Touchscreens explain gadget makers’ obsession. Swipe intuitively. It creates futuristic lines—the easiest approach to eliminate bezels and increase screen space. So I understood why Fitbit was excited about the Fitbit Charge 3’s inductive button. Finally, a contemporary fitness tracker has no side button protrusion!
The Charge 3 replaces the Charge 2’s physical button with a smooth groove that seems like part of the design. Touching the groove triggers an invisible touch sensor within the gadget. When I first evaluated the Charge 3, it worked: a quick push took me back to a previous screen, a long press brought up the shortcut menu, and it vibrated to confirm my command. Yet, a non-issue during evaluation might become one over time.
Fitbits and other trackers had slow touchscreens then. Swipes occasionally failed to register. Knowing there’s a back button to undo your error makes it less aggravating. Nevertheless, Fitbit Versa 2 back buttons regularly became stuck. (The corporation never had sturdy hardware.) Fitbit presumably invented the inductive button for that reason and a thinner design.
Physical buttons are consistent. You know what they do when you press them. Some depress with a pleasing click. Unfortunately, Fitbit illustrates how hazardous it is to replicate a button on a watch, while Apple has shown us how to do it on a laptop.
Several Fitbit forum members were confused by the Charge 3’s non-button. For example, Google “Fitbit Charge 3 button,” and the top two results are “where is the Charge 3 button?”
I can see why Charge three users didn’t know about the button until they needed it. With the Charge 3’s bigger touchscreen display and no visible buttons, you would think you could use it with swipes and taps.
The main issue: even the discoverers found the button unreliable. Haptic feedback, supposed to confirm button press, caused misunderstanding. Does a long press fail if it vibrates early? Did you push long instead of short if it vibrated later? I often returned to a screen when I meant to launch a shortcut or vice versa since I had no confirmation. That isn’t very pleasant even in an everyday situation and exasperating mid-workout.
The button stopped functioning for other people, and restarting the device by pressing the inductive button for 15 seconds while charging fixed that issue. So how can it operate if the button doesn’t work and you can’t know you’re pressing it?
Tragically, no one requested the inductive button. With previous Fitbit devices, the buttons occasionally get stuck, but overall, all of this could have been avoided by making better buttons. Instead, Fitbit overengineered a “solution” that led to new issues before doubling down on it for upcoming trackers and smartwatches (as other wearable manufacturers did). It surfaced on the Charge 4, Versa 3, and Sense, when Fitbit implemented a double push, making the shortcomings of the inductive button much more obvious. That implied that you could theoretically create another shortcut if you could distinguish between a single, double, and long press.
I, for one, could not. The button wasn’t a part of my generally pleasant experiences with the Sense and Versa 3. My wrist’s simple movement ended up starting half a dozen unintended shortcuts. Is my wrist bending while I type? A run would begin as a result. Was I doing a downward dog before bed to stretch my calf muscles? That was a run as well. I started 15 phantom runs during testing, which I then had to go back and erase.
We have seen from the side of a Fitbit Charge 3 user reaching for the inductive button.
Other smartwatch manufacturers have, for the most part, choosing a combination of tactile buttons and touchscreens. For instance, the Apple Watch Ultra added a third physical button to the mix, the Action Button, in addition to having a massive, blaring screen. Even Apple, a firm that enjoys eliminating buttons wherever possible, recognizes the value of having tactile buttons on its timepieces. Although promising athletes that its five-button navigation system won’t go, Garmin keeps updating its range of fitness watches with touchscreens. The confidence that tactile buttons will be there when perspiring fingers, gloves, or sluggish displays become an issue allows you to scroll and swipe whenever you want.
It’s encouraging to see that Fitbit, which Google later purchased, has matured somewhat. Fitbit returned to traditional side buttons with the release of the Sense 2 and Versa 4 last year. But it could already be too late. With the release of the Pixel Watch, Fitbit is one Pixel band away from becoming completely integrated into the Google ecosystem, as I noted in my Sense 2 review. The decision to return to the physical button early would not have altered Fitbit’s outcome. Yet, it would have made using its final few gadgets more joyful. It would have been plenty for many folks.
