Fitbit has added a bunch of features to its older devices, ahead of the launch of its newly released smartwatches.
The company has updated older Charge and Versa devices with Active Zone Minutes, its new metric based on heart rate activity.
Active Zone Minutes are a new take on the idea of measuring active time, and you only clock a minute if your heart rate rises into the fat burn zone. Get it into cardio or peak zones and you get double credit.
The feature was debuted on the Charge 4 and rolled out to the Versa 3 – but now older Versas are also getting the metric, with Charge 3 also in line.
But that’s not all users of older devices are getting treated to.
Off the back of the Fitbit Sense launch, Fitbit users will now get more advanced metrics tracked within Fitbit Premium.
Fitbit is making more of its Premium service, and it will now play a bigger role in the fitness tracking experience.
The company will debut a new Health Metrics Dashboard with the release of Fitbit Sense, which will show more raw data from the sensors.
And older devices will also be able to take advantage.
According to new reports, users of Charge 3/4 , Inspire HR, Versas and Ionics will be able to see heart rate variability (HRV) and breathing rate.
These will join stats like resting heart rate.
In Fitbit’s COVID-19 trial, all of these metrics were identified as a pre-cursor to symptoms.
Keeping an eye on these metrics could ensure you can take steps to self-isolate or at least stay home from work or change social plans, to keep vulnerable loved ones safe.
It means users of Fitbit’s older devices will get more data on their health. However, this Health Metrics Dashboard will only be available to those with a Premium subscription.
Unless you bag yourself a six month pass by buying a Versa 3 or Sense (or a year by investing in Inspire 2), Fitbit Premium costs a month or per year.
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James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.