Hey there, LEAF owners! The LEAFs are out in the world and you’ve started using them with the app, so naturally, there are a lot of questions being asked. Luckily, there are a lot of answers, as well, and they’re all here to make your LEAF an app-solute pleasure to use. Ready? Here we go!
Where can I get the app?
The LEAF by Bellabeat app is available for iOS on AppStore and for Android on Google Play. The app is free and it always will be.
What devices are compatible with the LEAF?
The LEAF works with Android 4.3 and later, iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPod Touch 5th Gen, iPad 3rd Gen, iPad Mini, iPad Air.
How does the LEAF sync with the app?
The app receives all information from the LEAF via low energy wireless BT sync, making it an easy and safe experience. Before you first start using the LEAF you will have to pull out the plastic tape to activate it and then you will have to follow the pairing instructions in the app when you first open it. For now the app only works together with the LEAF health tracker, but a standalone app that will work independently from the LEAF is already in the making.
After you have pulled out the plastic tape from the LEAF you will have to select the “Getting started” button in the app, create your account and enter some other personal data.
Then you will have to keep the LEAF very close to your smartphone, tap the “sync” button, double tap the LEAF and wait for the app to confirm that it’s synced. You will notice a vibrating notification from the LEAF - this will confirm that your LEAF is paired with your smartphone.
Before I start using it…
Before you start using the LEAF app you should first set your standards or in other words your daily goals you want to keep up with in order to lift up your lifestyle or just keep some healthy routines intact and enable yourself to be reminded if you are missing out on them. First you will want to go to the LEAF app’s settings and set your activity, sleep and breathing goals as high or low you want them to be and re-adjust them when feel like it.
Does the LEAF sync automatically with the app or do I always have to do it myself?
The LEAF communicates with your device only when you tell it to do so. It uses a low energy wireless BT to sync to the app to reduce radiation and prolong battery life. You will always have to do it manually, but you don’t have to do it on a daily basis if you don’t want to — the LEAF can store up to 14 days of data, so if you want, you can sync it in longer time periods.
My LEAF won’t sync, I’m double-tapping it and nothing is happening.
Before you contact us, make sure you’re not just double-tapping the LEAF (hardware) and ignoring the sync button inside the app (software). The correct way to do this is to click on the sync button inside the app first, and then double tap the LEAF when the app tells you to. The sync button is the one in the upper left corner in the iOS app and the one in the lower right corner in the Android app (circled in photo).
I’m still having problems with syncing, what can I do?
There’s a couple of things you can do to make the issue go away:
- Double tap your LEAF again
- Position the LEAF closer to your phone
- Move away from other LEAF devices
- Turn off your Bluetooth and try turning it back on
- Turn off the wireless connection — sometimes it interferes with the low energy wireless sync (BT).
- Turn off your phone and try turning it back on
- If the above instructions don’t work, email us at support@bellabeat.com and we will resolve your case individually
Will the LEAF connect with other apps?
Yes, future versions of the LEAF are planned to sync with nutrition, women’s health, and activity apps.
I don’t understand the colors in the sleep chart, what do they mean?
The app update will include further explanation regarding what the colors mean, but let’s discuss it here for now — the blue area represents the time you’re awake. The light purple represents the times you’re in “light sleep” mode, while the dark purple areas represent the times you get most rest — the “deep sleep” mode.
How does the LEAF log sleeping data?
The app understands that if you go to sleep before midnight and wake up in the morning that this is your normal sleep time. It logs this data under the date of the day you woke up — in this case, the next day. If you go to sleep at 11 PM on July 1st and wake up at 8 AM on July 2nd — the sleep data will be logged under July 2nd.
Can sleep data inaccuracy occur if I move a lot during sleep?
Along with the activity algorithms, the sleep algorithms are being improved so your LEAF should have no problems with this in the future. It is the best if you help your LEAF become smarter and learn from your patterns so that you manually enter the correct data to have better insight into your sleep.
