The screenless strap known as the Fitbit Air is probably the best fitness tracker out there for most people, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to improve. There are ways to wear it more comfortably (on nearly any body part!) and ways to work around some of the less enjoyable features of the app. Read on for some hacks that will make your Fitbit Air experience even better.
Google Fitbit Air - Berry $99.99 at Amazon Shop Now Shop Now $99.99 at AmazonGet a proper workout display on the Fitbit Air by broadcasting heart rate to Strava
Credit: Beth SkwareckiBut there's a really nice way to change all that. The Strava app has a ton of great features for live workouts. And by broadcasting your heart rate data from the Fitbit Air to the Strava app, you can get the best of both worlds. Here's how to set it up:
In the Strava app, hit Record to get to the workout recording screen, and then swipe up to see options.
Start the workout in the Strava app, and you'll see your heart rate in your stats!
Using the Strava app instead of the Google Health app gives you a map of where you're going (and you can load routes from your Strava library). It shows your lap pace and distance in addition to your total pace and distance, and in Run activities, you can tap a button on your phone to mark laps.
Put your Fitbit Air on your watch band
Credit: Beth SkwareckiThis works best with the Obsidian (black) band, a mechanical watch with 18-millimeter lugs, and a person with a large wrist. If your watch takes a larger strap than 18 millimeters, you'll find there are gaps between the strap and the watch. And if you have a small wrist, you may find you don't have quite enough space for the watch, the Fitbit Air sensor, and the velcro closure all on the same strap. I also can't guarantee that you'll get the most accurate readings from this setup, since it puts the Fitbit on the bottom of your wrist where it doesn't make great contact with your skin.
Remove the band from your mechanical watch.
Insert the watch band's pins into the watch to hold the Fitbit band in place.
The heart of the Google Health app is the AI-based Google Health Coach. It greets you every morning with a few paragraphs of text on how you slept and how it thinks your day should shape up. It checks in throughout the day to let you know how you're meeting your goals or what it thinks of your recent workout. And sometimes—OK, often—I get sick of this and want to strangle it. I know I'm not alone, because forums where people discuss the Fitbit Air are full of complaints about the Coach making errors or just saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.
Tap your profile picture in the upper right corner.
Tap Manage Feature Privacy Controls.
There. Now the app will be blissfully quiet. If you decide to turn it back on again, don't bother with the settings above—the Google Health Coach won't appear there when it's disabled. Instead, just tap the "ask coach" button in the bottom right corner of the app. That's the only place I've found where you can turn the coach back on.
Do this to get more accurate step counts on the Fitbit Air
To avoid this overcounting, consider wearing it on your non-dominant hand (so, wear it on your left hand if you're right-handed). If it's still overcounting, go into your device settings, tap Device preferences, and then set Wrist preference to Dominant even if you're wearing it on your non-dominant hand. That will nudge it into undercounting.
Then go to the Coach, and upload a picture that shows your workout. If you took a workout class that posted the workout on a whiteboard, snap a picture of the whiteboard. If you used an app like Hevy, take a screenshot of your workout from that app. If you use a paper notebook like I do, snap a picture of that instead.
Dye the band of your Fitbit Air to a better color
The Fitbit Air's bands only come in a few colors, and they're a little weird. "Lavender" is a bright blue, for example, and the blue-gray color known as "Fog" seems to be sold out at the moment. If you end up with a color you don't love, a Redditor has helpfully noted that Rit DyeMore Synthetic dyes the band perfectly. Overdyeing isn't always predictable, since you'll get a mix of the original color and the dye color, but it's worth a try if you're up for a gamble.
But there's an easier way: Just delete everything. There aren't that many tiles, and you'll have an easier time if you just nuke them all. Hit the minus button on each tile (making sure you got the stuff on the overflow screens, too) and then re-add the things you want, in order. You don't need to have the big circle graphs if you don't want—or you can have two of them if you prefer.
Stick the Fitbit Air on your arm for a week
But the simplest tip of all is to simply stick the sensor to your skin with a long-lasting adhesive. KT tape—the same stuff people use for achy joints—does the trick fairly well. You can also get the same kind of overpatch that people use for continuous glucose monitors. These are designed to stay on for a week or more, so find a good spot, then set it and forget it.
Skin Grip Adhesive Patches - 10 Pack $25.99 at Amazon Get Deal Get Deal $25.99 at AmazonWear the Fitbit Air higher on your wrist for better accuracy
Good fit is important for any fitness tracker, but for the Fitbit Air, you may find that the proper placement is more important than for other fitness watches. That's because a larger sensor does a better job of blocking out ambient light. But with as small a sensor as the Fitbit Air has, even a slight unevenness in the fit can mean that light gets in and messes with the optical sensor's readings.
The solution is simple: Instead of wearing the band at the place where your wrist hinges, or even right above your wrist bone, move it up toward your elbow by an inch or two. Then secure the strap so you get a nice snug fit. Your workout heart rate will be much more accurate, and then you can loosen it for a more comfortable fit when your workout is over.
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