makes me very mad.