4 Fitbit Hacks You Never Knew Before

Fitbit is one of the most developer-friendly wearable. In case you’re a budding Fitbit app developer or a hobbyist hacker who desires to get the most out of your device, Fitbit is easy to play around with. Their documentation is sizable and they provide updated libraries for .Net, python, unity, node.Js, and many more.

Itching to address a problem which might enable your Fitbit with added features? Here are some neat capability enhancements and Fitbit Hacks to help you get your creative juices flowing.

1. Get minute by minute Data updates (and even second-by-second)

Usually, Fitbit limits who has to get entry to intraday time series API endpoints. In case you want to apply facts approximately your coronary heart fee on a 2d-to-second basis or steps counted on a minute-through-minute foundation, you’d post a use-case evaluation. This can be a hassle — for folks that sincerely need to quantify the self, intraday information simply isn’t going to reduce it.

However, just last year Fitbit made it less complicated to get extragranular records from a personal tool. But there’s a trap — you could only get the information for applications to your private use. They added a brand new OAuth 2.0 software type called “personal.” you may pick out it whilst registering or modifying the putting of a utility.

Selecting this could revoke get right of entry to all tokens, which can’t be undone. But it’s going to allow you instantaneously get admission to for your registered beats consistent with minute (bpm) at any unique second, amongst other information. That can be top notch treasured in case you need to research what receives your heart racing at some point of the day.Give this beat a Spin

2. Turn Off your electronics

What is extra effective in sincerely getting you to work out: the carrot or the stick? In case you’re of a “stick” type, then you may take into account the use of the API to mechanically punish yourself if you don’t meet positive exercise goals and what better way to punish yourself than through turning off the very things which might be possibly stopping you from running outside, your house electronics?

Charalampos, a blogger for who writes about internet of things, used the Fitbit API and the Belkin Wemo switch to threaten to spoil the meals in his refrigerator (This can sometime stop fitbit from syncing and you’ll have to follow this article to reset your fitbit). He wrote a script that exams what number of steps he tracks each night time. If it falls beneath a selected threshold, the script sends a warning email. If it’s nevertheless under the edge after one hour, it switches off his fridge using the Wemo switch.

Charalampos says that he used his fridge because he doesn’t watch TV. But if you locate your self-failing to get for your day by day steps due to the fact you’re glued to your sofa, then tying your step remember to a functioning amusement gadget might assist you to take some greater laps around your block.

3. Create a workplace step competition dashboard

Step competitions are famous in workplaces that want to inspire their workers to be extra energetic. However, they have a severe disadvantage: they usually rely on people to plug in their very own data and considering the fact that many people have other matters they’d instead be doing, that could result in missing or misguided facts. Once the data is not available the essence of competition is no more.

Thankfully, it’s pretty easy to use the Fitbit app to create a unique business enterprise app that counts steps. Builders over at IBM developer works created easy commands to construct a contest app while using Fitbit API, blue mix, Twilio, Hypertext Preprocessor and JSON. Steps are routinely pulled from individuals’ titbits and displayed on the dashboard. The final product even includes leaderboards and graphical analytics, so each person can see who’s walking the maximum.

4. Hack the Fitbit app without coding

Of course, you don’t need to be a coding wizard to hack your Fitbit. The automation enabler “If This Then That” (IFTTT) permits you to attach your Fitbit for your different apps and gadgets. IFTTT already has dozens of Fitbit recipes, a lot of which were authored by makers of Fitbit themselves.

Right here are a few examples.

Document your everyday activity in a google spreadsheet

Do you like having your facts in neat columns and rows rather than the Fitbit app? This recipe will pull your day by day records, so you can more easily examine your development over time.

Tweet when you obtain your everyday step goal

In case you’re more encouraged via twitter likes than the risk of your LCD tv turning off, you can set this recipe to tweet each time you hit the step goal.

Turn the lights on when you wake up

Reduce one chore in your early morning grogginess? Join your Fitbit in your Philips hue lightbulb. While your Fitbit might detect that you are not sound asleep in the middle of night and it can flick light for you, but this recipe works accurate 90% of the time

Let us know your favourite FitBit Hack