Jawbone Adds Passive Heart Rate Tracking And Auto Sleep Mode To Its Wristbands

Jawbone is releasing a firmware update that will add passive heart rate and an automatic sleep mode to their wristbands. The UP2, UP3, and UP4 trackers are also getting a facelift in the form of new colors and, for the UP2, a new design with thinner straps.

Jim Godfrey, the company’s vice president of global communications, said Jawbone’s new features were among the ones most requested by users. Auto sleep means that people no longer have to activate sleep mode by tapping their tracker. Instead, it will detect when the wearer has gone to sleep and when he or she wakes up.

UP2

UP2’s new design and colors

As accelerometers and other sensors in smartphones become more sophisticated, offering continuous heart rate monitoring might help Jawbone appeal to people who are still on the fence about buying a wearable tracker.

Jawbone’s UP3 and UP4 bands already track resting heart rate, or a person’s heart rate when they are sleeping and as soon as they wake up in the morning. Passive heart rate, on the other hand, is taken at 20-minute intervals throughout the day and is meant to give users more insight into how things like consuming caffeine or experiencing stress affects their heart. Over time, Jawbone’s software determines what each user’s baseline heart rate is so it can send alerts about changes or offer health and fitness advice.

The firmware update is now available through the Jawbone UP app.