The Amazon Halo View: A Fitness Tracker with Endless Potential

When it comes to fitness trackers, there are several options available on the market. However, one tracker that stands out from the rest is the Amazon Halo View. With its affordable price point and long battery life, it's a great option for those looking to track their basic fitness metrics. But what sets the Halo View apart from other trackers is its potential for more advanced features.

One of the most exciting aspects of the Halo View is its subscription service, which offers users access to Amazon's full library of fitness workouts and nutrition programs. For just $4 per month, users can unlock deeper insights into their health and fitness, including metrics like steps, heart rate, calories burned, activity sessions, and sleep duration. But there's more to the Halo View than just basic tracking.

One of the standout features of the Halo View is its weekly activity score. Unlike traditional daily goals like Apple's Activity Rings, Amazon challenges users to meet a weekly objective. This means that if there's a day where you don't feel like exercising or need to take it easy, you can still contribute to your goal by doing something as simple as taking a brisk walk. This approach makes the Halo View feel more inclusive and accessible.

However, not all features are available without a subscription. The Body Fat Estimator Tool and Voice Analysis feature require a Halo membership, which is included in the initial one-year free trial. These features are great additions to the tracker, but they come at an additional cost. On the other hand, users who opt for the paid subscription will have access to a wealth of content, including Amazon's own studio workouts.

Speaking of workouts, the Halo View offers 10 pre-programmed exercise options directly on the band itself. While this is fewer than Fitbit's 20 Exercise Modes on the Inspire 2, it's still a great starting point for those looking to track their physical activity. However, one area where Apple's Fitness+ app outshines Amazon's is in its modifications and workout customization options.

Another feature that sets the Halo View apart is its sleep score, which provides users with an assessment of the quality of their rest. This is a great addition for anyone looking to monitor their sleep health. Additionally, the tracker uses its smartphone's camera to estimate body fat percentage, although some users have expressed skepticism about this feature.

One thing that's still unclear is whether Amazon can convince users to switch from more established fitness trackers like Apple and Fitbit. While the Halo View has a lot of potential, it feels like Amazon is still building out its subscription service and community features. The 100-dollar price point for the basic tracker may be too high for some, but with the free one-year trial and additional subscription options, users can try before they buy.

In terms of design, the Halo View is sleek and minimalist, making it easy to wear all day. However, when it comes to features like tone of voice analysis, Amazon still seems to be playing catch-up with its competitors. While this feature has been added to the tracker, it doesn't seem to be a major draw for users just yet.

The Halo View is an affordable fitness tracker that offers long battery life and basic tracking features. However, its appeal depends on whether or not users are willing to pay $4 per month for additional features like Amazon's Body Fat Estimator Tool and Voice Analysis feature. While the tracker has a lot of potential, it feels like Amazon still needs to convince users to switch from more established fitness trackers.

