If you own an Amazon Halo band, I’ve got some bad news: Amazon has confirmed that it’s shutting down its Halo division and all the products associated with it, including the Halo Band, View, and Rise. The Verge was first to confirm the news.
The shutdown is part of Amazon’s continued layoffs, with more than 9,000 employees losing their jobs as the company confirmed back in March. Melissa Cha, Amazon’s vice president of smart home and health, told staffers in an email seen by The Verge that “Halo has faced significant headwinds, including an increasingly crowded segment and an uncertain economic environment.
“Although our customers love many aspects of Halo, we must prioritize resources and maximize benefits to customers and the long-term health of the business.”
The Halo division never managed to pick up much steam, mostly due to the products being abundantly underwhelming. The Halo View, Amazon’s highest-end fitness track to date, tried taking on Fitbit directly with a color screen, blood oxygen measuring, sleep tracking, personalized exercises, and voice commands through Alexa. However, reviewers didn’t receive two of its marquee features–body fat assessment using your phone’s camera and tone-of-voice detection–very well.
A lot of people also simply didn’t know Amazon sold fitness trackers. No one in my family knew they existed until Planet Fitness started offering complimentary Halo Bands with monthly subscriptions. You also don’t hear about them… ever. All the chatter is around the Apple Watch, Fitbit, Pixel Watch, Galaxy Watch, and Garmin fitness trackers. The writing has been on the wall for Halo to be sunsetted, and now, that time has come.
Amazon says it will stop supporting Halo products beginning July 31st, 2023. On August 1st, all Halo devices will stop working. Customers who purchased a Halo device or accessory in the past 12 months will receive a full refund, while unused subscriptions to Amazon’s Halo platform will also be refunded. You can no longer buy any Halo products on Amazon’s website, but a number of third-party retailers still have them listed as inventory continues to drain.
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