Fitbit Sense on wrist call annoying, want to turn it off but keep the ability to accept/decline call

[gregvp]

I came from the Ionic with the watch able to notify me of incoming calls and letting me answer accept/decline a call by tapping the screen. 

I loved this feature as I wear Bluetooth hearing aids and it lets me keep my phone in my pocket and I could tap the Ionic and answer the call. 

With the Sense when I got it in October it gave me the ability to answer the call from my wrist and also at the end of the call I could tap the Sense screen to hang up. Absolutely loved it, I can answer a call by fiddling with the buttons on my hearing aids but this was simpler and much easier to use.

However; with the new updates in the last few weeks I how have an issue where if I tapped the Sense screen to answer a call my hearing aids don't connect, this leaves me fumbling to get my phone out of my pocket and go to speaker or connect my Bluetooth hearing aids, today I discovered what is happening, I realised that the call audio was diverted to my Sense speaker on my wrist, of course the microphone in also on my wrist so if I accept/answer a call from the Sense I have to hold my wrist to my ear to hear it and make the microphone close enough to my mouth to work.

So what was a brilliant hands free system on the Ionic and the Sense initially, it's now useless to me.

Sure I can look at my wrist, and if I don't want to take the call I can hang-up on it, but if I want the call I need to either fiddle with my hearing aid buttons to answer it and at the end hang up on it, or answer from my wrist and try to divert the call to my phone (hoping my BT hearing aids pick it up).

If I answer the call with the hearing aids I don't get the option to hang up from the Sense screen and the same goes for answering from my phone.

Basically I want to turn it off the speaker/mic function but keep the ability to accept/decline calls and hang-up at the end.

[Rich_Laue]

@gregvp of you disconnect the Sense Controls, the Sense should act like the ionic. 

[gregvp]

Hi Rich, no it will not act like the Ionic as the Ionic has it's own version of Controls which allow for answering calls and controlling music. Disable the controls and you lose all of that. 

If I disable the microphone then I am sure to also lose the Google assistant and voice to text message reply.

Before the update to 5.1 I could answer calls from the watch and talk via Bluetooth, seems we may have lost the option to talk via Bluetooth in favour of holding a wrist near a ear to hold a conversation (very big step backward FITBIT).

Talking via the watch should be an option not the default.

[Rich_Laue]

Well what happens when you transfer the call back to the phone? 

[gregvp]

Good question and one I can answer as I received a call just now, it goes to the phone and not the Bluetooth headset, means getting the phone out and connecting the BT headset.

So best option now is to look at the watch, if it's a call I don't want to take I can press the red hang-up option, if I want to take the call I then need to press the hearing aid button to answer it.

Not as good as it was with version 5.0 or the Ionic.

The big point is and I good be wrong but the Mic and speaker are not things most people would ever really use.

[Rich_Laue]

I use the mic a lot to respond to text and the both with Alexa and she speaks back to me. Haven't had to many calls but have found it handy when not near the phone. 

[gregvp]

Don't get me wrong, the Mic is great, I can respond to texts and request Google assistant to turn lights on etc. Love it, the speaker however I don't find at all useful. My pet hate with Google and Alexa is the voice repeating back what my request was, drives me nuts. With Google assist on Sense at least she doesn't yet speak back, just some text on the screen which is great. When they enable the voice for google assist I'll probably complain about that as well. 

[Akshsin]

Came looking for a solution to the same problem. This mic -> call feature is so annoying for the same reasons you mentioned, @gregvp . I also don't foresee many people using fitbit to talk to people ON THE WATCH! Fitbit should try to get away with the feature, or at least give certain people an option to disable it, while allowing Ionic like call interactions, and be able to summon google assistant, etc.

[shielalee]

I don't remember if wrist answer feature was something we had to accept when we started up the Sense. If we reset the device will it be disabled for calls and we can opt not to set it up? 

[Sueling]

Ditto. Also came looking for solution to the call issues. It doesn't flow nicely at all. 

For me I'm making outgoing calls from the watch using google assistant and the audio and mic being used is the ones connected to my phone. (Not watch) 

When answering inbound calls I am sometimes able to answer through watch but sounds come in on watch speaker and mic. So it's starting to get very confusing. I want to be able to use one mic and speaker to do both inbound and outbound calls. Whether it be the watch or my blue tooth headset. And what doesn't help is that you can connect two headset one to the watch and the other to phone. So I had to work out which headset it was going to use. Confused. 😕

Still don't have a method that consistently works without a faff.

Will this be updated? Or should I return my versa3?

[Racerboy666]

Did anyone find a solution to this? I miss the feature on my Versa 2 where I could just answer the call and it would go straight to my phone or earbuds. 

[Rich_Laue]

@gregvp the ionic didn't have on wrist calls.

To answer on the wrist, ie talk through watch, requires Sense Controls. 

@shielalee on wrist calls will not work until Sense Controls are setup. 

My thought @Racerboy666 

Really, the only time I talk through the wrist is when I'm at work and the phone is by the control desk. 

[HyTeK]

They are not saying on wrist calls.

They are saying allow the watch to answer the phone, and the phone connects to the default bluetooth headset. Which is what the Ionic does, and what the previous versions of Sense use to do.
I have the same issue. Before the updates I can have my bluetooth headphones connected to my phone listening to music, a call would come in, I can tap answer on the Sense, and the phone would pick up the call and connect to the active bluetooth headphones. 
Ever since one of these Sense updates that functionality has changed, and the Sense defaults to wrist calls. I have found no way to change it back to the way it used to be. (Ionic like)

[HyTeK]

Well, actually found a way for it to default back to bluetooth.

1. On the sense, turn off Wrist Calls
2. In phone settings (on iOS it's under accessibility) change the default call routing to bluetooth/headset
3. You can now use your sense again to answer calls and have it default to bluetooth headphones

Looks like if you do have wrist calls enabled (sense controls), calls default TO the Sense mic/speaker, and no way to change that behavior. However, you are able from the Sense transfer it back to your phone, and if you have an active bluetooth headset connected, the headset will pick it up. (Which is annoying as it's a twostep process at that point.)

Just tested all this and seems to work as described here.

Hope that helps anyone who has been having the same issues as me with the update change.