For those interested in trying out the Halo View, check out the link in the description below where you can also find my full written review.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enamazon's newest fitness tracker the halo view is a worthy competitor to fitbit it's not perfect but it has everything you'd want from a basic fitness tracker but to unlock its full potential you'll need to subscribe to amazon's digital wellness service which is also called halo so is the whole package worth it let's find out this is the halo view and amazon sells it for 80 it comes with a one-year membership to the company's digital wellness service which usually costs four dollars a month if you're familiar with the original wristband that came out last year you'll notice this new one doesn't look anything like the original halo band that's because the halo view has a screen while the original band was mostly just a bracelet with sensors inside amazon made a few other changes too there's no more microphone inside the band for analyzing the tone of your voice which was one of the biggest features on the original band instead you'll need to use the app on your phone if you want amazon to tell you how you sound but just like the original it's really amazon's digital wellness service that's at the core of the halo experience that's why amazon is also launching new fitness and nutrition programs to go with it the halo view checks a lot of the boxes you'd want from a basic fitness tracker especially for less than a hundred dollars but the big question is whether you're willing to commit to paying four dollars a month for a halo subscription since many of the fitness band's best features require a membership amazon is also entering a really crowded space and it's going to be hard to make the halo view stand out other than its cheap price i'm still waiting to be wowed by amazon's approach to fitness tracking when i tried the original halo band one of my biggest complaints was that it didn't have a screen the idea was that you wouldn't be burdened with distractions from your phone while that may be true i feel like anything worn on the wrist that isn't jewelry should at least be able to tell you the time thankfully amazon changed that with the halo view there's a color amoled touch screen that shows the time fitness stats and text messages you can also set alarms timers and stopwatches the interface itself is pretty basic and easy to navigate from the home screen swipe to the left or right to check your heart rate activity points steps calories and sleep quality swipe up or down from the home screen to access the settings menu set alarms or timers view more details about your health data take a blood oxygen reading or start a workout you can press the home button to navigate backwards or end a workout overall this makes the halo view feel a lot more useful i do understand the appeal of not being burdened with notifications from your phone all day but for me being able to check my heart rate and calories and the time during a workout are much more important and since you can only receive text notifications i feel like this is the right balance of still being more useful without being drowned in notifications my only complaints it took a little bit of fiddling around before i realized that the rounded rectangle below the screen was actually the home button that made it hard to end workouts and get back to the home screen at first and text can sometimes be hard to read since the font size on the screen is small in terms of design the halo view looks like a basic fitness tracker it's light and sleek enough to comfortably wear all day but it's not going to win any points for style however it's really amazon's app and four dollars a month service that's meant to be the star of the show in the main feed of the app you'll see the most important information at the top like your health stats and reminders tied to any programs you're enrolled in i'm trying out two programs right now one to help me stop snacking at night and another to help me cut down on carbs there are also more insights about your data and information about how amazon's features work as you scroll down in the data tab which is the home for all of your health data there are tiles for each metric at the top and you can tap in to see more information and you can also find new workouts and programs in the discover feed i'm not sure how amazon curates the discover page but so far the feed seems to be personalized to my own experience in a few ways you can see there are sleep meditation suggestions at the top since my sleep score hasn't been so great lately there's also a section down here for no equipment workouts which falls in line with the types of workouts i've been doing so far through the halo app now let's talk about a feature that's unique to the halo in the live tab of amazon's app you can analyze the tone of your voice to see how you sound when you're speaking to others simply press this button to start and amazon will analyze how positive or negative you sound and how much energy is in your voice when i tried this amazon told me i sounded curious and interested but also skeptical this isn't a new feature this was also on the previous halo band but the execution is a lot different this time around in the old band there were microphones actually located inside the band itself so that you could have the option to have amazon passively monitor your voice throughout the day to tell you how you sound i think this is an improvement that's really going to make people feel more comfortable from a privacy standpoint but at the same time i can see how it can make the feature a little bit less effective since you have to make the conscious decision to analyze your voice in the app that means you're aware when the analysis is happening and you might not speak as naturally as you would without knowing you can also see battery life manage notifications and download or delete your health data in the settings tab now that you've seen the app and the kinds of metrics that the halo view can track you're probably wondering how it actually holds up during a workout but first it's important to understand what's included with the membership and what's included without the membership without a subscription you can track basic metrics like steps heart rate calories burned activity sessions and sleep duration but you need a subscription to unlock deeper insights and more features that includes amazon's full library of fitness workout and nutrition programs and some of the halo view's best features one of my favorite things about the halo view is its weekly activity score instead of setting a daily goal like apple's activity rings amazon challenges you to meet a weekly objective this is great because if there is a day where i feel like i need to recover or maybe i didn't get enough sleep i can still do a light activity like going for a brisk walk and i still feel like i'm contributing to my goal whereas with the apple watches daily activity rings if i only go for a walk i'm not going to close my rings and it almost feels like a waste if you're hoping to take advantage of amazon specific features like its body fat estimator tool or the voice analysis feature that we mentioned earlier you'll also need a halo membership the good news