Getting started with theFitbit Charge 3orfee 4may be simple, but there are many features included in the company's latest releasesFitness-Trackerwaiting to be discovered.
And while it might not be as feature-rich as Fitbit's two smartwatches, it isIonicAndVersa, the third generation fitness bracelet still has many new functions that you can use. After two years in the cold, the Charge has been upgraded with waterproofing, support for contactless payments, and improved battery life.
But how do you get the most out of the Fitbit Charge? Well, luckily for you, we've put together some top tips to help you out.
Read on below for everything you need to know.
Fitbit guide:Fitbit smartwatches and trackers compared
1. Change your watch face
You have fewer options on the Charge 3 than the mountain of watch faces developed by both Fitbit and third-party developers on the Ionic and Versa, but that doesn't mean there's not still a healthy range of monochrome options to choose from.
If you're mixing things up from digital to analog, highlighting a different tracked metric, or just fancy changing up your look, Fitbit currently offers seven faces on the Charge 3.
We expect more to drop as the tracker ages, but for now you can change things up by heading to the Fitbit app. From there, click the device icon in the top left, tap Watch Faces and switch between the My Watch and All Watches tabs and decide how you want to customize the screen.
2. Customize notifications
Whether you love using your wrist gadget as a second screen for your smartphone or want to turn off all notifications, we've got you covered.
Go to the Fitbit app, tap the "Notifications" tab, and start toggling exactly what you want to buzz through to your Charge 3. As shown above, this can be done to give all your calls, texts, and calendar pings the green or red flag. and you can also choose from your list of apps.
3. Improve step tracking accuracy
This is actually more of a general Fitbit tip than a Charge 3 tip, but it's essential for getting the best accuracy.
Now there's a lot more to consider with this tracker, but steps will no doubt be the focus of most people's daily tracking picture. However, Fitbit estimates what each step looks like based on your height and gender, meaning those with naturally large or small steps may see inaccurate information.
Important reading:We're trying out Fitbit's Female Health Tracking
To edit, tap the card in the upper-right corner of the Fitbit app, scroll down to Advanced Settings, and tap Stride Length. As said, this is set automatically by Fitbit, but you can manually enter the centimeter equivalent of your walking and running steps.
Wondering how to solve it? It's easy - just walk to a track or place where you know the exact distance, count your steps as you complete that distance, then divide the total distance covered by the number of steps to get your to get stride length.
You'll also need to tell Fitbit which wrist your device is on to improve accuracy. To do this, go to the Charge 3 icon, select Wrist and then the wrist your device is attached to.
4. Set a silent alarm
If you're anything like us, you'll take great delight in replacing your alarm clock with a much friendlier buzz on the Charge 3's wrist.
Sure, you can always use your phone, but that almost always results in spending 45 minutes every morning checking out Twitter, Instagram, or, heaven forbid, work email before even getting it out of bed create.
You can set alarms through the Fitbit app, but you can also toggle your list on and off through the device itself. If you're setting up a new alarm, you should go to the Charge 3 Settings section, click Silent Alarms, and then choose your time and days you want it to sound.
5. Make the battery last longer
The Charge 3 already boasts weeks of battery life, but as always there are ways to extend that even further with a few neat tricks.
The first thing to think about optimizing is how often you sync your device. This can be turned off through the Charge 3 section of the Fitbit app, but means you'll need to manually sync the device to see your progress in the app.
Notifications can also be reduced to save lives. The good news is that you also don't have to go into the Fitbit app by double-pressing that side button to toggle it on and off.
The same goes for heart rate - perhaps the biggest battery hog you can change. To easily turn it off, swipe to your device's Settings menu and scroll down to Heart Rate. The downside to this is quite a mammoth, as you can't properly track your activity, sleep or resting heart rate, but very handy for keeping the charge charged.
You don't have to do all of these things to save a bit of juice, but toggling a few of these settings will definitely keep the tracker running longer.
6. Disable raise to wake
We're not the biggest fans of Fitbit's Screen Wake as all too often it fails to accommodate our wrist raises. However, if you want to add a control when the screen lights up, just hold the side button and tap the Screen Wake tab.
That means you have to tap the screen or press the side button to wake the device - a great feature when you're sleeping or just want to turn off the tracker light at the cinema.
7. Edit your exercise shortcuts
By default, the exercises listed on the Charge 3/4 may not be your first choice. However, if you want to track your tennis, yoga, or anything else in the list above, you can create a shortcut through the Fitbit app.
Just go to the Devices section from the top left icon, tap on Exercise Shortcuts and change the order you want the current six options in. You'll need to remove one or two if you want to add more, as six is the limit, and we recommend adding workouts (which is set as the default option on the Ionic and Versa, but not here) for any activity you want to track and that are not listed.
Also, remember that you can change the type of activity you did post-workout. All you have to do is click on your workout and tap Categorize workouts at the top of the screen to toggle.
8. Quickly check your stats
As we just hinted at, you can edit your exercise shortcuts and the details surrounding your exercise from within the Fitbit app. However, if you don't want to open your phone to check all your daily stats, the Charge's quick view lets you do so on your wrist.
Of course, the watch face you select will already give you some of these tracked stats, but you can get a basic look at the bigger picture by swiping up from the home watch face.
From here you can scroll down and take a look at your battery percentage, steps taken, active minutes, distance, current heart rate, calories burned, stairs climbed and number of hours of sleep recorded.
9. Reboot your Fitbit Charge 3/4
The Fitbit Charge 3 is a fairly steadfast tracker, but that doesn't mean it's not prone to the odd hiccup. We didn't have any major issues with this tracker, but there have been cases with other Fitbit devices that required a hard reset to get things working again.
If yourFitbit not syncing properly, or it keeps crashing, you can reset it from the device itself or from the app. This isn't entirely foolproof, and of course there's a chance you just have a faulty device, but the off-on rule should always be your first troubleshooting action - after checking you're using the latest software, of course.
This means you will lose any not-yet-synced data stored on the device, and you will also need to take some time to set everything up again.
In the Fitbit app, click the charge icon in the top left and scroll all the way down to the tab in red that says "Remove this charge 3/4". Or go to Settings > About > Clear User Data on the tracker.
As mentioned, you then need to set up the device just like you did when you first unpacked it. Make sure it's plugged in and wait for the Charge 3 to restart before following the in-app instructions to set up a new device. if you have toReset your Fitbit, we have a guide for that too.
10. Change your goals
The key to success in fitness tracking is setting achievable goals that you can actually achieve. So make sure you adjust your Fitbit goals to an activity level that suits your needs. Forget it for a week and see how many steps you can get. Then dive into the app and see if you can set your goal about 10% higher.
- Get the app and tap the device icon in the top left corner.
- Scroll down to the main objective.
- Choose from steps, distance, calories burned, active minutes or floors climbed.
- Sync your device.
Oh, and when you start crushing that goal - get back up the target. Don't let up - otherwise! Check out oursfull guide to changing your Fitbit goals.