Sunday, November 05, 2017

New smartwatch with new syncing challenges

I recently went back into the world of smartwatches.

For over a year, I had a Pebble Time Round watch. It's a smartwatch that looks like a regular watch. I loved that it would keep track of my steps.

Sadly, Pebble went away. Fitbit bought the company. The app that used to count my steps died. So, I had to go back and use my Fitbit.

Don't get me wrong. I love my Fitbit Alta. However, I hate tapping the screen to figure out what time it is or how many steps I have taken. It's not the most sensitive screen. I would sooner have a button to cycle through the data.

It was one of those fluky moments. I was in my guy's neck of the woods. I decided to visit Fossil at one of the local malls. I have wallets, jewellery, and cell phone cases from that store. I never really looked at watches.

The young saleswoman showed me the hybrid smartwatches. They look like regular, classy watches, but they are indeed smartwatches that sync to your phone through an app. Instead of charging the watch, it runs on a battery. She gave me a thorough demo of both the watch on her wrist and the app that she had on her phone.

I loved the watch that the woman had on. I loved the concept. I even had one that I had in mind to purchase, but had to think about it.

I am such a geek. I sat in the mall and researched this watch. Was there a way to sync the steps over to my corporate health app? I need to have this feature, as you earn cash incentives for exercising with my company.

Sure enough, I figured out that I could get it to work. So, a couple of weeks ago, I bought my hybrid smartwatch in rose gold. It's nice. I love it. My guy smiled at me when I first told him about it. He loves when I get excited over technology.

The trick is that the Fossil Q app needs to sync with the Up by Jawbone app first. My company uses the Virgin Pulse app for our health program, which Up links to.

I couldn't get any of my steps to sync properly from Q to Up. I contacted Fossil support. It is slow, but they are friendly.

I am a decent troubleshooter. I decided to unlink and link Up from my Q app first. I then went into the Up app and removed the link to Virgin Pulse. Finally, I went into my Virgin Pulse app, disconnected and reconnected the link to my Up account.

The last step was verifying that my Up app had the Virgin Pulse app links again. It was.

Guess what? All of these actions got my steps to sync properly. Go, me! I still have yet to hear from the support guy.

The best part of this exercise is that I do not have to wear my watch and my Fitbit Alta on each wrist.

4 comments:

  1. Oh gosh that sounded so complicated. But it's good that you got everything synced! I love it when things work properly! Meanwhile it looks like my fitbit is on its last legs - the one I have was a gift and isn't the model that you can change the straps on... I may have to look at something with more flexibility in that area when I buy a new one.

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    1. I agree that it's not the best setup to sync my steps, but it does work!

      Fitbit is reliable. My problem is that the bands or clips don't last long. I had a Fitbit One and I would constantly ruin the clip. The band on my Alta died in less than a year, but the straps are much better these days than the crappy one that came with my device.

      When the time comes, I hope that you do get a device that lets you change the bands. It's fun to accssorize. =)

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  2. Hey CB...I have looked into getting a Fitbit as I need something that will link into my company's exercise program. I do remember that year's ago, Fossil watches were really "in". Since our trackers have to be purchased from a specific site, I will see if Fossil is one of my options. Please keep us informed as to how your Fossil works for you.

    Hugs and blessings...Cat

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    1. I will say that syncing a Fitbit to practically any app is far easier than a Fossil watch. However, I like the look of my Fossil watch -- it looks like a classy watch, but it's a smartwatch that doesn't look like most of them out there.

      The setup has be the most difficult part. However, it works just great now that I have it down. So far, so good!

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