Fitbit Debuts New 'Fitbit Sense' Smartwatch With ECG, Electrodermal Sensor, Skin Temperature Sensor, More [Video]

Fitbit today unveiled the 'Fitbit Sense', a new smartwatch which features an electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor, a new ECG app, an on-wrist skin temperature sensor, and more.

“Our mission to make everyone in the world healthier has never been more important than it is today. COVID-19 has shown us all how critical it is to take care of both our physical and mental health and wellbeing,” said James Park, co-founder and CEO, Fitbit. “Our new products and services are our most innovative yet, coupling our most advanced sensor technology and algorithms to unlock more information about our bodies and our health so you can be in control. We are breaking new ground with our wearables, helping you better understand and manage your stress and heart health, and pulling your key health metrics together in a simple and digestible way to track things like skin temperature, heart rate variability, and SpO2 so you can see how it’s all connected. Most importantly, we are making health accessible, surfacing new data that you may only get once or twice a year at the doctor’s office that you can use to focus on your holistic health and wellness, at a time when it’s needed most.”




Here's a look at some of the new features offered by Fitbit Sense...

EDA Sensor:
The new EDA sensor on Fitbit Sense measures electrodermal activity responses. Using the EDA Scan app, place your palm over the face of the device to detect small electrical changes in the sweat level of your skin. Measuring your EDA responses can help you understand your body’s response to stressors and help you manage your stress. You can do a quick EDA Scan session on device to see your responses, or pair it with guided mindfulness sessions in the Fitbit app to see how your body responds during meditation or relaxation. At the end of your session, you will see an EDA response graph on-device and in the mobile app11 to gauge your progress over time and reflect on how you feel emotionally.

Stress Management Score
Fitbit’s new Stress Management Score calculates how your body is responding to stress based on your heart rate, sleep and activity data. Available with Fitbit Sense, it can be found in the new stress management tile in the Fitbit app. Ranging from 1-100, with a higher score indicating your body is showing fewer physical signs of stress, the score is coupled with recommendations to better manage stress, like breathing exercises and other mindfulness tools. Fitbit Premium members will get a detailed breakdown on how the score is calculated, which consists of over 10 biometric inputs, including exertion balance (impact of activity), responsiveness (heart rate, heart rate variability and electrodermal activity from the EDA Scan app), and sleep patterns (sleep quality).

Mindfulness
All Fitbit users will have access to the new mindfulness tile in the Fitbit app. Here, you can set a weekly mindfulness goal and reminders, reflect on your stress, log your mood after sessions, and meditate as a part of your mindfulness practice. Premium members can choose from more than 100 meditation sessions from popular brands like Aaptiv, Aura, Breethe and Ten Percent Happier, listen to a variety of relaxing sounds from Fitbit, and see how your practice correlates with your moodover time.




ECG App
Fitbit Sense is the company’s first device with an ECG app to assess your heart rhythm for signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib), a condition that affects more than 33.5 million people globally. Simply hold your fingers on the corners of the stainless steel ring around the watch while being still for 30 seconds to receive a reading that can be downloaded to share with your doctor.

Fitbit’s new PurePulse 2.0 technology, with an all-new multi-path heart rate sensor and updated algorithm, delivers the company’s most advanced heart rate technology yet. It also powers another critical heart health feature: personalized, on-device high and low heart rate notifications.16 With 24/7 continuous heart rate tracking, Fitbit Sense can detect and send a notification if your heart rate is outside your thresholds. While many factors can affect your heart rate, like stress or temperature, a high or low heart rate may be an indication of a heart condition that requires medical attention, such as bradycardia (heart rate that is too slow) and tachycardia (heart rate that is too fast).

Skin Temperature Sensor
Fitbit Sense adds a new skin temperature sensor to detect changes that may potentially be a sign of a fever, illness or the start of a new menstrual phase. Wearing your device when you're asleep each night lets you regularly measure your skin temperature variation to see trends, versus looking at your temperature at a specific moment in time.

Premium Health Metrics
Fitbit Premium’s new Health Metrics dashboard goes further, helping you track breathing rate (average breaths per minute), resting heart rate (an important indicator of cardiovascular health), heart rate variability (variation of time between each heartbeat), and skin temperature variation (surfaced through the dedicated sensor on Fitbit Sense and through existing sensors on other Fitbit devices). If you are a Premium member with a compatible device, you will see these daily metrics and trends over time to see potential changes to your wellbeing. For Fitbit smartwatch users, we are also providing new insight into your nightly average SpO2 levels (amount of oxygen in your blood). A series of free SpO2 clock faces show both your previous night’s SpO2 range and nightly average, and Premium members can track SpO2 trends over time in the Health Metrics dashboard to see indications of important changes to their fitness and wellness.

COVID-19
Early findings from our COVID-19 study suggest that changes in some of the metrics included in the new Premium dashboard (breathing rate, resting heart rate and heart rate variability) can be detected by Fitbit devices simultaneously with the onset of COVID-19 symptoms, and in some cases even before.

“Wearables may be able to play an important role in the early detection of infectious diseases by acting as an early warning system for our bodies, which is critical to slowing the spread of COVID-19 and to better understanding disease progression,” said Eric Friedman, co-founder and CTO of Fitbit. “Over 100,000 Fitbit users joined the study so far, and we’ve found that our algorithm can detect nearly 50 percent of COVID-19 cases a day before the onset of symptoms with 70 percent specificity. This research shows great promise to help us understand and detect COVID-19, but can also serve as a model for detecting other diseases and health conditions in the future.”

Additional Features
Fitbit Sense also combines all of the key health, fitness and smart features found on Fitbit’s other smartwatches, including on-board GPS, 20+ on-device exercise modes, SmartTrack automatic activity tracking, Cardio Fitness Level and Score, and advanced sleep tools. Stay connected with a range of smart features for added convenience, including a built-in speaker and microphone to take calls and reply to texts with voice commands, choice of Amazon Alexa or Google voice assistants, contactless payments, thousands of apps and clock faces and more, while still maintaining an impressive 6+ days battery life.

Pricing and Availability
Fitbit Sense is available today for pre-order on Fitbit.com starting at $329.95.

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