Amazon launches new fitness band, fitness app: Functions, pricing, other details

For now, only customers in the U.S. can request early access to Amazon Halo, with the Amazon Halo Band and 6 months of Halo membership available at a price of $64.99 (roughly ₹8,400).

Halo Band

Unlike smartwatches and fitness trackers, the Halo band doesn’t have a screen. The band is essentially a small sensor capsule. The sensor includes an accelerometer, a temperature sensor, a heart rate monitor, two microphones, an LED indicator light, and a button to turn the microphones on or off, among other functions. Amazon Halo Band is water resistant.

Amazon claims the battery lasts up to seven days and fully charges in under 90 minutes. Customers can choose from three fabric band colors at purchase, with fabric and silicone sport accessory bands available in 15 additional colors.

Halo App

The app provides five core features, Activity, Sleep, Body, Tone and Labs

Activity: Amazon Halo awards points based on the intensity and duration of movement, not just the number of steps taken. For example, customers will earn points for walking, but will earn more points for running. Halo app deducts one activity point for every hour over eight hours of sedentary time in a day, outside of sleep.

Sleep: Amazon Halo uses motion, heart rate, and temperature to measure time asleep and time awake; time spent in the various phases of sleep including deep, light, and REM; and skin temperature while sleeping. The sensors in the band allow for continuous sleep monitoring.

In the morning, Amazon Halo delivers a sleep score out of 100.

Body: Using machine learning, Amazon Halo lets customers measure their body fat percentage. The company claims that body fat measurement is as accurate as methods a doctor would use—and nearly twice as accurate as leading at-home smart scales.

Tone: The Tone feature uses machine learning to analyze energy and positivity in a customer’s voice so they can better understand how they may sound to others, helping improve their communication and relationships. For example, Tone results may reveal that a difficult work call leads to less positivity in communication with a customer’s family, an indication of the impact of stress on emotional well-being.

Labs: Amazon Halo Labs are challenges, experiments, and workouts that allow customers to discover what works best for them specifically.

Amazon claims that privacy is foundational to Amazon Halo, and multiple layers of privacy and security are built into the service. The company claims that health data is encrypted in transit and in the cloud, and customers can download or delete their data at any time directly from the app.