Wearable Technology

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The Amazon Halo is not a must-buy, particularly if you are already an Apple Watch or Fitbit user. However, it is a look into how Amazon views the fitness tracker as a larger play into their healthcare, marketing ecosystem, subscription offerings, and personal data aspirations.

I’ve worn a lot of wearables, and we’ve come a long way from 2013 – when I was getting a lot of pushback that smartwatches and wearables would ever be mainstream.

Instead, smartwatches and health tracking devices continued their growth trajectory despite the COVID-19 pandemic, with global smartwatch shipments increasing 6% in Q3 2020 compared to the same period last year, according to the recently published Global Smartwatch Model Tracker of Counterpoint Research. Apple is leading, but there are a lot of players.

So it’s no surprise Amazon wants to come into this market. But they aren’t doing it with an Apple Watch killer. Even if it may have been rushed to market to compete with Apple Fitness+‘s launch this week.

Amazon Halo

At first-look, the Halo isn’t much to look at… but that’s the point. Its low-key form factor comes off like you’re wearing a canvas survival bracelet at a Dave Matthews Band concert.

The $99 device doesn’t have a speaker or a screen, and therefore becomes immediately forgettable. This is the exact opposite experience of Amazon Echo Frames or Apple Watch, which beg you to interact with them.

Instead, Halo is more subtle, like a Fitbit. And besides the Fitbit-like things you would expect a 2020-era wearable to track — steps, calories, heart rate, activity level. Others have done the breakdown of how accurate it is compared to others, and that doesn’t really interest me. What does is the bonus Halo features of Tone, Body, and Sleep.

TONE

Tone “helps you understand how you sound to others — insights you can use to help improve your relationships and overall well-being.” The device learns your voice and then captures snippets throughout the day and ranks your vocal tone via High/Low Positivity and High/Low Energy. You can use the button on Halo to mute ton monitoring OR to listen to you speak up to 30 minutes and share an analysis.

I find it… unhelpful and unimportant data. But I’m curious why Amazon is leading with such a distinct and voice-specific offer. Are they using this data to further train Alexa, perhaps?

I totally understand that I may not have the perfect tone when interacting with coworkers, kids, and others. But what if the band SHOCKED you if you’re being a jerk? Now that would be some incentive. And make that data actionable.

BODY

Body claims to be “the first app-based tool for measuring body fat from the comfort and privacy of home,” with Amazon saying body fat is widely considered a better barometer of health and fitness than weight alone. How Amazon measures that is by having you change into minimal clothing and letting it scan your body with a camera, then process that data via computer vision and machine learning.

It reminds me of Amazon’s (discontinued) Echo Look camera, that would help you pick out outfits and figure out sizing for buying new clothes. Except now you’re standing half-naked in front of your phone sending pictures to Amazon for their A.I. to rank your body.

I find it… not something I’m going to do. As an affluent, educated, white male I am privileged to be pretty liberal with my data and privacy. But giving Amazon a scan of my naked body is too far. And the value proposition just isn’t there for the privacy and risk trade off. If I was a woman or was concerned about my privacy, no way.

SLEEP

Sleep is a feature that tracks your time in bed, time asleep, time to fall asleep, REM/Light/Deep cycles, disturbances, sleep efficiency and sleep temperature. I haven’t worn a wearable to sleep since the BASIS watch, so this data was particularly of interest.

I find it… fine. Amazon has done a great job of explaining the data they’re collecting, what it means, why the averages are created the way they are, and more.

But like a lot of the country, I’m personally not sleeping well these days. So this just verified that for me – thanks Amazon! And on the days I took melatonin, I couldn’t see a drastic difference. Are all the small “Awake” disturbances that seem to plague my nights normal? I found it more stressful to know I only got 5 hours of sleep and doom scrolled for 20 minutes in the middle of the night than to just complain I was tired the next day.

But honestly, I don’t think it’s that much different from other sleep trackers and isn’t enough for me to continue to wear both an Apple Watch and a Halo — particularly if Apple gets its battery life act together and starts innovating around sleep.

LABS

Throughout the app experience, Amazon Halo Labs experiences are highlighted with tips to help you fall asleep, stay asleep, boost your fitness workouts or change your diet. They will track a workout to a video series you watch and track your health data against it. This means Amazon is working hard to capitalize on the app-based fitness craze that Peloton, Strava, Apple Fitness+, and others are building. You can envision Amazon releasing their own bike, treadmill or suite of “Prime Exercise” apps and products using what they’ve learned from Halo and Halo Labs (and how many people will shell out $3.99/month for access).

So that’s the Amazon Halo. It’s a late-to-market fitness tracker that is mostly unremarkable except for its exploration into voice, body fat, and subscription-based curriculum. But it’s very early days, and one should never count Amazon out of an industry where they intend to invest and innovate.

And it’s getting some terrible PR this week…

The Washington Post: Amazon’s new health band is the most invasive tech we’ve ever tested
The New York Times: The Fitness Gadget We Don’t Deserve or Need
Android Police: Amazon’s weird Halo band is now available if you want to pay $4/month for fitness tracking

If you aren’t an Apple Watch or Fitbit fan and are looking for an entry-level wearable (without a screen, clock, alarm, or speaker) that stores photos of you naked and you’ll probably have to replace within the year, this could be the device for you. Hit me up and I’ll share a code with you to get one at the early access price. I’m not kidding.

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Amazon Echo Frames

Amazon’s Echo Frames are the most affordable, effective, and consumer-facing look around the corner of where smart glasses trends are headed. They look good. You can’t tell they are smart unless you’re told. And they are a remarkable step forward for getting our faces out of our phones and wrists in daily life.

