Fitbits are becoming increasingly popular, especially after Google bought the brand. You must have heard of all the fuss about these smart gadgets.
These smart wearables are designed for athletes who want to keep track of their fitness activity, hence their name. They offer a lot of functionality that can come in handy for professional and inexperienced athletes.
If you’d like to know what is a Fitbit and learn more about the smart wearable, continue reading.
What Is a Fitbit?
A Fitbit is a wearable smart device that allows users to keep track of their daily activity. It is manufactured by Fitbit, an American consumer electronics and fitness company. The Fitbit is a wireless-enabled, wearable fitness monitor and activity tracker, neatly packed in a sleek smartwatch.
The fitness-based device has many smart functions that allow it to track your daily activity. It is one of the most popular fitness trackers, performing health-related tasks within seconds.
The Fitbit tracker can monitor many vital bodily functions thanks to its high-end technology. It comes in many different variations, with a large number of different features included. Most of the time, people use Fitbit to monitor sleeping patterns, measure blood oxygen levels, track training activity, and receive texts and notifications from their smartphones.
What Types of Fitbits Are There?
Generally speaking, Fitbit’s smartwatches come in two different lines: Versa and Sense.
Versa is often considered as the more ‘standard’ line, but it is nothing but standard. The latest Versa release, or the Versa 4, is here to offer next-level workouts. It emphasizes fitness, offering its users over 40 different exercise modes. Its new and exciting options include HIIT, weight lifting, CrossFit, and dance.
On the other hand, Sense 2 focuses more on sensors to track your activity and stress levels. It introduces the new Body Response sensor, tracking continuous electrodermal activity and delivering impeccable stress management throughout the day. To top off the CEDA metric, the Fitbit Sense 2 uses heart rate, variability, and skin temperature metrics to detect potential signs of stress.
What Does a Fitbit Track?
As we previously stated, the Fitbit comes in two different lines, featuring several series with quite diversified features. Therefore, what a Fitbit smartwatch can track depends mainly on the line and series you choose.
Despite the line and series, most Fitbit devices can track steps, walking distance, calories burned, and sleeping activity. Some of the more advanced releases of the Fitbit can also monitor metrics such as heart rate or keep track of your position using a GPS navigation system.
With the built-in GPS, you can view routes and distances and track your pace in the mobile application.
The latest models add many neat, smart features to the device’s fitness tracking abilities. Therefore, you can receive call and text notifications from your smartphone and control your playlist from the wearable. Some of these devices can even push notifications, reminding you to stand up or more.
Read more: How Long Does Fitbit Battery Last
The Benefits of Using a Fitbit
After clearing out all the obscurities you had about what is a Fitbit, let’s get into the reasons why it is good to have one. Regardless of the line and series, Fitbit wearables can be a lot of fun and help you keep track of your activity and reach your goals.
These are the main benefits of using a Fitbit:
Fitbit friends
The Fitbit app allows you to add friends and view their progress. It is a great social feature as you can use the app to encourage your friends and family to work harder towards meeting their goals.
Adding friends is very straightforward; you can customize what they see by changing your privacy setting. If you’re feeling competitive, you can check your rank among your contacts and see how active they’ve been lately.
Fitbit challenges
Whether you ride solo or team up with friends, Fitbit challenges are a great way to hit a harder target. Fitbit challenges allow you to set a goal and monitor your progress towards it.
There are pre-made challenges, such as the Daily Showdown – where you compete against your friends on who can take the most steps in a single day. You can also create your own challenges, but if you aren’t feeling creative, you can go to the ‘Discover’ tab and see what challenges and adventures Fitbit offers.
The Fitbit app has a lot to offer, but if you want to reach new heights, the Fitbit premium offers much more. The premium membership unlocks new workout modes and challenges, along with more extensive health and wellness reports, featuring detailed sleep features and guided programs to help you reach your goals faster.
Fitbit vs. Other Smartwatches
If you’re up to date with the latest trends in technology, you probably keep track of smartwatches. So what makes Fitbit different from other smartwatches?
Most smartwatches on the market offer the features Fitbit has. The Apple Watch, Samsung Galaxy Watch, and Wear devices have pretty much the same features, plus some extras. However, they’re also more costly than the Fitbit models.
The Fitbit watch and all Fitbit gadgets run on the Fitbit OS, meaning they have access to fewer apps than Apple, Samsung, and Wear devices. The interface is also quite different, with some limitations on how you can interact with the device.
On the other hand, Fitbit OS watches are compatible with both Android and iOS. They have slightly limited features compared to modern smartwatches. Still, a Fitbit can offer you everything you need at a significantly lower price if you’re looking for a fitness activity tracker.
Read more: How to Sync Fitbit
Conclusion
Overall, a Fitbit smartwatch is essentially a lower-cost entry-level fitness tracker compared to the more modern high-end smartwatches on the market. If you’re looking to track activity at a lower cost, you should consider purchasing a Fitbit or simply relying on your smartphone, as it also has many useful tracking features.