The Fitbit Versa and Sense series now have a keyboard…sort of

All versions of the Fitbit Versa and Fitbit Sense smartwatches do not have native keyboards. To reply to messages and emails, you need to use voice-to-text or choose from a set of pre-written canned responses. This is interesting because lots of other smartwatches — including those running Wear OS, created by Fitbit’s parent company Google — do have native keyboards.

Thankfully, an enterprising developer has created a third-party Fitbit OS app called Notes. This app for the Fitbit Versa and Fitbit Sense series does have a keyboard, and it works pretty well. The app itself is a simple note-taking tool that could be ideal for remembering a parking spot, door code, or another tiny bit of info.

The big hurdle here, though, is that the QWERTY keyboard is split across two screens. You need to hit an arrow button to go from one side of the keyboard to the other, which could more than double your keystrokes to take a simple note. With that in mind, voice-to-text would be a much faster process for taking a simple note.

See also: What’s the best Fitbit?

However, sometimes using voice-to-text is impractical. Maybe you’re in a lecture or out to eat with friends. Talking into your watch might not be preferable in those situations, so having a keyboard on your Versa or Sense might be desirable.

We tested the Notes app on our Versa 3 smartwatch and were impressed with it. The keyboard strokes are fast and responsive and the note-taking aspects of the app work as expected. Our only real complaint was the fact that the keyboard was split in half, but that’s just a result of practical design limitations with the Versa and Sense.

The Notes app costs $3.29 on the Fitbit Gallery. Grab it for your supported watch below.