How does the LEAF app track breathing?
The app itself does not track your breathing on its own. However, it does offer breathing exercises which aid in lowering blood pressure and reducing the tension so that the exercises can be used as a stress release tool.
How to ensure the best accuracy in breathing exercises?
The LEAF tracks breathing by measuring the rise and fall of your breath using highly accurate movement sensors. You can wear your LEAF any way you like, but when it comes to breathing exercises, the best accuracy can be achieved if you clip it to the waistband of your tights or pants in order to accurately measure this movement.
How does LEAF help me control my stress?
The LEAF and the LEAF app help you cope better with stressful situations. When you feel under stress you can make the most use of the LEAFs goal oriented breathing exercises that will help you get back on track in matter of only a few minutes. The higher the achieved accuracy in the breathing exercise the more focused you are becoming and the better you are controlling situations that bring you out of balance.
What’s up with the calorie count? Are they calories I burnt or is that calorie intake?
The calorie count you see in the app are a sum of two parts. The first part are the BMR calories — that’s your Body metabolic rate, or the number of calories you’d burn if you stayed in bed all day. The second part are Active calories — the number of calories you actually burnt during the day. However, after receiving user feedback, we decided to focus on just the Active calories part, so future updates will only count the calories you burnt.
How do I use the alarms in the app?
The alarms in the app can be used for various purposes. You can use the LEAF to wake you up in the morning and it can also be set to vibrate gently with other health reminders. The LEAF enables you to set up to three alarms, which can be for one-time or recurring alerts.
How to distinguish between different alerts?
Your LEAF will vibrate if you have an alarm set or if you’ve been inactive for a certain period of time. At this point there are two types of alerts. One is the inactivity alert and the other is a general alarm alert. To make an exact differentiation between these two we are adding additional explanations that will pop up in the app and will make it easier for the user to distinguish between different vibrating alerts. For now you can distinguish the alerts on the basis of the vibration patterns. The inactivity alert manifests as a longer (4–6 second) vibration and the alarm you have set manifests as a series of shorter vibrations.
If you don’t know why your LEAF vibrates it is most probably the inactivity alert.
How do I unpair the LEAF?
Settings — Status — Unpair the leaf — after that your LEAF will no longer be connected to your account. This action will enable you to connect the LEAF to any other account and it is completely independent of your account from that point on. Make sure you sync your LEAF before unpairing to not lose any of your data. You can also pair it again at any later time.
Will I be able to add exercises inside the app? I swim and the LEAF can’t swim with me so I’m missing activity.
Future app upgrades should include a feature that will allow you to add your own activity, and we’re also working on making the LEAF waterproof.
I would like a feature that allows me to make notes inside the app.
Adding notes for certain days should be available in the future. That way, if you had a migraine and couldn’t work out or if you were sick, the note will allow you to remind yourself why your activity was so low on that particular day.
The wake-up alarms are a bit too gentle for me, while the inactivity alert seems a bit overboard. Have you considered switching them?
Actually, we are thinking about it. We will add additional explanations for the alarms, so you’ll exactly know which alarm goes off on your LEAF. You will also be able to set and change vibration patterns for single alarms to make it even easier for you to distinguish between them.
How does the app come up with the insights it gives me?
The app analyzes respiratory patterns while you perform the breathing exercises that contribute to lowering blood pressure and reducing tension. It also tracks and analyzes activity habits by learning and logging all movements throughout the day and providing advice on how and when to be more active. In one of the coming updates, the app will provide more detailed data about the total duration of your sleep as well as the amount of time spent in light and deep sleep. It also tracks reproductive health by providing timelines and data on period and ovulation cycles, giving women a better understanding of their reproductive health. The one very important thing that you, as a user should know about, is that the LEAFs algorithms get more precise and accurate as you wear it and correct some of the data it has measured. So remember, the more you wear it the smarter your LEAF will become and the more accurate it will measure you daily activity.
Your Bellabeat Team
