Fitbit levels up the Charge 4 with better blood-oxygen readings, Premium features

Fitbit’s Charge 4 is one of our favourite wearables at the moment, standing astride the line between smart and fitness dedicated gear. It’s simple, lightweight, features decent battery life and Fitbit Premium will guide you through all sorts of healthy ideas. But it could be better. And, now, it is.

Just about, anyway. Wareable has the details about a large update for the wearable that adds all sorts of cool features. They’re live, but they haven’t made it everywhere just yet. If you’re not looking at an update yet, you probably will be soon

No charge for the Charge 4 upgrade

Fitbit, which was recently acquired by Google, is upgrading the Charge 4 with new functionality. Or, rather, it’s moving some of it around. The company is bringing blood oxygen readings to the fore, displaying them on the watch face. Previously, you’d have to go digging in the sleep data to find it. In addition, the device will also offer up skin temperature data, a feature which is completely new.

The Charge 4, Versa 2 and Inspire 2 are all receiving access to Health Metric in the app. This is a Fitbit Premium feature that gives you details about your breathing rate, heart rate variability and resting heart rate. Premium members still have access to a month’s data. Supported device owners will get the graph for a week.

The Fitbit Sense also gets an upgrade — but not here. The EKG is being enabled for users in Canada, New Zealand and the US. Regulators have said ‘aye’ to allowing the monitoring in those countries, obviously.