is that the halo view comes with a free one-year subscription so you can try all of these things out before deciding if you want to commit and at four dollars per month amazon service is a lot cheaper than fitbit premium or apple fitness plus both of which cost ten dollars per month amazon is also adding a lot of new content to its halo service and one example of that is its new fitness videos in addition to aggregating videos from partners like aptiv and orange theory amazon is also now making its own studio workouts which makes it more competitive with apple and peloton i've been trying out amazon's hit and core workouts and so far they seem well produced the trainers are energetic and the workouts themselves are challenging there are a few areas where apple's more expensive program outshines amazons apple's workouts have more of a focus on modifications making them more approachable and starting a workout in the fitness plus app automatically triggers your apple watch to begin a workout session which is a really nice perk aside from amazon's videos the selection of workouts on the band itself is actually feels quite limited there are only 10 options to choose from while the fitbit inspire 2 has 20 exercise modes that said there are a few things i really enjoyed about tracking my health and sleep with the amazon halo view it's really easy to bookmark classes i'm interested in directly from the discover feed so that i can quickly find them later and although this isn't specific to amazon i appreciate that the halo gives you a sleep score to assess the quality of your sleep another aspect that makes the halo view stand out is amazon's body fat analysis tool which uses your smartphone's camera to estimate your body fat percentage i wasn't a fan of this feature when it launched and i'm still not wild about it amazon always tells me i'm in an unhealthy body fat range even though my weight has never been flagged as a point of concern from my primary health care doctor simply put i don't really know what to do with these results speaking of those programs i'm really hoping to see more from amazon's wellness programs down the line right now i'm enrolled in two programs but there doesn't really seem to be much behind them other than adding reminders to the top of my feed and sending notifications to tell me when it's time to stop snacking the programs don't seem to be doing much hopefully this will change in the future as amazon adds more features the amazon halo view is an affordable fitness tracker with long battery life that's great for basic tracking but its appeal depends on whether you're willing to pay four dollars per month to get the most out of it i'm also not quite sure that amazon has done enough to lure people away from apple or fitbit just yet the 100 fitbit inspire 2 is probably the closest competitor to the halo view fitbit also keeps a lot of features behind a 10 per month paywall but it also has a richer community for those who find motivation in competing with others that said the halo view is still a strong choice for anyone who wants to pay less than a hundred dollars for a basic fitness tracker i just think amazon is still trying to figure out what's going to make its approach to fitness tracking you need features like tone of voice and body fat analysis don't seem to be a big draw just yet and it feels like amazon is still building out its subscription service if you're interested in trying out the halo view check out the link in the description where you can also find a link to my full written review so what do you think are you gonna check out the halo view or would you rather stick with one of the more established fitness trackers let us know in the comments thanks for watching and i'll see you next timeamazon's newest fitness tracker the halo view is a worthy competitor to fitbit it's not perfect but it has everything you'd want from a basic fitness tracker but to unlock its full potential you'll need to subscribe to amazon's digital wellness service which is also called halo so is the whole package worth it let's find out this is the halo view and amazon sells it for 80 it comes with a one-year membership to the company's digital wellness service which usually costs four dollars a month if you're familiar with the original wristband that came out last year you'll notice this new one doesn't look anything like the original halo band that's because the halo view has a screen while the original band was mostly just a bracelet with sensors inside amazon made a few other changes too there's no more microphone inside the band for analyzing the tone of your voice which was one of the biggest features on the original band instead you'll need to use the app on your phone if you want amazon to tell you how you sound but just like the original it's really amazon's digital wellness service that's at the core of the halo experience that's why amazon is also launching new fitness and nutrition programs to go with it the halo view checks a lot of the boxes you'd want from a basic fitness tracker especially for less than a hundred dollars but the big question is whether you're willing to commit to paying four dollars a month for a halo subscription since many of the fitness band's best features require a membership amazon is also entering a really crowded space and it's going to be hard to make the halo view stand out other than its cheap price i'm still waiting to be wowed by amazon's approach to fitness tracking when i tried the original halo band one of my biggest complaints was that it didn't have a screen the idea was that you wouldn't be burdened with distractions from your phone while that may be true i feel like anything worn on the wrist that isn't jewelry should at least be able to tell you the time thankfully amazon changed that with the halo view there's a color amoled touch screen that shows the time fitness stats and text messages you can also set alarms timers and stopwatches the interface itself is pretty basic and easy to navigate from the home screen swipe to the left or right to check your heart rate activity points steps calories and sleep quality swipe up or down from the home screen to access the settings menu set alarms or timers view more details about your health data take a blood oxygen reading or start a workout you can press the home button to navigate backwards or end a workout overall this makes the halo view feel a lot more useful i do understand the appeal of not being burdened with notifications from your phone all day but for me being able to check my heart rate and calories and the time during a workout are much more important and since you can only receive text notifications i feel like this is the right balance of still being more useful without being drowned in notifications my only complaints it took a little bit of fiddling around before i realized that the rounded rectangle below the screen was actually the home button that made it hard to end workouts and get back to the home screen at first and text can sometimes be hard to read since the font size on the screen is small in terms of design the halo view looks like a basic fitness tracker it's light and sleek enough to comfortably wear all day but it's not going to win any points for style however it's really amazon's app and four dollars a month service