Apple Watch vs Fitbit functionality

To see your steps, total active calories and total distance, swipe up to get into "Glances" then scroll (sideways) until you get to the screen that has the circles for "move" "exercise" and "standing", then tap on this screen to get your totals.

The Watch doesn't monitor sleep - if you need that feature, you need a different device.

The Activity app on the phone shows you summary data for all your activity - steps, calories, distance etc, by day

The Health app has the database where all this is stored. You can elect which data is shown on dashboards, including steps, heart rate and so on

The phone is the logical place to display history and allow you to analyse detail - it has a large screen and a keyboard.

The watch is the logical place to display current activity and give you a high level summary - which is what it does. I can see how many steps, how many active calories, how much distance I've done today.

If I want the detail of my bike ride to work, or what I did yesterday, last week or whatever, I go to the phone.

By all means return the watch if it doesn't work for you.

tjsmags wrote:

No step info, no heart rate info, no sleep activity info… Those were the features I asked in my original question

How did you manage to read "no step info, no heart rate info"?

You're obviously too busy to have time to read the user manual or any of the other useful information, so I think you'd be better advised to return he watch

tjsmags wrote:

So, I'm not going crazy… This is just a very expensive device that does not give you the simplest exercise features. I have to use my phone to view what I want instead of looking at my wrist! That's idiotic for $350! This is ignorance at its best… Haven't the employees of Apple been watching what Fitbit and the other devices offer when they were creating this device? Not very good research if you ask me.

You're not crazy. You're just not looking at the bigger picture. The primary metric the Apple Watch uses to track activity is calories, not steps. There's nothing magical about using steps as your measurement for how active you've been throughout the day. The whole "10,000 steps a day" comes from the fact that it sounded good in Japanese and was a marketing slogan for one of the first consumer pedometers. It has no scientific origin. What's important is that you increase (or maintain) your activity level. The Apple Watch provides you with information on how to do that.

If you're, for some reason, stuck on the notion that step count is somehow the gold standard of activity monitoring, yes, you have the wrong device. If you think that the only or for that matter, primary purpose of the Apple Watch is as an activity tracker, I think you haven't done very good research.

And where did you get the ridiculous notion that the Apple Watch doesn't give you heart rate information?

Steps are there (on the watch, not just the phone). Go to activity screen on glances and scroll down. Steps is the first thing on there. Heart rate as well.

Other responses were correct in that the AW focuses on more than pure steps. Steps are great start but not the big picture. I am coming from a Fitbit Charge HR and it took me a week to get used to the differences. Now that I am used to the way the AW does it, I find the information more beneficial. I am more inspired to not just get steps in but also raise my heart rate (the only way to fill in that elusive workout ring). I stand up every hour to fill the stand ring. The AW is more engaging.

The one thing missing is a built in sleep tracker but there are several apps that are good at it. Honestly, after 6 months of using the Fitbit, I don't really care about the sleep tracking. It's a nice stat but doesn't have the same positive impact as filling out the 3 activity rings do. Plus the other drawback with Fitbit is they don't support HealthKit. You have to rely on a 3rd party app to get it integrated.

I would say put your Fitbit down and give the AW a solid 2 week trial. My first attempt only lasted a few days before going back to the simplicity of the Fitbit. I now 'get it' and have been using the AW exclusively.

This is a very interesting and enlightening conversation which is making me rethink my dependence on the Fitbit and reluctance to accept the rings of the Activity app. Now I understand the difference on how they track. Did my own research and sure enough, though beneficial, 10,000 steps a day is an arbitrary number. What really counts is increasing your heart rate and exercise. It is not the amount of steps, but quality of steps. A brisk walk is much better than a slow walk. I may just put my fitbit to rest for a week and give Apple Watch a full commitment.

Thom

Best of luck!

The FitBit is simple, which is great, but I am finding the extra effort it takes to fill the rings on the AW is giving me a more qualitative experience. Plus the added features the AW provides, make it worth it IMO.