By Ari Adler
Amazon has announced it is shutting down its Halo devices, a line of health and fitness trackers. The company said it it is no longer the right time to invest in the Halo business.
What this means is they took a chance on entering an already crowded fitness ecosystem and now people have bricked wristbands.
At Amazon, we think big, experiment, and invest in new ideas like Amazon Halo to delight our customers. While we are proud of what we built, we recently made the difficult decision to stop supporting Amazon Halo effective July 31, 2023. We understand this news may be disappointing for you. Beginning on August 1, 2023, Amazon Halo View, Amazon Halo Band, and the Amazon Halo app, will no longer function.
–Email snippet from Amazon to Halo band wearers
Halo’s simplicity made it easy to live with
I liked the Halo for its simplicity. But what I like even better is that my Halo is dead.
Halo had a lot of nice features. It didn’t have a screen to get scratched. It didn’t ping your wrist with constant notifications. And you could wear it anywhere doing anything and never worry about breaking it. Plus, it wasn’t a huge investment to purchase one.
But it still took up valuable real estate on my wrist that I can now use for something far superior.
The Halo devices were first released in 2020. They offered a variety of features, including activity tracking, sleep tracking, and body composition analysis. However, the devices also faced some criticism, with some users complaining about the privacy implications of the Halo’s voice analysis feature.
I used the activity and sleep tracker every day. I tried the body composition feature a few times. But I never turned on the voice and tone option. It just seemed a bit too intrusive to always have a microphone analyzing my every word.
What’s next for Halo?
What will Amazon do next in the fitness space? No one knows for sure. But I know what I’m doing. I am not replacing the Halo with another fitness gadget. I have my phone and that can track steps and mileage if I really want to know how I’m doing on a hike. But my day-to-day activities are more about feeling good because I’ve moved around a lot as part of my daily chores or going for a hike. And while sleep tracking was interesting, I know whether I feel rested or not and can adjust accordingly the next night.
The ability to use a tracker can be beneficial, especially if you need motivation or are just starting a walking regimen and want to see your progress. But once walking becomes second-nature and you miss it when you don’t do it, the need to track steps is kind of pointless. My body and my mind know when I have been active or when I need to be more active.
What’s next for my wrist?
Instead, I’ll be using that valuable real estate to wear a bracelet I bought at a Florida craft show. It’s made out of recycled bass guitar strings. Silly as it may sound, it reminds me of the Luke Combs song, Better Forever.
In it, he sings, “What’s the point of this ol’ guitar if it ain’t got no strings?
Or pourin’ your heart into a song that you ain’t gonna sing?”
Every time I look down and see that bracelet, it reminds me that I have my health so I can get out and walk or hike and enjoy nature. And it reminds me that we bought our Airstream because we want to travel the country and have adventures.
What’s the point of being healthy enough to walk and hike regularly if you don’t go out and do it? What’s the point of living in an RV if you’re not going to travel and experience new places and meet new people?
My photo album is filling up with memories of amazing scenery, wonderful experiences, and new friends made along the way. And that’s the only kind of tracking I need.
