It’s easy to see why gadget makers are so fixated on touchscreens. Swiping is intuitive. It enables sleek lines for a futuristic aesthetic. It’s the easiest way to banish bezels and maximize screen real estate. So I understood why Fitbit was chuffed when it introduced the inductive button on the Fitbit Charge 3. Begone side button protrusion, and behold the slim profile of a modern fitness tracker!
In today’s digital age, it sometimes feels like hardware has taken a back seat to the software that drives our devices. Button of the Month is a monthly column that explores the physical pieces of our phones, tablets, and controllers we interact with every day.
This is what an unforced error looks like.
With the Charge 3, Fitbit replaced the Charge 2’s physical button with a smooth groove that you could easily mistake as part of the overall design. Put your finger on the groove, and it activates an invisible touch sensor on the inside of the device. When I initially reviewed the Charge 3, it seemed to work: a short press brought me back to a previous screen, a long press summoned the shortcut menu, and it vibrated to let me know it had done my bidding. But something that isn’t a pain during a brief review period can become one over time.
Back then, Fitbits (and other trackers) didn’t have the most responsive touchscreens. Swipes weren’t always detected, or sometimes they didn’t register correctly. That can be mildly annoying, but it’s less of an issue if you know there’s a back button to undo your mistake. But the back buttons on older Fitbit smartwatches, like the Versa 2, often got stuck. (The company never had the sturdiest hardware.) That, plus a slimmer profile, is probably why Fitbit even thought up the inductive button in the first place.
Physical buttons are dependable and predictable. You know what they do, and you know when you’ve pressed them. You can feel them depress, and some even have a satisfying little click. But while Apple has shown us it’s possible to emulate a button on a laptop-size canvas, Fitbit shows how risky it can be to try the same with wearables.
In Fitbit forums, some users were so befuddled by the Charge 3’s button that wasn’t a button that they didn’t know where to begin. If you pop “Fitbit Charge 3 button” into Google, the top two results are variations on “where is the button on the Charge 3?”
It’s telling that users weren’t aware that the Charge 3’s button existed until they ne
