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Why does Samsung health not allow for the input of accurate info?

(Topic created on: 15-03-2025 03:17 PM)
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Dasyurid
Explorer
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Ok so I have a Samsung smart watch and have had for a while and I use it in conjunction with the health app. Now this is all well and good however due to certain limitations within the app I am at a loss as to how anything it tells me could be truly helpful. My situation is that I am disabled and as a result I am unable to work and it interferes with my sleep patterns etc and limits my ability to exercise etc. The Samsung health app and many others for that matter seem to be unaware or just not care that disabled people exist in the world and buy this kind of tech beyond the odd feature like fall detection and therefore offer no options for us to input accurate data regarding our health situation or habits. This was most obvious to me when I tried to input information into the survey for the sleep coach as when it asked me what days I did not work it wouldn't allow me to enter all 7 days of the week as apparently I had to work at least one day a week which is demonstrably not true. This surely is not a mere oversight either and it not only seems like the disabled are disregarded but also the elderly and retired! With this being the case I can't help but think any resulting advice I am given is suspect as it is generated from false assumptions of my activity and physical abilities.

Does anyone else think Samsung should reach out more to the disabled and elderly so they can start to at least appear as though they care about such people and not just limit the health app to athletes etc? I do genuinely feel that some activities could be added to the workouts section that takes into account that some users are disabled or elderly. One obvious example is just adding wheelchair activities to the list of exercises so it can accurately calculate the calories burned while using a wheelchair to get around instead of trying to track steps from walking etc. I would have thought given the popularity of the Paralympics etc now that these kinds of activities would have started to appear on such devices but alas here we are in 2025 and still nothing that acknowledges some of its users may just be disabled or elderly and still want access to such insights into there health and habits.
2 REPLIES 2
smg1
Troubleshooter
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Thanks for starting this discussion, and I enjoyed reading your post.

As a shift worker, I have issues setting up my sleep coach. My rest days change and don't have weekends. I just have to put something in just to continue.

I wish the whole app was more customizable, which I'm sure this is possible if the developers bother to take their time to develop the app.

This is just one example that I have come across, but im sure there are more depending on your circumstances.
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Dasyurid
Explorer
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Yeah it does seem like the health apps from most brands are just generic off the shelf templates or something and no real thought or market research put into it after the initial development of the templates. As I say I have a disability that I in no way can let the app account for and I can't put into it anything regarding sleep patterns beyond what seems like basic market research questionnaire type stuff. I can't speak for all smart watches but I know from experience with several android based ones and non apple brand companies that everyone seems to use the basic set of available options and not cover real world needs for anyone outside the semi pro elite or dedicated enthusiast sportsperson. I hope this is read by a moderator and that it is passed up the chain and triggers the development team to start releasing questionnaires aimed more at the average persons interests in health and address the lack of support for activities a disabled person may want monitoring or at least reflect better their circumstances. One issue I have as I say is as someone who is partially reliant on a wheelchair I can't be sure of my activity levels due to the watch not recognising me using it like it does walking and I have no idea how to report to the app said activity. It is sadly lacking in so many ways when it comes to these issues.