Is the "Exercise" app for real or a joke?

[WillNitschke]

OK, let me explain. My first fitness watch was a FitBit back in 2015. I remember it had good sensors for the time and the apps were OK, for the time. I then moved to Garmin which didn't have as good technology, but they caught up. (Although FitBit has passed them again.)

Anyway, here is my question: Garmin has pretty decent exercise apps. You can customise the displays. The 'weights' app lets you start/stop each rep. Then counts the rest period between each rep. It even tries to guess if you just did bench press, etc. It reports in detail on your workout what parts of your body you worked on, etc. Some overkill here. The main thing that is important are counting reps, the time interval in-between, and monitoring your heart rate.

Now, as far as I can see, the FitBit Exercise app is basically a timer with some info like heart rate on display. That's it. What's worse, even thought a zillion different exercises are described, they all look like a basic stop/start timer to me. I mean seriously, I've been a software developer for 30+ years and I could write an app like this in a week. FitBit has had 8 years to get its act together... This is just pathetic. I'm using the Sense 2 which as far as I could work out, is top of the line...

Am I missing something basic here? I sure hope so...

(It seems I can pay extra and install third party apps. But if the app is no good, bad luck? I've already paid for it. So I keep paying until I find something the watch should be able to do out of the box...? Can anyone tell me if my interpretation is mixed up.)

Please set me straight.

[Guy_]

Hi @WillNitschke - thanks for the insights but you can't install apps, paid or free or your own, on this watch, it doesn't support them, so you are stuck with what it comes with.

When you start an exercise scroll up, there are some settings.

[WillNitschke]

Thanks. I found those settings you mentioned. I will need to play with them to see if I can get the basic stuff working. Either I don't know how to do it, or there is no way to cancel a workaround from the watch. A bit strange.

[t.parker]

@WillNitschke you are not wrong. Exercise tracking app is very primitive and indeed for most of activities is just a timer (usually showing calories and HR). Sports tracking requires major upgrade. Adding new labels on Sense 2/Versa 4 is hardly that upgrade. You gave Garmin as example of what Fitbit is missing. There is a lot more. Structured workouts guiding you through intervals, swimming (Fitbit literally provides only timer now as this has been downgraded even more), other sport specific metrics (for example, rowing gives me stroke rate and more, indoor climbing allows marking grades, attempts and results). Fitbit clearly shows that sports tracking isn't a focus. It doesn't seem to even understand fully common sports like running for which other companies provide running dynamics metrics (I don't think we will ever see cadence on Fitbit) and ability to aggregate and analyse data in order to track the progress (what good does it make to just track? what am I supposed to do with two/three lousy charts?) and it's not an understatement to say it's probably the worst sports tracking available in the market.

[katdaddi]

You are not wrong. This is the worst smartwatch on the market right now. I bought into the "state of the art" or "top of the Fitbit line" BS also. 

This is just wrong, the marketing is misleading, and very few things work as advertised if at all. Unfortunate for such a great company to have been dismantled by google. 

I would like to know where you are finding 3rd party apps that are built for the Sense 2. Even if I have to pay, I'm game for looking through them."

[katdaddi]

I assume this has to be done from the watch. There is no way to modify or change settings in the app. Is this correct?

Good luck when you hit 65 years old trying to see the watch face much less read the tiny writing without glasses. If only I would wear my reading glasses when I workout it would be fine