Feedback about features on Sense 2

[--Smeagol--]

Seeing as my original post was buried in the Google assistant thread, even though its unrelated. I've decided to post it again.

I purchased the Sense 2 for my wife. We were aware that Google assistant would likely be missing (this is not our complaint), and she was ok with that (although I thought differently). 

To our surprise as you can imagine, we were shocked to learn that Google assistant isn't the only downgrade. Let me list the downgrades so that other users can save themselves some time. 

• No Google assistant.
• No WiFi (means software updates will take forever). 
• No Fitbit app gallery or access to 3rd party apps (this means no Deezer, Spotify or the likes).
• No music controls. That's right, there is no ability to even control the music playing on your phone. 
• No on wrist Bluetooth calling. 
• No Google wallet or Google apps out of the box (we did know about this before the purchase). 
• Inability to rearrange exercise shortcuts.
• No snore detection 

I'm sorry but to me (and my non techie wife) this is an outright downgrade to the Versa 3 my wife was currently using. That's right the Sense 2 is a downgrade even on the Versa 3. Fitbit should be ashamed of themselves, they are acting no differently to a scam artist and will not be getting a dime more out of me.

Good luck and think twice before parting with your money.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[Tristannyc]

Not to be that guy, but this was a make it or break it moment for me. 

I HAVE and STILL USE the Versa 1.

It has the following features:
- Altimeter

- 3-4 day battery life

- Find my Phone

- SP02

- HRV

- Etc etc etc 

It is basically the flagship of the Versa line and it never LOST functions, actually during the pandemic it magically gained PASSIVE without needing the watch face Sp02 and then after they removed it. (so it can do it with the sensors)

The watch has MORE features than every FLAGSHIP model that came after it with exception of the Versa 2. That one is still good.

It doesn't break after a year I have had mine for 6.

I tried the charge 5. It was a nice form factor but watch faces and general functionality missing made me not really want it just for a little better battery.

Oh it also sent electrical current up my arm to the point of involuntary twitching during sleep... that was weird.

They took it back.

So this year, I looked at the Apple Watch. And the Ultra. I currently am wearing both. So far... Other than the obvious the versa 1 will probably have 1 more day of battery, it looks like I will probably get about 3 days of battery out of the Apple watch and if I charge it for 10 minutes 4. 

So... I think I am about to jump ship. As someone who suffers from anxiety and the like the Skin sensing and stress sensing had me really excited but then I saw them crippling the watch piece by piece. No way man.. This has been the TREND for over 6 years people. When do we wake up and say, "I am no longer interested in your companies policies that are not for the consumer". 

This is the year for me. P.S. They are about the same weight(in your mind) if you can believe that craziness. And there is no interface lag etc. It just lacks the "fitbit" experience I am used to. But third party apps have taken care of most of that. And if you want the best one that does what say, Fitbit premium does? 29$ a year, not 99. I am sorry, but it is Garmin (if you wanna skip sleep data) or the Apple watch from now on. I am so over Fitbit and their anti consumer ways. Google would need to pull a miracle out its hat to make the Pixel Watch a contender because it is clear they want it to be the "flagship" and Fitbit to be the second mate.

 

[SunsetRunner]

Fitbit Google would serve itself better by honestly replying to these Sense 2 posts instead of hiding. If I knew a fix were coming in a reasonable timeframe Id keep the Sense 2, otherwise Its going back. I need access to other than the 8 or so apps they allow, its pathetic.  I need my text alerts to work, they do not, and Ive already trouble shot it. If Fitbit cant give a date for the updates, then back it goes. 

[LissaxKristine]

My anxiety is why I ordered the Sense 2. I thought I might get alerts when I was feeling agitated which would lead to increased awareness and emotional control. But it's not worth the $300 price tag.

I haven't ruled out the Pixel Watch yet, but I'm also testing out a Garmin that I like except for a few minor details (inflated calorie burn, sleep tracking, and lack of Cubii compatibility).

I'm on my way to return the Sense 2 now

[MattJ71]

Returned my Sense 2 the day after I got it.

[Tristannyc]

The Garmin Stress tracking as someone with anxiety btw, gave me MORE
stress, because it NEVER TOLD ME WHY! lol. I need to know if it is going to
shove it in my face. Was hoping for a lighter touch with Fitbit.

