Is it possible to use an external HR chest strap?

[Radsportler]

Can I connect a third party HR Chest Strap like the polar H7 to the Fitbit Versa?

Moderator Edit: Clarified Subject.

[Giampi71]

No you cannot

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @Radsportler, thanks for joining the Fitbit Community, it's great to have you on board! It's nice to see you around as well @Giampi71. 

@Radsportler, thanks for sharing your inquiry about this situation. We're always striving to enhance Fitbit products and services, and we appreciate all of the input we receive from our customers. Unfortunately, our team does not currently have plans to release this integration in the feature. You can learn more about how Fitbit decides what suggestions get released in our FAQs. 

I sincerely apologize for this situation, if there's anything else I can do for you, please feel free to reply. 

[Drdon15]

This is a bad decision by Fitbit. Wrist based HR monitoring is not nearly as accurate and it’s a shame this feature is being ignored. For workouts where monitoring HR is important I surely will not use my Fitbit. Too bad because it is a useful device in many other ways. 

[Idunno]

I completely agree. Wrist-base HR monitoring is a toy, and not a very good one. It's not just "not as accurate", it's wildly inaccurate, and very often so. I can be strolling at 75 bpm by my pulse and the device thinks I'm cranking at 125.

It has taken me quite a while to come to this conclusion, after lots of hoping and wishing it weren't so. I'm amazed that so many devices have and promote wrist-based HR monitoring, and sell devices base on the "feature", and get more money for it. 

As you said, in the Inspire 2 we have a fairly useful device, and fairly well-designed. But it can't pair with chest strap heart rate monitor that would make it an essential device (even though it has the bluetooth capabilities). 

So I won't be using it any more either. Once I realized I couldn't rely on Inspire 2's wrist-based HR monitoring, I switched over to a Garmin vivofit 4. No pretense, screen is readable outdoors, screen is always on, battery charge lasts a year (!), has sleep tracking, and has activity tracking. It doesn't do HR monitoring and also doesn't pair with a chest strap monitor. But it is priced accordingly and has the features it turns out I really need.

And when I need to monitor my heart rate I strap on my Polar H10 and hold my iPhone in my hand so I can see the Polar Beat app screen with the information that should be on my watch. 

Every vendor seems to want to have their own little world. Short-term thinking and very foolish, you are right!