Fitbit has rolled out more advanced health monitoring features including an ECG app and sensors to track stress levels and changes in skin temperature.
It's part of the wearable giant's transition from fitness tracking to being a platform that puts consumers in control of their health, said James Park, Fitbit co-founder and CEO, during a virtual presentation for reporters Monday.
"We are redefining what wearables can do," Park said.
The company announced its new Fitbit Sense device as an "advanced health smartwatch" that features sensor and software technology including the first electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor to help manage stress.
Consumers can place their palm over the face of the device and use the smartwatch's EDA Scan app to detect small electrical changes in the sweat level of their skin.
The combined on-device tracking and app provide insights on how a user's body responds to stress and offers tools such as mindfulness sessions to help manage both physical and mental stress, the company said.
The new smartwatch also features an ECG app to assess assess heart rhythm for signs of atrial fibrillation and an on-wrist skin temperature sensor that can help detect potential signs of illness.
The Fitbit Sense is designed to track key trends in users' health and well-being, like heart rate variability, breathing rate and blood-oxygen saturation, or SpO2, according to the company.
"Our mission to make everyone in the world healthier has never been more important than it is today. COVID-19 has shown us all how critical it is to take care of both our physical and mental health and wellbeing," Park said in a statement.
With the new features, Fitbit is "breaking new ground with its wearables," Park said, helping users better understand and manage their stress and heart health.
"We're pulling key health metrics together in a simple and digestible way so you can see how it’s all connected," he said during the virtual presentation. "Most importantly, we are making health accessible, surfacing new data that you may only get once or twice a year at the doctor’s office that you can use to focus on your holistic health and wellness, at a time when it’s needed most."
It's part of Fitbit's broader ambitions in healthcare to use its wearable technology for preventive health to reduce the risk of life-threatening events like stroke by detecting problems earlier.
Fitbit launched in 2007 and now has close to 30 million active users. In November, tech giant Google announced plans to buy the company for $2.1 billion, but that deal still needs to be approved by regulators.
In May, Fitbit launched a sweeping heart study aimed at exploring whether its devices can detect afib.
Fitbit completed a clinical trial of its new ECG feature for spot detection of afib, and a review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is currently pending, the company said.
The wearable maker is chasing down competitor Apple, which received FDA clearance in 2018 for its ECG feature and more recently launched a study with Johnson & Johnson to explore whether its own wearables can detect afib.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Fitbit has pivoted to focus on how its wearable activity trackers could pick up on the early signs of a COVID-19 infection. The company teamed up with Scripps Research Institute and Stanford Medicine on research aimed at using Fitbit data to help detect, track and contain infectious diseases like COVID-19.
Last week, Fitbit posted early findings showing its trackers can identify cases of COVID-19 before symptoms take hold.
"We see signs of illness from health metrics such as breathing rate and heart variability one to two days before symptoms are reported by the user," Park said Monday. "Early detection is critical to stopping the spread of the virus."
Fitbit also jumped into the return-to-work business with a tool that helps employees determine whether they have signs of COVID-19 before returning to work using key health metrics from Fitbit devices and self-reported symptoms.
The company reported a 17% drop in revenue to $261 million in the second quarter of 2020 from $317 million in the same period a year ago as its business has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Fitbit sold 2.5 million devices in the second quarter, down 30% year over year, the company reported in its second-quarter earnings report.
However, Fitbit has seen strong growth in its Premium paid membership service, reaching 500,000 paid subscribers in less than a year since launch.