Fitbit has quietly added a major feature to its Charge 5 activity tracker, and it’s all about tracking your phone, not you.
The latest firmware version, 57.20001.171.50, released on Tuesday, adds the ability to ping your paired smartphone and make it make a loud noise in order to find it. After using the Find Phone button, tapping the Cancel prompt on Fitbit Charge 5 will stop the noise.
The feature isn’t new to Fitbit, but it was previously exclusive to the company’s smartwatches, such as the Versa and Sense lines. Of course, using the feature requires the phone to be paired via Bluetooth, within close range of the watch, and the Fitbit app running in the background. The Find Phone feature should work on any phone that supports the Fitbit app.
Quietly add utilities
While it’s odd that Fitbit, now owned by Google, isn’t hyping the Charge 5’s newfound phone-finding feature, it’s the only notable feature in this firmware update. Fitbit’s own line of Versa smartwatches sell for similar prices, so the company may not have announced the feature loudly because it didn’t want to cannibalize Versa sales.
Still, the feature does add more utility to an already value-oriented fitness tracker (compared to finding a misplaced iPhone), and provides another option for those who don’t want a full-featured smartwatch A way to find a misplaced smartphone. Fitbit also has the benefit of not being locked into a particular ecosystem. Samsung and Apple Watches have similar features, but they only work with Samsung and Apple phones, respectively.
>>>>>>>>>>>>Fitbit battery