What Users Want Most

[JonFitbit]

Here are a list of requested apps/features that users are requesting.

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/idb-p/features/label-name/fitbit%20app%20gallery...

We thought it might be good food for thought for developers who need inspiration!

[JonFitbit]

This post is for discussing ideas which consumers want for their devices. App and Clock ideas.

[paperinik]

Just saw the thread got renamed.

[calvinnbs]

No too be snarky but a Pebble Time 2 is probably what most users want most.  The Ionic is $100 more for a device that has less functionality (hello microphone for taking actions!?) is pretty hard to swallow.

[modsuperstar]

Just realized this was the wrong thread for previous reply.

App Ideas

• Nest integration
• Remote camera lens trigger

[technomom]

I want a round model, just like my Pebble Time Round.  

[r00t4rd3d]

Thanks for sticking it to all the active Pebble users come June 30th. My love of Pebble and fitbits miserable decision to kill the servers on the June 30th guarantees that I will never in my life buy or recommend any fitbit device ever. Buying up Pebble then throwing it in the trash shows me what kind of company fitbit really is. Congratulations on souring the relationship with a large group of wearable fans and potential future customers.

[modsuperstar]

r00t4rd3d

I think you're raging against the wrong machine here dude. Fitbit didn't kill Pebble and has done the community a favour by keeping the service running for a year and a half. If Pebble had a viable business model they'd still be in business. You could probably debate the fact the servers might have been out of commission by now if Pebble had just straight up gone out of business.

[FlyFrosty]

I was just looking at the list of what people want.  It appears that there are a lot of wants that many of you developers have accommodated.  I suggest you review the list and see if you can close-out any of the wants while advertising your own or someone else's app. 

Just a thought.

[paperinik]

Most of these wants are not even possible to develop due to missing features in the SDK. For example:

1. there is no way to know if BT connectivity is lost (it was available in Pebble). So forget about "Alarm when Paired Phone Contact is Lost"
2. there is no way to emit a sound in the companion App, like in Pebble. So forget about "Find my phone"
3. there is no way to communicate with a native app, like in Pebble. So forget abot "Remote Function for Camera"

Besides, current BT stack is deeply broken, so Apps like Nest (developed by FitBit), are not even as reliable as they could be. 

Will it be fixed? We don't know, we were supposed to know about 10 days ago 🙂

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/SDK-Development/Companion-messaging-and-writing-a-file-Not-working/m...

Sorry for the rant, frustration is really high.

[gaperton]

I would like to add that the existing SDK doesn't support integration with git, which makes it virtually impossible to do any collaborative development.

This thing alone seriously restricts the complexity of apps that can be developed. I'm not even talking about other features crucial for the serious development, like an absence of the debugger, no control over the build process, typescript build broken, inability to add arbitrary objects to the screen...

Look, given the state of the SDK and absence of the public roadmap you can hardly expect the JS developers will put everything they are doing aside, and invest their time in writing apps for such a platform. And look at the app gallery. How many apps do we have after the half of the year since the SDK announced?

[paperinik]

I am starting to think that even choosing JS over other languages is a signal that FitBit never meant to turn this into something more useful than a glorious Watchface development kit. 

[SunsetRunner]

There appears to be less and less input by Fitbit representatives here on this forum .... just look at the post count in the last week or so. I am sure there are lots of angles that need to be covered, but a help forum provided by Fitbit where product ambassadors should be mentoring/encouraging/supporting/enthusing but instead everything feels stifled/stumbling/resistant.

It does beg the question "Is it worth continuing to invest time and effort into the Ionic?"

This thought process quite probably would be averted if a more open approach was taken by Fitbit.

Having bought the Ionic before Christmas as a present from the Wife as a tool to help me train for a Marathon in April, the price has been slashed by £40 (15% price reduction!!). I feel ripped off on two fronts (price slash and incomplete SDK with no apparent road map or milestones). If I could get a refund I would.

Any input from anyone at Fitbit? Or are you going to pick and choose which threads you contribute to? Some good points made above by @paperinik and @gaperton.

[JonFitbit]

@paperinik - yes, we do have known comms issues, the next firmware update is a LOT better. It's imminent, so thanks for your patience. We're also fully aware of the SDK limitations, and the first version has a lot of features, but it's clear we still have a lot more to provide. It's definitely not intended to only be a watch development kit, but the first release has been lacking in the areas previously discussed.

@gaperton We're looking to provide integration with git in a number of ways, we'll be sure to announce when we have more news.

@SunsetRunner - Fred and I have been tied up on some other work, but it's our responsibility to help on the forums. You might find additional help on Discord, but I'm back patrolling here again now. In regard to being more open, there's a fine line between revealing our roadmap and keeping developers in the loop. Some information directly affects our IP and corporate strategy, so we need to take a measured approach. @SunsetRunner is working so we can become more open and transparent, but it takes time.

Hopefully this response hasn't "picked and chosen" responses, let me know if you have other questions.

[SunsetRunner]

@JonFitbit

Thank you for your response.

I understand some things can well be sensitive - but please understand we have invested financially and in time - much of which hasn't been well utilised when coming across issues that only SDK fixes can resolve.

Your response for the panorama component is useful. Can you provide suitable examples (including event hooks) for tumblers / tile views. Whilst I understand that BART covers some of tile views, it doesn't cover example adding / removing tiles and handling events of code instantiated tiles. Providing said example code would be throwing us a bone to play with whilst stability / additional api's and documentation is put together and released.

Either this forum is an official help forum or it isn't. As far as I am aware the discord channel is not an official support forum. Forum's are great places to record solutions that are easy / easier to search for. I am not so sure Discord has such easy to reference tools. If I am wrong on this point please educate me. 🙂

[paperinik]

@JonFitbit

Thank you. I like "imminent". Last time it ended up being the following day. 

[uvimate]

Hi guys! To be honest as a mobile user I was always amused the lack of sun safety apps for wearables. Living in AU without knowing the local UV Index is hard, the same I assume applies for the half of US. Recently stumbled upon the API https://www.openuv.io that claims to provide real-time UV Index and looking forward to give it a try and display the data on a custom home screen. Cheer.

[Comeinhandy]

Where is the access to sleep data on the watch face of the ionic?  A must have please.  Useful to check if I’ve actually had enough sleep when I wake up.  Can’t believe it’s not under ‘today’.  Unless I have missed something!?  Which I don’t think I have.  Missing this function that the pebble time did nicely.

Also needs a heart rate graph, over time, accessed on the watch face, like with the Garmin vivoactive hr.

Also on the list already, which gets my vote is a timeline review. I.e. what is coming up in my iOS calendar.

if it had these it would be great!  I’ve just switched from a pebble time steel.

[Falthazar]

I think what I miss most about Pebble is the ability to see the whole notification. When I get texts or emails, I can only really see the first line or two.

With the larger screen on the Ionic, it would be nice if it could display the whole text/email.

[Comeinhandy]

It can. Just tap on the message

Best regards Jon Lamb

{Mod: removed personal info]