Smart Watch and MFP integration?

FitnessSally

My FitBit One is getting old and instead of dropping $100 on another, I'm thinking of jumping to a smart watch. But I want it to integrate with MFP to track my steps and, hopefully, sleep. Anyone have any experience with this as far as which ones will work with MFP account and which ones won't?

Thanks.

lawrencet2

I am currently using my apple watch to track my steps.
It integrates perfectly with MFP for this but in not sure about tracking sleep as its always charging of the night.
Im sure the android watches would give the dame functionality.

FitnessSally

Thanks for your reply. I probably should have added, in case it matters, that I'm looking at an Android watch as I have a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ phone.

mbaker566

here is a good list

frontjab

I'm not necessarily saying it's the best smart watch for you, but also consider a Pebble watch. I just in the last few days ditched my Fitbit flex in favor of using the Misfit Pebble and Android apps, which sync directly to MFP just like Fitbit. My experience is that Misfit does create a slightly higher step count, sometimes adding some steps during driving, etc. that my Fitbit did not, but the difference was not substantial and I adjusted my goals to account for it. Misfit also does automatic sleep tracking on the Pebble, including deep, light, and total sleep. It does this automatically where I would have to tell my flex when I was going to bed. The sleep time was very, very close to Fitbit. You do have to wear the watch to bed, but the difference was pretty negligible as I had to wear the flex to bed anyhow. The Pebble has a vibrating alarm just like the flex.

You do not need another device or tracker. Misfit uses the Pebble's accelerometer. There are no Pebbles that offer heart rate monitoring or GPS. There's also another app called Plexfit that does all day tracking and sleep, and it seemed to work pretty well, but it only syncs to Google Fit and there is no sync from Fit to MFP at the moment. There's also a Jawbone Up app for the Pebble, but I never tried it and it looks like support fell off several months ago.

I have the very first original pebble with a plastic body and band. It's great with notifications and puts up calls as well as supports Android Wear to be able to dismiss or delete notifications on the phone, and has capability to send canned responses to texts. It has it's own app store that's more limited that Android Wear, but it has some cool stuff. Like, for example, I use Nav Me a lot to put driving directions on my wrist directly from Google Maps.

There's lots of comparisons between the Android Wear and Pebble watches. For the most part, Wear watches have more functionality with more apps and touchscreens and features like HRM and GPS. Pebble watches are known for having superior visibility outdoors and direct sunlight and have batteries that last substantially longer than Wear watches. The Pebble is also fully submersible for extended periods of time, so I can go ahead and plunge my hand into a bucket of soapy water while washing the car or do whatever without fear of toasting it. If you wear it all the time, it gets a little gamey, too, so it's nice to just run it under the faucet and soap it up to clean.

If you're just in the test market, the original Pebbles can be had nowadays for $50 or less. There's a similarly functioning, but nicer looking model called the Pebble Steel that can be had for $100 or less. You're not looking to get into an Android Wear watch for anything close to those prices. Last year's Moto 360 is still around $150 and the new Zenwatch 2 starts at $130. This year's Moto and others from Samsung, LG, etc. are more in the $250-$350 range.

Pebble has a new line of watches, too, called the Time and the Time Steel. They're a bit of an upgrade to the original Pebble and Pebble Steel, with microphones as an example to dictate text and OK Google (I think). Finally, Pebble just announced a new smaller watch with less battery time. All these new Pebbles are pretty much in the $200+ range, though.

Finally, one of the rubs with any of the Pebbles or Android Wear watches is that they're huge and mostly don't look that great on a ladies wrist. Personally, I love a huge watch, but that's a matter of preference. The new Pebble is much smaller and is supposed to be designed to look more like a piece of jewelry than a small smartphone strapped to your wrist.

Sorry for the incredibly long reply. I should have just said, "consider a Pebble," but I've followed these things pretty closely and wanted to toss out what I know and my experience. Again, not saying the Pebble is the best for you and it is more limited in functionality than Android Wear, but it does have some advantages with battery life, etc. You have to figure out what you want personally.

FitnessSally

Thanks! I really appreciate these replies and hearing people's experience with different approaches.