10 Life Hacks Every Fitbit Air User Should Know

The Fitbit Air, a screenless fitness tracker, is probably the best fitness tracker on the market for most people , but that doesn’t mean it can’t be improved. There are ways to wear it more comfortably (on virtually any part of the body!) and ways to bypass some of the app’s less-than-ideal features. Read on to discover a few life hacks that will make using the Fitbit Air even better.

Get accurate workout data on your Fitbit Air by sharing your heart rate with Strava.

Although the Fitbit Air automatically detects workouts, the only way to get heart rate or workout time data is to start a workout on your phone. Unfortunately, the Google Health app doesn’t provide much information on the workout screen—only the total time, heart rate, and, if you’re running outdoors, the distance traveled. On an iPhone, you won’t even get information about your current workout on the lock screen, only a notification like “running,” which is easy to miss.

But there’s a great way to change all that. The Strava app has a ton of great features for real-time training. And by transferring your heart rate data from your Fitbit Air to the Strava app, you get the best of both worlds. Here’s how to set it up:

1. In the Google Health app, tap your device in the upper left corner. Tap the Fitbit Air, then select “Share Heart Rate .” I set my device to “Always Visible” to ensure the data is shared, but it should work without this setting.

2. In the Strava app, tap Record to go to the activity recording screen, then swipe up to see the available options.

3. Tap Add Sensor and select Fitbit Air.

4. Start a workout in the Strava app and see your heart rate in your statistics!

Using the Strava app instead of Google Health allows you to get a map of your route (and you can upload routes from your Strava library). It displays your pace and distance for each lap, as well as your overall pace and distance. In “Run” mode, you can press the button on your phone to mark laps.

View this post on Instagram

Place the band on your Fitbit Air watch.

This is the most popular Fitbit Air hack online, but frankly, it has so many nuances that it might not work for everyone. But here’s the idea: the standard Fitbit Air strap is an 18-millimeter-wide nylon strap, so it fits under the pins of almost any watch. This allows you to use the Fitbit Air with this strap instead of the standard strap of your favorite mechanical watch.

This method works best with an obsidian (black) band, a mechanical watch with 18-millimeter lugs, and a larger wrist. If your watch fits a band wider than 18 millimeters, you’ll notice gaps between the band and the watch. And if you have a thin wrist, you may not have enough room for the watch, the Fitbit Air sensor, and the Velcro strap on a single band. I also can’t guarantee the most accurate readings with this setup, as the Fitbit sits on the bottom of your wrist, where it doesn’t make good contact with your skin.

Still, it’s a good option if your watch and wrist allow it, you like the look, and you’re not too picky about accuracy. I wrote more about this method here , but here’s the basic idea:

1. Remove the strap from a mechanical watch.

2. Place the Fitbit Air nylon strap on the back of your watch, making sure the outer side of the strap is facing the back of the watch.

3. Insert the strap pins into the watch to secure the Fitbit strap in place.

4. Now you have both a fitness tracker and a watch on one strap! Put the device on your wrist and move the watch until everything is in the right position.

Turn off the intrusive AI coach in Fitbit Air.

The heart of the Google Health app is Google Health Coach, powered by artificial intelligence. Every morning, it greets you with a few paragraphs about how you slept and how it thinks your day should go. Throughout the day, it checks in on how you’re meeting your goals or what it thinks of your recent workout. And sometimes—okay, often—it gets on my nerves and I want to strangle it. I know I’m not alone, because forums where people discuss the Fitbit Air are full of complaints about Coach making mistakes or simply saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.

Fortunately, you can disable the mentoring feature before your premium subscription expires. Here’s how:

1. Click on your profile photo in the upper right corner.

2. Use the Your Data feature in Google Health .

3. Click Manage feature privacy settings .

4. Tap on Google Health Coach and turn it off.

That’s it. The app will now work without any issues. If you decide to turn it back on, don’t worry about the settings mentioned above—Google Health Coach won’t appear there when it’s disabled. Instead, simply tap the “Ask a Coach” button in the bottom right corner of the app. This is the only place I found where I could turn the coach back on.

Follow these steps to get more accurate step counts on your Fitbit Air.

