Yahoo Finance Fitbit devices may soon track your snoring
They could also allow you to measure the ambient noise in your bedroom.
Fitbit has offered sleep-tracking on its devices since 2017. Since the start, that functionality has mostly focused on measuring your heart rate and movement to provide you with a breakdown of your sleep cycles. However, Fitbit could soon measure how well you sleep from another angle. Conducting an APK teardown of the latest version of the company’s Android app, 9to5Google found evidence of a nearly complete snore and noise detection feature.
The tool, as the name suggests, allows you to use the microphone on your tracker or smartwatch to measure how much of the night you spent snoring. It will translate the total amount of time into a percentage, further grouping that into one of three categories. For example, if you spent 10 to 40 percent of the night snoring, it will be classified as a moderate case. Fitbit admits the feature can’t differentiate between people. So if your partner snores as well, it will include their contribution in the detection mix.
You can also use the tool to measure the ambient noise in your bedroom. Fitbit will tell you how loud it is in your sleeping environment on a scale between “very quiet,” which the company classifies as a consistent 30 dBA or less, and “very loud,” which falls in the 90 dBA and above range.
As you might imagine, leaving your Fitbit’s microphone on all night is one way to quickly drain its battery. The company recommends charging the device to at least 40 percent before you go to bed. It also warns you’ll need to plug it into the power more frequently should you decide to use the feature consistently.
Judging by the fact 9to5 could pull screenshots where Fitbit details how the feature works, the sleep and noise detect tool looks like it’s nearly ready for rollout. As with most of Fitbit’s tracking features, the data only goes so far if you don’t do something with it. Losing weight, for instance, can help with consistent snoring, but that’s a lifestyle change you have to make on your own.
