5 Fitbit Sense and Versa features you should be aware of

Fitbit Sense; When people talk about fitbitsmartwatches, they usually focus on the main features, such as exercise tracking, an oled color display, built-in GPS, and so on.

However, there are some smaller, more hidden features of Fitbit smartwatches and Fitbit OS that I believe deserve some consideration.

Five underappreciated features of Fitbit smartwatches

we'll look at five underappreciated features of Fitbit smartwatches that you should be aware of.

1. Smart wake.
2. Find my phone.
3. quick replies.
4. Controls for music.
5. Scheduled sleep mod.

1. Smart wake

The first underappreciated feature I'd like to discuss is smart wake. Smart wake is a feature of the Fitbit os alarms app that attempts to wake you up at the best time possible based on your sleep stage, up to 30 minutes before your set alarm time.

So for example if you set an alarm for 7 am it will find a good time to wake you up between 6 30 am and 7 a.m it uses fitbit's existing sleep tracking that determine what sleep stage you're in to try not to wake you up when you're in a deep sleep.

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2. Find my phone

Next is the find my phone app as the name suggests this fitbit Sense smartwatch app will help you find your phone if you've misplaced it when activated from the watch your phone will play a distinct tone at a high volume. 

I tested it on a Google Pixel running Android 11 and an iPhone running iOS 14, and even with do not disturb mode and silent mode enabled, as well as the volume muted, the tone will still play loudly. So this is an advantage over trying to find your phone by calling it if it is on silent.

Now, for this to work, your fitbit watch will require an active bluetooth connection to your phone, which means you'll need to be close to your phone with bluetooth enabled, and if your watch is unable to connect to your phone for whatever reason, you'll receive an error message on the watch.

3. quick replies

Third, when you receive a message notification, such as a text message or a WhatsApp message, you can reply to the message from your watch using a predefined quick response, an emoji, or voice to text if you have a fitbit with a microphone.

Now, it's important to note that this feature is only useful if you pair your Fitbit smartwatch with an Android phone; iPhone users will only be able to view or clear a message notification.

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To respond to a message, simply tap the notification you want to respond to and then select the type of reply. To customize the responses you can use on your watch, go to the fitbit app on your phone and set up to five of your own quick text replies and up to 18 emoji options.

4. Controls for music

The fourth category is music controls. This feature functions as a remote control for your phone, allowing you to quickly pause or skip music playing on your phone from your fitbit watch, as well as control your phone's volume.

When listening to music from my phone with earbuds, I can quickly skip a song or increase the volume right from my wrist for older fitbit os 4 devices such as the versa 2 or older and the ionic.

For fitbit os 5 devices, such as the versa 3 and sense, you can access the music controls by swiping down from the top, then swiping down from the top again to reveal the top menu, and then tapping the purple music icon. Set music as a shortcut option in the settings app, for example, I've made it the top left shortcut option.

When I double press the left side button after opening the music controls, I can see information about the current song or podcast playing, as well as pause, skip, rewind, and control the volume.

5. Scheduled sleep mode

The fifth mode is scheduled sleep. Sleep mode is a fitbit os feature that mutes notifications and prevents the display from waking up due to motion.

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Setting this mode to turn on when I am normally asleep helps ensure that I am not disturbed by a phone notification or the watch's screen turning on at night. 

You can schedule when sleep mode turns on and off from the watch's settings app, or you can turn it on and off manually from the quick settings menu to the left of the clock face on fitbit os 5 devices, or from the quick settings menu option at the top on fitbit os4 devices.

That concludes my five underappreciated features of Fitbit smartwatches. I hope you enjoyed this article and see you next time.