Last fall, Fitbit came out carry about mental well-being with your Sense smartwatch, which introduced an electrodermal activity sensor (EDA) to help quantify stress levels. It was a thoughtful addition that went beyond the typical respiratory reminders seen on smart watches. Now, the company hopes to attract more users at the Premium subscription level in collaboration with Deepak Chopra to launch a guided meditation program.
If you somehow don’t know Chopra, it’s a kind of New Age meditation that stays with Oprah. Fitbit will launch a “Mindful Method” collection, led by Chopra, which includes more than 30 audio and video meditation sessions to help users de-stress. (As long as they have a paid Premium subscription). Each session lasts 20 minutes or less and aims to act as a quick respite from the hellish landscape we’ve all endured over the past year. The collection will launch with 10 sessions to begin with, and topics will range from topics such as managing emotions and relieving stress to restoring bad moods and adapting to the day.
Knowing all this, I tried to keep an open mind during a recent Fitbit briefing, in which I was able to try a guided meditation session with Chopra himself. I am also a stressed out mess living and working in a small studio with my husband, a screaming cat and a clingy dog. Chopra has a calming voice and sinks when his deep, calming intonation tells you when to breathe and what affirmative mantras you need to repeat. Although my cat screamed all the time and Slack kept making news, I had the overall summary, and it’s pretty similar to what you’ll find on Calm or Headspace. And yes, I felt calmer for about two minutes after the session ended, until that cat overturned his bowl of water and I became a Stressville resident again.
I admit that it is a timely feature, given the diversity of various healthcare institutions it sounded the alarm on mental health during the pandemic. Mindfulness apps like Calm and Headspace saw one massive increase in downloads in 2020, and with regard to laptops, in recent months we have seen an increase in functions focused on recovery. The Fitness + feature recently launched by Apple, It’s time to walk, has recruited celebrity guests to tell inspiring stories as you meander. This is a kind of version of Fitbit. It’s time to meditate, if you will, but with one guest: Deepak Chopra.
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But today you can find guided meditation almost everywhere. Of course, the Fitbit version is more thoughtful than most garments. You can see your stress score as well as keep a daily record of your moods and emotions in the app. And aside from this new series with Chopra, the $ 10-a-month Premium subscription already offers more than 100 guided meditations by a number of wellness partners, including Aaptiv, Aura, Breethe and Ten Percent Happier. I sincerely hoped there would be more interactive elements, especially with the Sense’s new, bright EDA sensor.
After all, that is not the purpose of meditation with a usable? I have had limited success with a similar device, the Headband Muse S., which measures your biometric data as you meditate. Okay, but the data you get is limited to your sessions. The advantage of Fitbits is that they can track your metrics 24/7, not just during a 20-minute meditation. Theoretically, an EDA reading could be done before and after each session, but this is limited to Sense owners. Plus, this still doesn’t really take full advantage of the Fitbit platform.
According to Fitbit, an interactive element was shunned in favor of wider access.
“The Mindful method will be Premium to begin with to ensure that users with any Fitbit device have access to and can participate in the sessions,” a Fitbit spokesman told Gizmodo. “We are looking for opportunities to integrate with EDA in the future.”
While I’m not sure these sessions will convince anyone except the toughest Chopra fans to use Fitbit Premium, it’s encouraging to see Fitbit based on its mindfulness features. I just wish it wasn’t such a blatant attempt to get people to sign up for Premium.