[LissaxKristine]

I was hoping for something simple. Like when it notices I'm showing signs of stress/anxiety it vibrates and prompts me to do a short breathing exercise or gives me a prompt asking if I need to take a break. 

[robinjamesshort]

I am also very disappointed, I loved my sense and it died after I went swimming and I had already pre ordered the sense 2. I loved the fact I could link my ear buds and listen to pandora direct from my sense and all of the apps like United and others. This new evolution to me is so disappointing it seems more like a downgrade to a lite version. Of what I had not the fan fare version Fitbit was posting as their flagship watch !!!

[KawiNinja]

I'm returning mine later today. I already went ahead and purchased the Garmin Venu Sq 2 as a replacement from Amazon. The fact that this new watch removed a majority of the features from it's predecessor was a deal breaker to me. No music controls, no calendar, no apps. What's the point? The Garmin I ordered does everything this watch does, including stress and sleep tracking, and doesn't hide features/reports behind a premium paywall. Plus the battery life is double what the Sense 2 is capable of and the price is $50 less for the base model than the Sense 2. Super disappointing because I've loved my Fitbit watches over the years but they can't possibly claim these features weren't ready for the new watch when the original Sense handled them all just fine. I'm in agreeance with others that have claimed they stripped the Sense 2 down to be just a health watch and are going to have all of the desired smart features exclusive to the Pixel watch. Best of luck Google. Thanks for buying out a company, stealing their tech, and trashing their reputation with a garbage product release.

[SunsetRunner]

It’s not even a health watch as you can’t get any helpful/healthful apps other than the few they allow. Many health apps out there available but not for the Sense 2. Ridiculous 

[t.parker]

@Tristannyc how do you expect that would be working? How any device may know why you are stressed? Fitbit won't tell you that either. All those devices know is a few metrics that can figure out whether you experiencing stress but it's you who can put it into the real-world context. Garmin stress monitoring is purely based on HRV (it's well documented by the FirstBeat). It will show stress levels and with Relax Reminder feature will notify you propose an action but that's it. There is no technology that can tell why we are stressed just from measuring a few things from the wrist 🙂

@LissaxKristine Garmin does that with Relax Reminder feature (not all models have it). The stress tracking is pretty good (yet, I find it useless despite of experiencing mental and physical (training) stress). I think Fitbit wanted to push it further and add input from EDA sensor and on paper it sounds like a good idea but (speaking from experience) usually Fitbit delivers features half-baked like SpO2 - yes, but only at night, Spotify - yes, but can't use it during activities, water lock - sure, but only during swimming (people take shower and not always want to take the watch off) etc.

[Swdecord]

We can no longer select a clockface on the Sense 2 itself, but must open the Fitbit app in order to change clockfaces and when you open the Today app on the Sense 2 you can no longer tap on each individual metric (ie...SPO2, Sleep, etc.) to see more information...On the Sense, you could tap on SPO2 in the Today app and see your O2 range during Sleep, but on the Sense 2 it is no longer available...I have used Fitbits since 2014, and have suffered through their half-baked product launches, but this, by far, is the absolute worst product launch that I have experienced...I rarely post on here, even when I'm aggravated about an issue, but this is absolutely ridiculous...I'm going to wait until the Pixel Watch is launched on October 6th before I decide whether to return the Sense 2 or not, but I'm fairly certain that I'm going back to my original Sense until they fix the deficiencies with the Sense 2...

[Tristannyc]

Relax. I was talking more about how it just shows up as “lines of x amount
of stress”. It doesn’t give you insight as to a change in anything else
other than “YOU HAD STRESS!” So it’s very hard to decipher if heart rate
changed, movement, etc. there are tons of things it can use but just
doesn’t.

I’m not expecting it to to tele doc me and give me Klonopin. Holy aggro
reply. Breath in breath out. I think you have stress. 😂 no Watch needed.
--
Sent from my phone. Please excuse any typos, over abundance of emojis, or
autocorrect duck ups.

[LissaxKristine]

I returned mine immediately. If they upgrade and the device improves over time, I can always reorder. But I'm not taking my chances

[Tristannyc]

This is how we should be buying things ALWAYS. When they are DONE not "work in progress, maybe". Good choice.

