Will we ever be able to use SpO2 Sensor with a different clock face?

[blear43]

Having to switch to the SpO2 clock face every night before bed is easily my biggest disappointment with my new Sense. The clock face is useless for any other purpose than the SpO2 reading and is an absolute waste otherwise.

Will there be a point where we can get our nightly SpO2 readings without having to remember to replace our favorite clock faces every night?

[eljae]

Look in the metrics section on the app.

[blear43]

I'm not sure what you are telling me. 

I am aware that the information is shown in the Health Metrics section but my question is in regards to having to switch clock faces every night before bed in order for the SpO2 sensor to work. 

I have not seen anything that says the sensor will still work even with a different clock face selected. 

[forthewatch]

yes its cumbersome to change clock face every night to get the reading but maybe it is accurate that way. Perhaps thats why fitbit implemented it in the first place. There are lot of people mentioned about the SpO2 clock face issue so its possible fitbit will change how SpO2 can be taken.

[stellafred]

I don’t know whether this helps, but I have set an alarm (on my Sense) for every night at 11:30 to remind me to change the clock face. Doesn’t directly answer your question, but it makes remembering to switch a lot easier.

[mbarylski · Accepted solution]

I really hope they do change this soon. Go here to vote: https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/View-SpO2-in-app-and-don-t-require-SpO2-clock-fa.... 

I'm hoping that their focused on the ECG app now which is why they haven't fixed this issue.

[TheNightSkyGuy]

I just read this Wired review where the reviewer asked Fitbit about the SpO2 clock face...

"When I asked Fitbit reps about this, they said the company will address this with updates in the coming months, but for now you're stuck with it."

My problem with the current one is that it significantly drains the battery - by about 10% per night.   Anyone else notice that it's an energy hog?

[Swdecord]

Yes, I use the SPO2 clockface every night and my Sense charge lasts about 4 days rather than the advertised 6 days

[t.parker]

@TheNightSkyGuy I would assume so as it runs an additional sensor for several hours. It would explain why the watch face is a design decision here. The sensor must run for several hours. It cannot be a standalone app because the FitbitOS doesn't seem to make multitasking simple. The watch face seems to be the easiest solution for developers and enabling the sensor only with this particular clock face makes sure the battery is not drained on the others. I can understand that, yet I think it's a really bad design from a user standpoint. Probably, it could be done differently like turning on SpO2 monitoring when sleep is detected, adding a setting that enables/disables night reading regardless of the clockface. There is a number of ways of implementing that but hey, it's Fitbit, it took them 3 years to get to this point (since announcing SpO2 for Ionic, my Ionic didn't even live that long so I never had a chance to use it) 😄

[Laszlo123]

@t.parker 

I am not convinced this is the explanation, here is why.

I have a first gen Versa. It has been measuring SPO2 for a long time now and displaying it in the Premium section of the app. There was never a battery drain with this.

Then a few weeks ago the new clockface came out and since I started using it my Versa battery time went from 3 days to 2 days.

Btw it has never been adequately explained if this thing that the Sense only measures SPO2 with this watch face is really true, or it actually means that unless you subscribe to Premium (where the measurements are also displayed), your only way to see the measurements is with this clock face. That is still unclear to me.