View SpO2 % in app and don't require SpO2 clock face selection during sleep to capture %

[mbarylski]

The SpO2 clock face has to be selected during sleep to view actual SpO2 % range and avg value in morning. Devices that support SpO2 DO collect the data since it shows up on a sleep graph. It's just the value doesn't appear. This is such a silly implementation. Just show the value in the app and clock face regardless of the clock face during sleep.

[SunsetRunner]

I have also pointed this out. It would seem new sense is not reaching its full capacity

Sent from my iPhone

[DeMedici]

I upvote this and suggestions to have the data viewable in the app and on other clock faces. It makes no sense to only have this metric available if you use the otherwise useless clock face.

[DaveS3]

It must be that they implemented the data collection as an app that has to be running in the foreground and therefore (had?) to do it as a clock face to provide a visual. That's the only reason I can think of why they didn't just enable data collection at night without a clock face. It is battery consuming so perhaps they wanted the person to confirm the battery use by having to switch to a certain clock face, but the data gathering in the foreground seems to me the more likely culprit, either for accuracy or the new OS architecture somehow limited something. Otherwise why not just allow a switch to turn on / off the data collection, as I think many will be in the same boat of not or not wanting to switch watch faces every night and still wanting the data / trends. 

[bumbleklutz]

Please just put the SpO2 reading in the app or on the watch.  Having to switch clock faces is a hassle.

[JTWrenn]

Doh nevermind, edited because now I get what people are saying.

At this point not only should they fix this...they should explain why it was done this way in the first place.

This really sounds like something that was planned to be a premium feature so they put a wall up on it, and then they let that wall down in a really strange way.  Seems like Fitbit is heading down the road of insane monetization on some of these features (ie pay more to have the watch hold your music).

[DaveS3]

edit: yeah, maybe you are onto something with the paywall.

[JTWrenn]

Yeah I figured it out.  I don't think it is a measuring thing though...sounds like it does measure, it just doesn't number crunch to give the number.  Otherwise the graph makes no sense.  Definitely seems odd all around.  I really smell pay wall that was aborted on this.

[DaveS3]

it's doing something to get the # (some calculations) as it takes a while to transfer and then send the result back to the watch face.

[JTWrenn]

There is a lot of odd all around on this.  There is no reason that you couldn't do whatever the watch face does in the OS.  There i just no reason from a programming point of view on that at all.  The watch face does not control the heart rate monitor, or other hardware...the subsystems/OS does.  So at the very least the DECIDED to make the watch face control it and run it in the foreground.  There is no reason at all to do that except they wanted to.  That makes me think it was meant to be a paywalled thing at first, and they just haven't rewritten the cold afterwards.  So they just released an app instead of writing it into the background process.

However I really just wonder if the difference when running the app is just that it stores the data differently, or in more detail.  There really is no technical reason I can think of that it couldn't be simply taken from the walk face, and put into a behind the scenes app that runs when asleep, if a box is ticked in settings.

[mbarylski]

Yea, a ton of strangeness here. It already records the data without the clock face. Its just so peculiar that the Spo2 clock face would have to be on to see the %. One of the strangest things I've ever seen. And worse, it drains more of the battery. Its like they're capturing the data twice! I really hope they'll respond to this soon 

[DaveS3]

Because it drains more battery, it seems to be a more substantial capture
somehow. Running the app (watch face) and sensor has to be taking more
juice.

[JTWrenn]

That really doesn't explain why it can't be done though. I mean, the
trigger is still the same. From a programming standpoint the clock face is
a very weird way to set a checkbox. That is literally all it needs to do.
It flips a 0 to a 1. All of the rest of it can be done without the clock
face, they just made the checkbox a clock face.

[userexec]

You've got to be kidding... That isn't a feature? The sensor is just dead without a clock face?

That has to mean the clock face is actually a functional component of the software and not just a styled view of data the watch's OS is providing. That's almost inconceivably bad architecture. Like, "just delete it all and start over" bad architecture. What on earth.

[Ithandra]

I agree 100% with the OP. There is absolutely no reason why this cannot be accessed more directly. One of my issues is short term memory and I cannot always remember to change the blasted clock face (an issue on its own - why is the most recently used face at the end of the list???). Having to remember to change the clock face is difficult for me. 

I also agree that the data needs to be visible in the app itself. It’s used to generate the chart, so why not show the percentage?

As a former software tester, this is too much of a hassle and I would have told them that in testing. ><

[SunsetRunner]

Exactly!