that's meant to be the star of the show in the main feed of the app you'll see the most important information at the top like your health stats and reminders tied to any programs you're enrolled in i'm trying out two programs right now one to help me stop snacking at night and another to help me cut down on carbs there are also more insights about your data and information about how amazon's features work as you scroll down in the data tab which is the home for all of your health data there are tiles for each metric at the top and you can tap in to see more information and you can also find new workouts and programs in the discover feed i'm not sure how amazon curates the discover page but so far the feed seems to be personalized to my own experience in a few ways you can see there are sleep meditation suggestions at the top since my sleep score hasn't been so great lately there's also a section down here for no equipment workouts which falls in line with the types of workouts i've been doing so far through the halo app now let's talk about a feature that's unique to the halo in the live tab of amazon's app you can analyze the tone of your voice to see how you sound when you're speaking to others simply press this button to start and amazon will analyze how positive or negative you sound and how much energy is in your voice when i tried this amazon told me i sounded curious and interested but also skeptical this isn't a new feature this was also on the previous halo band but the execution is a lot different this time around in the old band there were microphones actually located inside the band itself so that you could have the option to have amazon passively monitor your voice throughout the day to tell you how you sound i think this is an improvement that's really going to make people feel more comfortable from a privacy standpoint but at the same time i can see how it can make the feature a little bit less effective since you have to make the conscious decision to analyze your voice in the app that means you're aware when the analysis is happening and you might not speak as naturally as you would without knowing you can also see battery life manage notifications and download or delete your health data in the settings tab now that you've seen the app and the kinds of metrics that the halo view can track you're probably wondering how it actually holds up during a workout but first it's important to understand what's included with the membership and what's included without the membership without a subscription you can track basic metrics like steps heart rate calories burned activity sessions and sleep duration but you need a subscription to unlock deeper insights and more features that includes amazon's full library of fitness workout and nutrition programs and some of the halo view's best features one of my favorite things about the halo view is its weekly activity score instead of setting a daily goal like apple's activity rings amazon challenges you to meet a weekly objective this is great because if there is a day where i feel like i need to recover or maybe i didn't get enough sleep i can still do a light activity like going for a brisk walk and i still feel like i'm contributing to my goal whereas with the apple watches daily activity rings if i only go for a walk i'm not going to close my rings and it almost feels like a waste if you're hoping to take advantage of amazon specific features like its body fat estimator tool or the voice analysis feature that we mentioned earlier you'll also need a halo membership the good news is that the halo view comes with a free one-year subscription so you can try all of these things out before deciding if you want to commit and at four dollars per month amazon service is a lot cheaper than fitbit premium or apple fitness plus both of which cost ten dollars per month amazon is also adding a lot of new content to its halo service and one example of that is its new fitness videos in addition to aggregating videos from partners like aptiv and orange theory amazon is also now making its own studio workouts which makes it more competitive with apple and peloton i've been trying out amazon's hit and core workouts and so far they seem well produced the trainers are energetic and the workouts themselves are challenging there are a few areas where apple's more expensive program outshines amazons apple's workouts have more of a focus on modifications making them more approachable and starting a workout in the fitness plus app automatically triggers your apple watch to begin a workout session which is a really nice perk aside from amazon's videos the selection of workouts on the band itself is actually feels quite limited there are only 10 options to choose from while the fitbit inspire 2 has 20 exercise modes that said there are a few things i really enjoyed about tracking my health and sleep with the amazon halo view it's really easy to bookmark classes i'm interested in directly from the discover feed so that i can quickly find them later and although this isn't specific to amazon i appreciate that the halo gives you a sleep score to assess the quality of your sleep another aspect that makes the halo view stand out is amazon's body fat analysis tool which uses your smartphone's camera to estimate your body fat percentage i wasn't a fan of this feature when it launched and i'm still not wild about it amazon always tells me i'm in an unhealthy body fat range even though my weight has never been flagged as a point of concern from my primary health care doctor simply put i don't really know what to do with these results speaking of those programs i'm really hoping to see more from amazon's wellness programs down the line right now i'm enrolled in two programs but there doesn't really seem to be much behind them other than adding reminders to the top of my feed and sending notifications to tell me when it's time to stop snacking the programs don't seem to be doing much hopefully this will change in the future as amazon adds more features the amazon halo view is an affordable fitness tracker with long battery life that's great for basic tracking but its appeal depends on whether you're willing to pay four dollars per month to get the most out of it i'm also not quite sure that amazon has done enough to lure people away from apple or fitbit just yet the 100 fitbit inspire 2 is probably the closest competitor to the halo view fitbit also keeps a lot of features behind a 10 per month paywall but it also has a richer community for those who find motivation in competing with others that said the halo view is still a strong choice for anyone who wants to pay less than a hundred dollars for a basic fitness tracker i just think amazon is still trying to figure out what's going to make its approach to fitness tracking you need features like tone of voice and body fat analysis don't seem to be a big draw just yet and it feels like amazon is still building out its subscription service if you're interested in trying out the halo view check out the link in the description where you can also find a link to my full written review so what do you think are you gonna check out the halo view or would you rather stick with one of the more established fitness trackers let us know in the comments thanks for watching and i'll see you next time\n"