Mobvoi’s Paid Sleep Tracking Service Is A Worrying Trend For Wearables

Mobvoi has launched a paid sleep tracking feature for its WearOS watches. It will cost $4.99 a month after an initial sale period when it is available for $2.99 a month.

Sleep tracking is a core feature of wearables, but Mobvoi plans to charge to access this kind of tracking beyond the basics.

Elements to be locked behind the paywall include “AI” sleep insights, SpO2 readings and minimum/maximum heart rate figures recorded overnight.

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The “VIP” upgrade will also provide audio tracks intended to help you get to sleep, and that is arguably the best excuse for charging for the service. However, Mobvoi’s Twitter post suggests you’ll actually get a dozen of these without paying the subscription.

This news has been met my mostly negative feedback from Mobvoi customers on social networks. The company is largely known for its highly competitively-priced Wear OS watches, and a new charge for what seem like standard features unsurprisingly may not sit well with its classic fans.

Mobvoi is not the first to offer bespoke subscriptions for its devices, of course.

It reads as Mobvoi following Fitbit’s lead. Fitbit introduced its Premium service in 2019, and that was a development of the Fitbit Coach app, released two years prior.

Important features like long-term trends and deeper data analysts sit behind the paywall in Fitbit’s ecosystem.

Fitbit charges $9.99 for Premium, double the cost of Mobvoi’s service. However, it is not limited to sleep data, and provides lots of video workouts and nutrition content.

Mobvoi’s “VIP” sleep tracking may be a tough sell, particularly when the price increases from $2.99 a month to $4.99.

The company is also yet to upgrade several of its watches to WearOS 3, which it has promised to do. These watches include the TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra, TicWatch Pro 3 and TicWatch E3.