Stress tracking is coming soon to Fitbit Charge 4, Inspire 2, Versa 2 & 3
Fitbit owners will be happy to know stress tracking is coming soon to older devices. The feature made its debut on Sense last September.
We often wondered why Fitbit did not have some sort of stress tracking. Other brands, such as Garmin, have had the feature for years.
All that changed with the introduction of Sense last year. The wearable introduced a Stress Management Score that combines info from a number of sources. This includes resting heart rate, HRV, temperature and more. The info is combined with electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor readings (which reads moisture in the skin), into a single figure that ranges from zero to 100.
Your aim is to get to the higher end of the scale. Those with a regular subscription see an overall value and a week’s worth of data. Fitbit Premium members see the score breakdown and long-term trends. This also provides you with access to 200 mindfulness sessions so you can get your stress score down.
As can be seen from the image above the metric consists of Responsiveness, Exertion Balance and Sleep Patterns. The first looks at your heart rate data and electrodermal activity to determine whether you are showing a “fight or flight response”. The second takes into account fatigue caused by physical activity, the third your sleep.
Other Fitbit devices are getting the stress score
Sense was the only Fitbit with this type of functionality until the unveiling of Luxe a few days ago. The wearable does not have a galvanic skin sensor but it still offers a stress score. This is based on your activity levels, sleep and heart rate. So the only difference as compared to Sense is that the Responsiveness metric does not take into account electrodermal activity when using the EDA Scan app.
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The good news is that the metric is coming to older devices. In a press release, Fitbit states that the Stress Management Score will soon be available on Charge 4, Inspire 2, Luxe, Sense, Versa 2 and Versa 3. Most would agree, this will be a welcome addition for an even better health and fitness tracking experience.
The firmware update should start rolling out soon. If you have one of these devices you might want to keep an eye out for it.
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