Fitbit has released its SpO2 watch face for Fitbit Versa and Ionic devices, which lets users get in touch with their blood oxygen levels.
The feature was actually part of the Fitbit Sense and Versa 3 launch event, but it’s landed on the Fitbit App Gallery ahead of those devices. Fitbit’s new smartwatches are due to land on 25 September.
It comes after we reported that older Fitbit devices would show new health stats in Fitbit Premium.
The SpO2 watch face shows your blood oxygen level from your last recorded sleep.
While SpO2 is landing on pretty much every new smartwatch, many devices just let you do a spot check.
However, it’s far more useful to watch this data during sleep, as it can point to sleep disorders such as sleep apnea.
This is the data you’ll find in the Estimated Oxygen Variation graph on Fitbit Versa and Charge 3 and Charge 4.
But the SpO2 watch face presents it in a different way.
The main screen will show your blood oxygen during sleep as a percentage, which is a new presentation of the data for Fitbit.
It will show the average percentage, and the high and low range below.
However, it won’t offer much guidance on whether your levels are good or bad. You’ll need to be watchful and understand SpO2 yourself – and understand your own personal baselines.
Like many health tech companies, Fitbit is still struggling to get the required certification to be able to implicitly warn users about conditions like sleep apnea.
The SpO2 watch face also offers more than just blood oxygen data.
You can swipe through and get a check on your current Active Zone Minutes data, heart rate and current HR zone, step goal progress and floors climbed progress.
It’s a great way of accessing health data on your watch, and rest assured, it does still show you the current time.
You can download the SpO2 watch face on any Fitbit Versa smartwatch and Fitbit Ionic, but make sure you’re running the latest version of the software. You can find it in the Fitbit App Gallery.
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James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.