More information in release notes for Fitbit app

[SunsetRunner]

Release notes for new versions of the apps contain no useful information. The release notes for the version 3.17 just like most of the so called release notes before it only says "We fixed some bugs and made stability improvements". What bugs have been fixed? Not supplying information is unhelpful to users.

Users waiting for fixes don't know if they can expect change, and those who don't need the fixes and updating just because it's new run the risk of being affected by regression.

This has been requested by others in the past but there has been no change in the level of detail.

Moderator edit: subject for clarity

[LiliyaFitbit]

Hi @SunsetRunner, it's nice to see you again in our Community Forums. I am sorry for the delayed response.

I appreciate your participation in the Forums and sharing your suggestion to include more details in the release notes on the Fitbit app. Thank you for providing a link. While our help article includes sometimes more details about the latest Fitbit app version, I understand your point of view and appreciate your feedback. Our team is always working on improving our devices and user experiences, and your comments are always welcome. 

To share additional feedback or if you want to see features to be improved, feel free to visit our Feature suggestion board. Here our product development teams consult regularly to ensure we're delivering on what our customers need and want. Please take a moment to visit and give us your feedback.

If you have any questions, feel free to let me know.

[SunsetRunner]

Thanks for the reply @LiliyaFitbit . I will post this on the feature request board.

I had already seen the help article. As far as I can tell it never includes information on fixes, only on new features and plans to drop support for old OS versions.

Not related to my original request but I've also noticed that the information in that article does not seem to be accurate. Some of the features showing as having been released in 3.19 already seem to be available to me (at the very least the average weekly sleep stats) and I'm using version 3.15.

[LiliyaFitbit]

Hi @SunsetRunner, thank you for your reply. 

I appreciate your participation in our Feature suggestion board. Thank you for the additional feedback, I appreciate you bringing this to our attention since this helps us to keep improving. 

In case you have some spare time, I would like to invite you to visit our Discussions board where you will find great tips and encouragement from other members.

I'll be around if you have any additional questions. 

[SunsetRunner]

@LiliyaFitbit this issue appears to be addressed by @KateFitbit in this thread  https://community.fitbit.com/t5/iOS-App/Clarification-on-app-update-notes/m-p/3957892

It's been 4 months and there are still no changes to the issue. Instead it looks like it was forgotten about as we are being directed to Feature suggestion.

If there is a bug in the app you would have to know what it is so you can fix it.  You'd also want to keep a record documenting it was fixed so that you don't go back in and try and fix something that is already fixed.

Is it really that hard to share the information?

[SunsetRunner]

@SunsetRunner Thanks for the comment. I noticed that post as well but since it had already been marked as answered and none of the releases since had shown any indication that the need had been understood I decided to start a new thread. I did add my comment and vote to an existing thread on the feature request board rather post a new request though.

I get the feeling that there is a disconnect between the boards and the development team. Even if something has been reported to dev, I've seen little evidence on the board that any action is ever taken beyond that. 

I can't believe it is hard to provide this information. I've never heard of a software company where bugs and their fixes aren't being tracked internally and the wording in Fitbit's own database probably only needs a little editing to make it suitable for publication. With no feedback it really makes me think the reason is that they don't want (potential) customers to see how long it takes between the bugs being reported and the fixes being released.