Fitbit update brings stress tracking to all smartwatches and trackers

Fitbit is to roll stress tracking features out to all of its existing devices, as the company makes a play for mindfulness.

The announcement was made during James Park’s keynote for the launch of the Fitbit Luxe, the company’s premium grade fitness tracker.

Fitbit introduced Stress Management last year as part of the Fitbit Sense, which has a focus on mindfulness. But now the daily stress score has been opened up to users of Versa 3, Versa 2, Luxe, Charge 4 and Inspire 2.

The Stress Management feature sits on the Fitbit Dashboard. It uses heart rate variability, exertion and sleep data to generate a single stress score. Non-Premium users will just see their daily stress score, while those that have paid for Fitbit’s subscription service will see a full breakdown.

And you can add your own feedback on how you’re feeling on any given day – however, the app doesn’t use this feedback to train the algorithm.

Fitbit is making a play for mindfulness and has recently teamed up with Deepak Chopra to deliver Mindful Method content for Fitbit Premium.

Fitbit brings big stress tracking feature to all smartwatches and trackers

Stress management scores in action

The idea of the Stress Management score is to identify spikes in stress and then take action.

That could be doing breathing exercises via your Fitbit device, or diving into guided mindfulness content. In theory that should have an effect on your stress score, although getting an early night and laying off the red wine would probably do more.

The Stress Management feature is separate to the EDA sensor tech found on the Fitbit Sense that detects your skin’s stress response during guided breathing and meditation sessions.

The availability starts rolling out on 20 April, so ensure that your Fitbit app and devices are fully updated.

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