The Fitbit Air fitness tracker counts your steps by tracking your wrist movements (assuming you wear it on your wrist as usual). If you’re walking, your arms will move too. This is a perfectly logical assumption. But this means that arm movements can sometimes be recorded as steps even if you’re sitting still.

To avoid overestimating readings, try wearing the device on your non-dominant hand (for example, your left hand if you’re right-handed). If the readings are still too high, go to the device settings, select “Device Settings,” and set the “Dominant Hand” setting to “Dominant Hand,” even if you’re wearing the device on your non-dominant hand. This will help reduce the overestimation.

Add exercises to your Fitbit Air strength training routine after you’ve completed it.

The Fitbit Air fitness tracker can track strength training, but you’ll need to specify which exercises you’re doing. However, this is easy to do quickly. During a workout, simply start a strength training session and don’t worry about the exercises. Finish and save the workout.

Then, go to the “Trainer” section and upload a photo of your workout. If you did a workout where the program was posted on a board, take a photo of the board. If you used an app like Hevy, take a screenshot of your workout from that app. If you use a paper notebook like I do, take a photo of that.

The trainer will identify exercises, sets, and reps based on your photo. You can also describe the workout in your own words if you remember it. Regardless of how you added this information, the trainer will assign the exercises, sets, and reps to your workout. So far, I’ve found the system to be quite reliable in recording this information.

Change the color of your Fitbit Air band to a more suitable color.

Fitbit Air bands only come in a few colors, and they’re a bit odd. For example, “Lavender” is a bright blue, while the blue-gray color known as “Mist” seems to be sold out. If you come across a color you don’t like, one Reddit user helpfully pointed out that Rit DyeMore synthetic dye is ideal for dyeing the band . Dyeing isn’t always predictable, as you’ll end up with a mixture of the original color and the dye, but it’s worth a try if you’re willing to take the risk.

Clear all data from your Fitbit Air dashboard to ensure it reassembles properly.

At the top of the Fitbit app’s main screen, you’ll see several tiles and a circular progress bar for your steps or cardio. This area of ​​the screen can display a wealth of information, but it’s not easily editable. You can add tiles, and they’ll appear on the second screen, but you can’t change the order of existing tiles unless you carefully delete them and re-add them in a different order.

But there’s an easier way: just delete everything. There aren’t that many tiles, and it’ll be easier if you just delete them all. Click the minus button on each tile (make sure you delete the elements on additional screens as well), and then add the desired elements in order. You don’t have to use large pie charts if you don’t want to—or you can use two if you prefer.

Attach the Fitbit Air to your arm for a week.

While we wait for a suitable bicep strap, people are coming up with creative solutions to avoid wearing the Fitbit Air on their wrist. There are 3D-printed adapters that allow you to use the Whoop strap, as well as improvised solutions using Velcro or spare straps as an extension.

But the simplest advice is to simply adhere the sensor to your skin with strong adhesive. Kinesiology tape (KT-taps)—the same kind used for joint pain—works well for this purpose. You can also use a patch similar to those used for continuous glucose monitors. These patches are designed to last a week or more, so find a suitable location, apply it, and forget about it.

Connect your Pixel watch and Fitbit fitness tracker to switch between them.

Unfortunately, the Google Health app doesn’t support using two Fitbit devices simultaneously. However, it can connect to one Fitbit and one Pixel Watch. If you have an old Pixel Watch that you no longer use, consider using it for workouts. This way, you can get heart rate and pace data right on your wrist, then switch back to the Fitbit Air for the rest of the day and for sleep. The Google Health app will automatically combine these metrics.

For better accuracy, wear your Fitbit Air higher on your wrist.

Proper fit is important for any fitness tracker, but with the Fitbit Air, you may find that proper placement is even more crucial than with other fitness watches. This is because the larger sensor is better at blocking ambient light. However, with a sensor as small as the Fitbit Air’s, even slight unevenness in fit can allow light to leak in and distort the optical sensor’s readings.

The solution is simple: instead of wearing the strap where your wrist meets your knuckle or even directly above the carpal bone, move it a couple of centimeters up, closer to your elbow. Then, tighten the strap so it fits snugly. Your heart rate readings will be much more accurate during your workout, and afterward, you can loosen the strap for a more comfortable fit.

More…