(TLDR: Jawbone Replacements – Fitbit Inspire HR, Fitbit Charge 3, Garmin Vívoactive 3 Music)
Having gotten a couple Jawbone Up24 devices a few years ago for dirt cheap (<$10 each used) I thought it was a great deal, until Jawbone shut down their servers recently. The app no longer works for tracking steps or sleep, you can’t create new accounts or anything anymore. I think it’s a damn shame that even while the company is dying with no hope of saving it, they haven’t open sources their hardware/software. As a plea to all companies, especially those with millions of devices already in the market, please open your designs to the public if your company is dying!!! Otherwise all those devices are going to end up in landfills even though they still have the ability to work. I realize that there may be some tech you can’ share such as what’s involved in patent disputes, but at least open the parts of the code that provide basic functionality for hackers to work with!
For the Jawbone UP24 bands I have, I did some googling and found someone who wrote an app that allows the UP bands to vibrate when your phone gets notifications which still works even after Jawbone’s API has been taken offline. This is a great thing to use for things such as calendar notifications or timer on your phone. Here’s my journey into getting these things to work.
If you don’t currently have a jawbone device, you can get them online second hand pretty easily and for practically nothing nowadays. YOu can’t buy them from stores anymore though. I recommend you pick up a UP24 band.
The next step is to fix the band if you need to. I did a hard reset on my band as it wasn’t charging correctly. Here’s the steps
To hard reset your band, please follow these steps:
Press the button on your band 10 times. Try to pace the presses at about about one press every second.
On the 10th press, PRESS + HOLD the button for 15 FULL SECONDS, or until the sun status light appears. Once you see the light, let go of the button. (via https://blog.mornati.net/)
Doing a hard reset will wipe all saved data from the device, but since Jawbone’s servers are down and likely for the count, I don’t think that matters much.
Next download the Jawbone App. As I mentioned before, it won’t track steps or sleep, or allow you to connect to a jawbone account, however you need this to pair your UP24 band to your phone. This is required after a hard reset. Open the app and click through the screens (don’t try to sign or log in as it won’t work, their servers are turned off) but you’ll eventually come to a point where you need to pair the device as shown in the video below. This worked for me with no problem at all and without having to log in.
The next part (after pairing the device with your phone) is to download the app to allow you to push notifications called UpNotifications in the play store. You can select which apps you will allow. This app does cost $1.79, but given that you can get the device <$10 (we got one for $3 on ebay), and this app for <$2 I think it’s still worth it. What’s cool is the builder of this app Stefano Brilli documented the process of building this app on his blog.
In the UpNotifications app, simply go to the top and switch on notifications, then go to “select band” and it should be populated in the list with it’s address. CLick that, then select which apps you want to be able to push notifications to the band.
It should be noted that this app might support more than just Jawbones. It detected my FitBit Charge 2 device as well.
Tada! You just saved a functional device from the ending up in a landfill. This is truly recycling in the sense that you’re ReUsing (reduce, reuse, recycle). LIke other forms of recycling, it’s a bit of a downgrade of the band’s once glorious functionality, but at least now you’ve given it a second life.
Another quick note if you encounter problems, the only troubleshooting info I have from the UpNotifications app says to make sure your firmware is updated. SInce you can’t access the jawbone app, I’m not sure how that’s possible. If you figure it out, or have any other hacks for these little guys, feel free to post them in the comments.
I will recommend updating to a different company’s fitness band. There are a ton of options, and I have only tried a few. For instance, I mentioned the Fitbit Charge 2 earlier. This is a great basic step counter and heart rate tracker and when paired with your phone can map your exercises using the phone’s GPS. I loved the small size and simple interface. It tracks heart rate constantly and does a great job of detecting how well you’ve slept (showing you a chart with deep sleep, REM, and showing how many times you were awake or restless in the night). The heart rate tracker can also estimate cardio fitness score, a measure of how healthy you are overall.
After using my Fitbit Charge 2 for more than a year, I decided that I wanted more features like integrated GPS so I didn’t need to bring my phone with me when I exercised. I tried the Samsung Gear S2. This is a full android device that can make cell phone calls and has Svoice (Samsung’s version of Siri) which I found worked well. It has built-in apps for heart rate, GPS tracking of exercises. (Though I used both the MapMyRun and Endomondo apps for the watch as well). The Heart rate monitoring isn’t constant, rather it can be set to measure when you are still for a programmable period of time (sucha s 10 or 30 minutes). It doesn’t have a native sleep tracker app so I tried a couple apps I downloaded. Most of the apps available for the phone are actually just watch faces which is disappointing. I love that this watch was waterproof so I could shower and swim with it, and the wireless charging feature. Eventually I got rid of it though because it had to be recharged every day. I got it used so maybe the previous owner had messed up the battery. Regardless, I moved on.
I settled on the Garmin Vivoactive 3 which I charge about as often as the Fitbit, only once a week. It has integrated GPS so I don’t need to bring my phone to track my exercise. It also has a great heart rate monitor and is one of the few watches with Heart Rate Variability (HRV) monitoring features which can be used to determine how healthy you are. It is also waterproof, and has a full color screen which you can easily see in full daylight.
In all, there isn’t a ton that can be done with the Jawbone’s now that their servers are offline unless someone backwards engineers the communication protocol to set up new bands with an app. This is very unlikely given the current scenario. The best option is to move to another company. Fitbit, Garmin, and samsung’s stock prices are all pretty steady over the last year so I believe they will stick around for the long haul. Samsung owns South Korea so it isn’t going anywhere, and garmin has been in the GPS game for ages.
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