From Smart to Dumb

After trialling the Apple Watch (read about it here), I moved back to my FitBit. The transition back was pretty easy, showing just how useless the Apple Watch really was. The major negative is that whatever the FitBit is made of has brought back the rash that the Apple Watch somehow healed. There are however three small things I noticed myself doing post Apple Watch. 

1. Raising my wrist to see the time

Maybe this feature was more useful than I first thought, as I found myself raising my wrist and expecting to see the time. After a few days I was back in the habit of hitting the button to see the time, but then the Fit Bit HR has a software update that now has this feature! Winning 

2. Knowing when I needed to look at my phone

My phone is always on silent, without vibrate. I find it rude to have my phone on loud, especially at work or when commuting, as it disturbs others. I used to have it on vibrate but it was annoying my desk buddy (because I'm so popular and it would go off all the time). This means I sometimes miss calls or messages. The Apple Watch would let me know when I had something I would need to action (although a bit over bearing). The FitBit does tell me when my phone is ringing and who is calling. I would like it to also tell me when I have text messages. Everything else can wait until I have time to check my phone. There will pretty much always be something every time I look at my phone, but I don't think I have to be 'always on' for every email, tweet or Facebook notification. 

3. Missing calendar notifications

I found myself missing calendar notifications as I wasn't being alerted on my wrist, and would only see these on my phone if I were looking (since it does not vibrate). This wasn't a huge loss as I generally know my schedule for the day in advance and could get around this by scheduling silent alarms. 

The future

I don't think we need Smart Watches. I think fitness trackers with a few notification features are enough. I enjoy being able to track my sleep, steps and heart-rate trends on the FitBit and find the call notifications very useful. Since having the Fit Bit it's already had firmware updates that have improved the experience - better sleep tracking & raise wrist to see time. I can be in another room to my phone while it's on silent and know to run and answer the call (after seeing who is calling and whether they are worth making the call). I want to see more notifications available on fitness trackers, with the ability to choose 'if this then that' style alerts. With silent haptic notifications on our wrists we can do away with annoying ringtone noise pollution.