Sent from my iPhone

[pbug56]

After I read the book on this new SPO2 sleep stuff, I was pretty much ready to barf.  It's even more absurd than the no number variability chart.  That you would have to use a horrible, useless clockface all night - which really means all day, in the vain hope that once in a while (if Fitbit agrees that you've slept at least 3 hours straight, which for me happens about once per month) it will give me some percentage on the correct face of the official night time spo2 clock.  As I understand it, it doesn't give you the % over time, at least not there.  But because it is a PITA to change clocks, plus you have to remember to before you go to bed, my guess is that most people will get no use of this.  Makes me wonder why again Fitbit doesn't really want us to have VIABLE SPO2 readouts on our FITBIT watches.  

BTW, I noticed that in the official ON SPO2 collector clock, that I cannot see or read the watch battery level.  That's beyond indiotic.

So once again I point out the obvious to Fitbit.

1. Yes, it would be nice to open our phone app in the morning and see a detailed chart of our SPO2 for the night versus our sleep quality.

2. Show the whole sleep chart itself regardless of the 3 hour minimum, versus a chart of our HR, and a charted indicator of whatever else like body movement, making clear by color what is deep, light, REM, etc.  You can add a disclosure that below a certain duration that it is not really saying much re sleep quality.

3.  Allow us to turn on real time / full time SPO2 data collection, and allow a readout that shows the SPO2 on any clock whose author cares to show it.

4. Allow us to calibrate it against a SPO2 finger clip.

5. Also allow us to calibrate steps against real life.

Pretty please stop gimmicking up SPO2 instead of making it useful.

[mbarylski]

@YojanaFitbit Can you please provide an update on this feature request? Almost 200 votes in a week. Please discuss with the product team and provide a response back to us.

[cliff46]

Four big disappointments: 1. SpO2 ony availbable with specific clock faceone clock  2. Time on SpO2 face is too small for viewing w/o wearing glasses and generally, most folks don't were them at night!  3. SpO2 function is a major drain on the battery.   4. None of this was advertised!  All I heard zillions of features and FIVE days of battery.  I'm a big boy I could have handled the truth up front I hate like the dickens to be lied to!

Sound like I'm returning and going back to my trusty Blaze!

Looks Like Another Tech OVER sell!

[pbug56]

Amazingly what you get with this clock is to ALLOW SPO2 data collection to
be collected, but as I understand it, it is only turned on when the watch
thinks you may be sleeping. Once you get up for real, it decides if you
really did sleep at least 3 hours, and if not it deletes the data from what
it looks like. And this clock being in use is the master on / off switch
but otherwise is useless. Even if you do sleep, what do you get out of
it? A few readouts, what I'm guessing is an average sleep SPO2 for your
entire sleep time for that night - no ongoing real time or individual
readings, just an average for the night. What do you need that for? If
it's only for sleep, you need the real SPO2 chart against your sleep
quality chart with numbers and times.

Yes, it will eat up battery. And yes, in settings on the watch or the
phone there should be an explicit on off switch for spo2 data collection.
And it should allow settings for calibration, sleep only, REAL TIME only,
sleep and REAL TIME, and for whatever periods it is turned on for the
ability to download it all with other watch data. ALSO, any designer of
clock faces should be able to include SPO2 in any face that has
'performance' data. And maybe FITBIT could vary the data capture rate
based on what your body is doing. If relaxed and sleeping, sampling could
slow down to avoid wasted ram and battery, but if you start moving more,
speed up collection.

[SunsetRunner]

I agree. This is just stupid. 

[JTWrenn]

Can we at least get something saying why this was done in the first place?
I really feel like if we just had some reasoning for it, something that
tells us how this happened it would go a bit of a way to letting us feel
like this made sense. Right now everyone is just mad because it seems so
blatantly ridiculous.

Communicate with us, please!

[DaveS3]

Haha, they'll never really say. But I think the paywall guess is a good
one. Since you can charge for a watch face, it would have been convenient.
Software architecture is guess #2, but it seems like that could have been
avoided?

[meresydotes]

Also, why does a clockface you're meant to use while sleeping vibrate all the time?

[Marob]

This is the most rediculous clock face. Only works at night and then gives you a range plus an average. I'd like to know what my SpO2 is at any given time during the day or night. If it tells me that my range is from 92 to 98, tell me when it was 92? That's important. Given that SpO2 is something that is of concern with Covid-19, you would think that Fitbit would have thought this app out a little better.

[pbug56]

Everything they do with SPO2 seems meant to provide as little usefulness as
possible. Having to use an awful clock at night just to hope it collects
o2 data and your preferred clock during the day is a huge pain. That plus
what you said tells me that this is still useless. Pitiful.