Last week, Fitbit announced two new updates. The first was SmartTrack, an automatic exercise recognition system and the second was Exercise Goals, a new service on the Fitbit app. In addition to these two new features, Fitbit also enhanced its real-time heart rate tracker.
SmartTrack was introduced to two of Fitbit’s devices, the Fitbit Charge HR and the Fitbit Surge. This new service automatically recognizes a wide range of exercises based on your movement and records them in the Fitbit app. This service is aimed at giving users credit for these particularly active exercises and allowing them to more accurately see their athletic progress.
SmartTrack can pick up on a variety of workouts, including running, outdoor biking, elliptical, aerobic workouts (like Zumba, cardio-kickboxing, and others), and sports (like tennis, basketball, and soccer). In addition, there are personalized settings, allowing users to select what movements they want recognized as exercise and how long they have to be doing this movement to record the exercise session. Since the default is 15 minutes of movement to record the exercise, this customization allows for a much more personalized and accurate experience.
Fitbit’s Exercise Goals service was added to the mobile application, and it is free to all Fitbit users. It sets a weekly goal for how many days the user should exercise, and it keeps records daily to see if the user is hitting these marks. This new feature also has customization, allowing users to adjust how many days they plan to exercise per week and what kinds of activities will count towards these goals. While Fitbits that are not the Charge HR or Surge do not track your workout automatically with SmartTrack, you can still log your exercises to make use of these new Exercise Goals on the app.
Additionally, Fitbit has updated its PurePulse heart rate tracking technology on the Charge HR and the Surge. It is activated when using Exercise mode on the Charge HR and multi-sport modes on the Surge. It gives users continuous wrist-based heart rate tracking throughout the duration of the workout–this eliminates the need for a chest strap.
These new, services from Fitbit show that they are not letting up in advancing in the wearable space and give the company abilities to cross over from a fitness companion to athlete tracking.