Since being acquired by Google, there have been some head-scratching changes with Fitbit, some of which seem to be pushing some long-time fans away. Are you sticking with Fitbit?
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What separates a smartwatch from a fitness tracker? To me, it’s the ability to see notifications from your phone, replying to messages, taking calls, music controls or even on-wrist playback, and third-party apps.
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The Fitbit app is set to lose Challenges & Adventures and support for Open Groups on March 27 as the integration with Google continues. Those “legacy” features are said to have limited use and no updates in quite some time.
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In addition to removing two social features from the app, Fitbit is shutting down the web-based Fitbit Studio on April 20.
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For the past few weeks, the Pixel Watch has been missing estimated oxygen variation (EOV) data in the Fitbit app, but the graph is now back.
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Following a widespread outage yesterday that lasted a few hours, the Fitbit app is once again experiencing issues this morning, with a partial outage affecting sync.
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Fitbit is down this morning (PT), with the biggest issue being how the Android and iOS apps are not able to sync with fitness trackers or smartwatches, including the Pixel Watch.
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Last month, Fitbit fixed an issue that prevented the Charge 5 (and Luxe) from syncing with Android 13 Samsung phones. The Fitbit Charge 5 is now seeing two more clock faces.
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Last fall, it looked like Fitbit was going to revamp its mobile apps. That has yet to launch, and Fitbit has now removed screenshots showing off what was presumably the Android and iOS redesign.
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After first appearing on the Fitbit Sense 2 and Versa 4 in mid-December, the Google Maps app now fully works.
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The Pixel Watch does not have the full complement of health features found on even an entry-level Fitbit tracker. Irregular Heart Rhythm Notifications are not officially supported on the Pixel Watch, but the functionality looks to be available for some people.
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As part of the Wear OS 3 announcement at Google I/O 2021, Fitbit co-founder James Park said something that was widely interpreted to mean that a Fitbit-branded Wear OS watch is coming. That’s not the case, and that tease was only ever referring to the Pixel Watch.
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Compared to its predecessors, the Fitbit Sense 2 and Versa 4 already lack music playback. Fitbit is now set to remove Pandora and Deezer from the Fitbit Sense, Versa 3, and other older devices in March.
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For the past few weeks, Samsung’s Android 13 update has resulted in the Fitbit Charge 5 and Luxe not being able to sync.
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Following the release of aggregated global health stats last week, Fitbit is rolling out “Your 2022 year in review” and recap over email.
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At launch, Fitbit’s new smartwatches lacked any third-party apps, but that appears to be changing. Fitbit also recently released new Premium watch faces for the Sense 2 and Versa 4.
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At the end of every year, Fitbit aggregates anonymized user data to release global health stats, and the 2022 year in review is now available.
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Through mid-January, Fitbit Premium is available to new users for a drastically reduced price in one of its rare sales.
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I’ve always found Fitbit’s fitness trackers to be more interesting than its smartwatches. As Wear OS inevitably takes over, I hope the tracker form factor is kept alive. To do so, however, Fitbit must support multiple devices being active at the same time.
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The Fitbit Charge 5 and Fitbit Luxe are among the latest dedicated fitness trackers from Fitbit, and some of the best yet, too. But if you have a Samsung Galaxy phone running Android 13, these Fitbit trackers are currently facing some issues with sync, but a fix is on its way.
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In recent weeks, Fitbit has delivered sizable updates to its latest trackers that probably should have been included at launch. Curiously, the Fitbit Sense 2 is currently unavailable for purchase from Amazon.
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Starting in 2023, Fitbit will require a Google Account to use new devices and features. As part of transitioning to a single account system, Fitbit.com is losing support for Google sign-in.
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When the 2nd-gen Nest Hub was announced in March of 2021, Google said Sleep Sensing would eventually become a paid feature. After previously targeting 2023, sleep tracking will now be free for another year.
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Sense 2 and Versa 4 owners can now download Google Maps for Fitbit, but the actual step-by-step navigation does not currently work.
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