Amazon now has forayed into the fitness wearable space with its all-new Halo service. Amazon Halo is the company’s latest health and wellness platform. Through the service, the e-commerce giant is offering a Halo Band and a Halo app subscription service. The Halo Band is the company’s first-ever fitness tracker with a barebone structure. By barebone, we mean that the wearable doesn’t feature any display at all. That doesn’t mean it lacks advanced sensors. We’re looking at sensors such as accelerometer, temperature meter, and a heart-rate monitor.
Amazon Halo Band: Features, Specifications
The Amazon Halo Band is not just like other fitness trackers in the market. It comes with a few exciting improvements and features. One such feature is Tone. It uses two built-in microphones that monitor the sound of your voice. The feature will record small snippets of you talking each day to analyze and categorize it into different emotional states. These categories include hopeful, elated, bored, apologetic, happy, and worried. The idea behind Tone is to teach you to sound warmer and more positive throughout the day.
Since this feature makes use of microphones to track your voice, you might be concerned about privacy. Well, Amazon has added a mute microphone button that you can use whenever you want. According to the company, all your data will be encrypted in transit and as well as on the cloud. You can check your date and manage it anytime you want. This means that you can delete your data such as body scans and speech samples.
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Surprisingly, the Halo Band doesn’t come with Alexa built-in meaning you will not be using a microphone that much apart from speech analysis. Another addition is the ability to measure body fat percentage. For that, you need to snap multiple photos of your body which will then be sent over to Amazon’s cloud servers. These images will be compiled into a 3D scan which will then be sent back to your phone. Using a machine-learning algorithm, the app will calculate your body fat percentage.
According to the brand, the body fat percentage generated by the Halo app is as reliable as an examination by a doctor. Furthermore, it is nearly twice as accurate as smart scales. To keep things interesting, Amazon awards you points for your activity and the points will increase if you do demanding activities. This works on the other way as well. For instance, if you spend too much time sitting around, you will end up losing points.
The app will contain a Labs section that shows workouts and challenges from companies such as Headspace and organizations such as Mayo Clinic.
Price, Availability
As of now, the Halo service is only available to people residing in the US. It is currently at the stage of the trial period meaning it will not be widely available. Amazon Halo Band comes with a price tag of $99.99 but for early testers, it will cost just $64.99. To fully utilize the tracker, you will need to purchase the Halo app subscription as well. It will cost you $3.99 per month with a six month trial period.