Available to consumers through Amazon’s invite-only Day 1 Editions program, Amazon Echo Frames are pre-priced at $179 (full retail will be $249), plus the cost of prescription lenses (~$100, depending where you order them). So not exactly Zenni prices, but certainly cheaper than Snap Spectacles ($380) and Google Glass ($1500).

Frames have Alexa built-in, plus Siri or Google Assistant, and rely on a bluetooth connection to your phone for data. Similar to other Eco devices, Alexa is always listening for the ‘wake word,’ which then triggers A.I. assistant to spring into action and give you complete access to Alexa’s wide range of Skills, calls, drop-ins, and more. Or with a simple temple press, access Siri and its native access to your entire iPhone, testing, calls, apps and more. Same with Google Assistant on Android devices.

With four microspeakers and two beamforming microphones embedded in the stems, the audio quality is excellent except in heavy winds.For music, they are a little tinny. But the microphones are excellent for voice. I have to imagine Amazon’s engineers are exploring bone conduction audio for future iterations. But as long as you have the volume set low enough, they are pretty private.

In fact, the other day I was having a discussion with my wife and listening to a podcast at the same time. I’m a super nice husband. And I will not make that mistake again.

No screen! No camera!

The immediate initial questions I get asked about Echo Frames are: 1) Are you looking at me through a screen right now, and 2) Are you recording me?

No! Frames are hearables in the purest sense. A small light inside the frames tells you when you’ve activated Alexa by voice or the backup stem button, but otherwise there is no visual display to look at or through (these are not augmented reality glasses) and no camera.

As for the audio side of “Are you recording me?” – well, that’s a stickier answer. This is an Amazon product, after all.

Google Glass missed their PR window to educate consumers about privacy and use of its camera. Snap Spectacles attempted to inoculate privacy concerns by its placement of bright circling lights when they are recording.

This 1st edition of Echo Frames doesn’t include any forward-facing indicator when the microphones are “listening” or sending audio to your phone, but I assume that’s intentional — the microphones aren’t facing outward and aren’t designed to record.

However, there are valid concerns about how Amazon stores and uses all of its Alexa-based data and recordings. That same scrutiny can be applied to Frames. And like all Echo products, there is a manual “mute” button with red light indicator that it is not listening.

So after a month wearing Amazon Echo Frames off and on, how am I using them?

“Dropping in” on my kids while they’re doing school in their rooms. We have Echo Dots in each room of the house, and it’s pretty great to quickly be able to call them down for lunch or ask how school is going.
Talking on the phone, texting, listening to music and podcasts, and recording Marco Polos – as a supplement to my AirPods.
Asking random factoids and information, like how many ounces are in a gallon – as a more intimate supplement to normal Echo requests.

Of course, this test period is taking place during a global pandemic. So practical use in “normal” times, including during a commute, working from an office, or doing extra curricular activities has yet to be fully flexed. I more or less never leave my highly-connected home, where I can count eight always-listening Echo devices, plus Google Home and Facebook Portal. And my Echo Loop smart ring. So they are a tad bit duplicative in this season of life.

My biggest issues?

Battery life. Man, these batteries are not good. Maybe 3-4 hours battery life, depending on how much you’re using them. There’s nothing like wearing dead smart glasses for hours at a time in the afternoon. So the trade off of Echo Frames not being bulky and obnoxious is you are trading battery life.

You also MUST have your phone around to use them. Just like the Apple Watch’s evolution, you can imagine future iterations of Frames having their own data plan. Leave your phone at home and just head out with your Frames. It will happen.

And lastly, I do think there are valid privacy issues to anticipate with the mainstreaming of hearables, particularly as people become more educated on surveillance and sousveillance as it pertains to audio recordings. Where Google Glass dropped the ball on proactive PR, others need to learn and start working ahead on normalization and privacy controls.

BONUS: Now when my phone rings my laptop, phone, Apple Watch, Echo Loop ring, and Echo Frames glasses all ring! The future is amazing, you guys! I’ll never miss a telemarketer spam call again.

Should you buy Echo Frames?

Probably not. They aren’t necessarily intended for general public consumption. However, they are the highest quality, most affordable, best looking smart glasses I’ve worn.

In fact, I genuinely like them. It took me a couple weeks to get prescription lenses, and now that I’ve got them I will wear them regularly.

On the other side, I mean… just look at these cool folks at the official Google Glass Meetup at SXSW in 2014…

Group photo from Official Google Glass Explorer Meetup at SXSW 2014

So Echo Frames Edition 1 are not the must-purchase, but they are a step to where we’re headed.

Where are we headed?

As mentioned in the intro, I’m pretty bullish on smart glasses coming into the mainstream. When? It’s safe to say the next 10 years, although I predict it will be sooner.

I’m fascinated with the promise and value of smart glasses, including new uses we can only start to imagine, including…

Notifications: Screenless and heads-up
Real-time translation: via visual displays and/or audio
Smart lenses: dynamically changing prescription, focal length, blue light, and UV protection
Anticipatory A.I.: moving beyond notifications, reminders and lookups to offer proactive information, scheduling, and more
Standalone data: We could conceivably not need to carry a phone at all by 2030.
Augmented Reality: opening the digital layer of our world to its wearer for work, play, and daily use. Of note, Nreal is advancing this quickly.

Will the future look like Keiichi Matsuda’s short film, Hyper Reality (2016), experienced through smart glasses? We’ll find out soon enough.

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Category: Wearable Technology

Hacking Personal Health: Amazon Halo isn’t the Apple Watch killer, but…