Why does the Sense even have WiFi?

[SunsetRunner]

Why is it that the Sense can't do much (use voice assistant, update weather forecast, etc.) unless it's connected to your phone via Bluetooth AND the Fitbit app is open on your phone (in iOS)? The device has WiFi... why can't it just connect to the internet using that without having to leave the app open on the phone draining battery? Terrible design.

Moderator Edit: Formatting

[JohnnyRow]

Could it be the Sense does not have the computing power, memory, licenses, etc that your phone has, to be actually running all those programs at a reasonable speed (along with everything else that it is doing), leaving the heavy lifting to your phone and just displaying the results your phone sends to Sense?

But since you are obviously an expert in this area to be able to judge it is a "terrible design", I'm sure you have already thought through any ideas anyone here might suggest.

[SunsetRunner]

The raw data could at least be sent to fitbit servers and processed there, genius. Also you’ve effectively demonstrated why the design is poor: the device lacks the processing power to do make use of its own components. They should make the WiFi connectivity serve a useful purpose if they’re going to include a chip that draws down resources like battery. Else they may as well have just relied on Bluetooth since you need the phone for everything anyway.

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi @SunsetRunner, welcome to the Community Forums. @JohnnyRow, it's good to see you around.

@SunsetRunner, thanks for taking the time to share your feedback about the Sense. Before anything else, let me explain that your Sense uses WiFi connection to download firmware updates or install apps from the Fitbit App Gallery, as long as it's plugged into the charging cable and in range of the network.

That being said, currently it's required to have your phone with the Fitbit app running on the background to ensure the connection of your Fitbit device, as well the performance of its apps. I understand how much you'd like to use your apps without having your phone nearby and while this isn't possible, please know that your feedback will be taken into consideration to improve our devices and your experience with them.

[t.parker]

@SunsetRunner the processing power is one thing but another is power consumption. Wifi consumes lot more energy than BT and using Wifi is usuallly very limited on smartwatches. Even my Garmin uses Wifi only for some thing like downloading Spotify music but then it is recommended to keep the watch plugged into charger. I think Sense may be using Wifi for two things - downloading updates (if this fails it switches to slow BT) and downloading music from Deezer (I think there is offline music support for Deezer). Of course, it would be nice to use Wifi connection for other things like direct syncing with the Fitbir account, accessing Alexa etc. but this means all the processing would have to be implemented in-watch. Now, the phone does all heavy lifting and watch simply shows the results, not much data is coming through. It keeps battery alive. I don't think that Sense has a processing power of Apple or Samsung watches (which, as for watches, are really powerhorses). Wifi makes sense for Sense in this limited context but to make more of it I think, lots of hardware and software changes would have to happen.

[SunsetRunner]

It is also a poor design that the app has to be open in the background to sync properly as well.  Don't have the requirement with Garmin.