I’ve always found Fitbit’s fitness trackers more interesting than its smartwatches. Like Wear OS inevitably takes over, I hope the tracker form factor is kept alive. To do this, however, Fitbit must support multiple active devices at the same time.
For the past few years, Fitbit has only supported one wearable device associated with your account. This is especially the case since devices started offering an “app gallery”. In the very beginning, the company allowed you to use more than one wrist or clip-on tracker. You’ll need to make sure to only wear one at a time, but Fitbit will still import data from both. It was originally launched by Fitbit as allowing you to:
- Wear a smaller device for counting steps all day and a larger device for workouts.
- Switch between a discreet clip-based tracker and a handy wrist device.
- Use MobileTrack if you forget your Fitbit device at home.
- Switch between all the devices you like. Your account can have one of each device model and MobileTrack.
You can technically use more than one today, the data is saved and never destroyed, but it’s a manual process of having to “replace with new device” and disconnecting the other before even a portable does not sync.
I’ve been using the Pixel Watch day and night recently. However, after two months of wearing a smartwatch to sleep, I can definitely say that I prefer the tracker form factor for nighttime tracking. Have a bulbous circle instead of a thin slicer – the Fitbit Luxury in particular – on my wrist is noticeably different. For the first generation, the Pixel Watch is thankfully compact, but there’s undoubtedly a market desire for something bigger. (If Google addresses this later, I hope they keep the 41mm size in perpetuity.)
Today, if I wanted to use Pixel Watch during the day and a Luxe for sleep tracking, I would have to – to be on the safe side – pair the tracker in the Fitbit app before going to sleep. When I woke up, I synchronized then configured the Pixel Watch. As someone who has done this several times now (to test the Sense 2), I sometimes have to restart the Pixel Watch before the pairing process can complete. Each time, I am guided by the out-of-the-box experience introducing the Fitbit device. It’s not long but it’s certainly tedious, and I couldn’t see myself doing it on a daily basis.
The case for Fitbit to support multiple devices is actually a monetary argument. The idea of having a day and night phone was derided years ago, but there’s definitely a case for wearable specialization, even if it’s just between a primary smartwatch and a sleep tracker.
If a sleep tracker didn’t need to be designed for active sportswear, what would this wearable look like: is a color screen needed, does it have to be hard plastic, or is it fully waterproof? Inasmuch as art projectGoogle’s design team has already created a wearable fabric which did not secure via the type of traditional watch buckle which still leaves skin imprints. During this time, I also remember how the Fitbit One came with a very lightweight strip of fabric/pouch that you wrapped around your wrist and secured with Velcro.
I’m thinking far and wide about Fitbit’s potential roadmap with the idea of a dedicated sleep tracker, but I’d be very content with being able to use the Luxury, Load 5, Inhale 3, or an older tracker like my night wearable. These devices already have several days of battery life, and you can very well leave them on your bedside table and not charge them for a week or more if they are only used for sleeping purposes.
Meanwhile, the other benefit would be to give people the choice of being able to easily upgrade to a multi-day device if they’re going on a trip and don’t want the daily charge as is the case with Apple’s smartwatches. today.
It also helps breathe new life into existing Fitbit trackers that you might still have had for a year and are fully capable. From a competition perspective, Apple Watch, Pixel Watch, and Wear OS have historically supported multiple devices.
If Fitbit added this multi-device support, Fitbit could get additional revenue from people buying a tracker to co-exist with their smartwatch. Yes, it’s not for most people, but the underlying capability could open up a handful of interesting financial and design possibilities if Fitbit embraces some complexity.
FTC: We use revenue-generating automatic affiliate links. Following.
0 Comments