[robinjamesshort]

I agree and disappointed is an understatement. I always throw the boxes away when I get a Fitbit upgrade but this time I kept the box and I may be using it to return


Sent from my iPhone

[robinjamesshort]

How about someone from Fitbit chime in as everyone seems unhappy with the flagship !! Let us know if there are plans to take this seriously or if we need to go back to sense 1 or another manufacturer

Sent from my iPhone

[LissaxKristine]

My main issues with Garmin are that it doesn't work with my Cubii (under desk elliptical) and the calorie burn is inflated. It said I burned almost 3,000 calories on Sunday assumingly because I had a few high heart rate alerts. I don't really pay attention to the calorie burn feature as I know it's not accurate no matter what device I use, but I'd rather the numbers underestimate than overestimate. 

[Fab31t]

That's the agile way to develop products 😄 The agile methods allows to deliver the Minimum Marketable Product fast, secure the time to market to catch the customer, and the rest follows in the next updates. I am saying that a bit as joke but that's unfortunately many times used in this way when there is no time to bring the completed product on the market which is my feeling with these watches.

They may be finalized in 6 months of so, they may secure customers selling them unfinished now, but personally I cancelled my order and will wait. Till they get the expected functions on the Sense 2 there may be other better choices available and 300$/€ + Premium Abo is not something I want to pay for an unfinished product.

I really hope we get clarification soon. In between I keep my current one. Super sad because I expected a lot. A Sense 1 with all reviews feedback corrected would have been a really good watch, that should have been the minimum product as Sense 2.

[LissaxKristine]

---

@Tristannyc wrote:
Relax. I was talking more about how it just shows up as “lines of x amount
of stress”. It doesn’t give you insight as to a change in anything else
other than “YOU HAD STRESS!” So it’s very hard to decipher if heart rate
changed, movement, etc. there are tons of things it can use but just
doesn’t.

I’m not expecting it to to tele doc me and give me Klonopin. Holy aggro
reply. Breath in breath out. I think you have stress. 😂 no Watch needed.
--
Sent from my phone. Please excuse any typos, over abundance of emojis, or
autocorrect duck ups.

---

I agree with this. Let me know what triggered the stress alert so I can troubleshoot. 

[t.parker]

@LissaxKristine like you said, calories are always estimated. Calories based on HR are never accurate and knowing more about own body it's possible to adjust certain things. I never track casual walking because what I burn that way is rather insignificant. Also, I noticed that wrist sensors tend to register higher HR during walking (comparing with chest straps) which will inflate calories. I don't track calories from weight training and anything that involves more resting than actual exercising. On Suunto watch, I permanently disabled wrist HR and used chest strap for activities and that was added to raw BMR. Garmin for me is pretty accurate but this is because I do pretty much the same as with Suunto (I keep wrist HR on but rely only on BMR) and track only running, cycling, rowing and long hikes (with chest strap) for active calories (for running, cycling and rowing I use connected power meters so that's best for accuracy, much better than HR). There is no perfect solution and each platform does it differently. Also, I'm on the other end and most of platforms (including Fitbit) underestimates my energy expenditure 🙂 Hence I worked out own way of what comes in and what I ignore.

I looked at the stress graph on Garmin and it doesn't tell me anything I wouldn't know. I'm just curious why people even need stress tracking. It's similar case as the daily readiness - feature telling you what you already know but stressing you even more if it tells you not what you want to hear (see the threads about HRV or readiness) 🙂 Did we forget how to listen to own body? I know when I'm stressed and why, whether it's mental or physical etc. Most of stress related problems cannot be fixed with breathing app on the watch. The stress detection is based on multiple parameters and it's hardly only one indicates that you're stressed. HRV is a good way of detecting stress as it's directly connected to the nervous system. EDA is more like a "lie detector". Elevated HR doesn't need to mean anything (people run to relax, I do that and elevate my HR to actually relax 🙂 ). Watch with current technology won't be able to give you much more details than saying "you are this much in stress". Will show you values like HRV, HR, EDA responses etc. but as numbers these will be still meaningless. But who knows, maybe one day we will have advanced stress analysis and watch will tell "you should return your Sense 2 immediately as it's stressing you out!" 😄