Fitbit may soon be adding snoring detection to its devices
Fitbit may soon add snoring and noise detection to its devices, a move that will likely please the spouses and partners of the snoring population and be of interest to people for whom snoring is a sign of a possible health condition.
According to a report in 9to5 Google, which decompiled the latest version of the Fitbit app in Google’s Play Store, the feature allows a Fitbit’s microphone (in devices that have one) to listen to “ambient noise including your potential snoring,” after you’ve fallen asleep. Not only would the feature be a major drain on the device’s battery, the idea of a sleep tracker monitoring noise “throughout the night,” as the release notes state, is a little creepy.
The 9to5 Google report says the feature is called Snore & Noise Detect, and it monitors “noise including snores from you or someone next to you.” It analyzes noise level, and tries to find “snore specific” sounds. When the Fitbit detects a noise event louder than the baseline noise level, it tries to determine whether it’s picking up snoring or something else.
The snore tracker can’t distinguish who is snoring, of course; the Fitbit wearer or someone else in the bedroom. The release notes recommend users not play white noise or other ambient sounds in the bedroom which can interfere with the snore detection, and suggests users charge their Fitbit to at least 40 percent before they go to bed because “this feature requires more frequent charging.”
