I want Google would open up Fitbit to different smartwatches

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Pixel Watch 2 Fitbit Apps

Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority

Google Pixel Watch 2

Each time a brand new Put on OS watch is introduced, I’m intrigued. I’ve been utilizing the platform for nearly a decade now, and I wish to attempt new watches to see what they provide when it comes to options, consolation, battery life, and extra. The OnePlus Watch 2, for instance, actually caught my eye with its wonderful twin OS and dual-processor-enabled battery life.

However there’s one factor that holds me again from switching to OnePlus’s newest or Samsung’s wonderful Galaxy Watch 6 collection, and that’s Fitbit. See, I’ve been utilizing Fitbit trackers for greater than a decade now. All my stats are in there, all my patterns, my ups and downs, and my finest and worst days. I’m used to the platform, I understand how to interpret any day’s information as a result of I do know what my historic information is like. So I persist with my Pixel Watch 2, as a result of it presents me the most effective of Fitbit inside a Put on OS watch. However what if — hear me out — Fitbit wasn’t a Pixel Watch unique anymore?

Would you wish to see Fitbit on non-Google Put on OS watches?

39 votes

Sure.

62%

No.

23%

I do not care.

15%

Fitbit app or API? Both, please

A OnePlus Watch 2 rests next to a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra displaying a user's health stats in the OHealth app.

Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority

I’d love to have the ability to use Fitbit on different Put on OS smartwatches, and Google may go about it in two methods:

Both make the Fitbit app downloadable on any Put on OS watch, after which behave like a system app as soon as put in, with all of the battery-friendly and background privileges.
Or open up Fitbit’s API so third-party watchmakers like OnePlus, TicWatch, and others not have to develop their very own, semi-baked well being and health options for his or her smartwatches.

App or API, simply give me Fitbit so I can change watches with out switching well being platforms.

As a result of, actually, customers like me don’t want extra well being platforms that hardly speak to one another. Sure, I do know Well being Join exists, however each well being service supplier can nonetheless prohibit what will get exported from or imported into their app, which limits the service’s utility. For instance, I can’t sync my menstruation from Oura to Fitbit or vice versa, and that’s necessary historic information to me and my physique that I can’t depart behind if I migrate.

google health connect app with galaxy watch 4

Andy Walker / Android Authority

When issues are this complicated — and let’s not neglect that Google Match exists, too — I can’t persuade myself to depend on Well being Connect with maintain my stats in sync throughout a number of providers. Nor can I depend on it if I select to modify platforms yearly or two. So I’d fairly persist with the Pixel Watch 2 and its Fitbit stats as a substitute of leaping between completely different well being platforms.

This conviction is strengthened each time I or my Android Authority colleagues check different well being platforms. OnePlus’ watch can monitor numerous information, however the OHealth app is fairly fundamental in comparison with the Fitbit app. Samsung Well being, then again, nonetheless falls behind Fitbit’s sleep monitoring and algorithms. And let’s not speak about different options from Mobvoi, Xiaomi, and extra.

I’ve but to return throughout a well being platform I might fairly use greater than Fitbit.

Moreover Garmin’s and Apple’s apps, that are solely suitable with their respective watches, I’ve but to return throughout a well being platform I’d fairly use greater than Fitbit.

Extra well being platforms = extra issues

A Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra displays the Samsung Health app.

Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority

Google is at present pushing smartwatch makers in direction of well being platform fragmentation as a substitute of unity. It owns Fitbit and it may simply determine to make Fitbit the de-facto well being monitoring software program on Android.

Google may unite well being on Android below one platform; as a substitute, it is pushing watchmakers to construct extra providers from scratch.

As an alternative, any smartwatch maker who needs to ship a brand new Put on OS watch has an enormous barrier to clear. They need to construct a companion app from scratch and a well being service from scratch. That isn’t straightforward.

Gathering information for various train sorts, finding out sleep phases, and understanding coronary heart price zones — all of that isn’t a given for a {hardware} firm. OnePlus needed to set up three well being labs, make use of greater than 100 individuals, arrange college partnerships, and construct some in-house algorithms to supply train and well being monitoring in its OHealth app. It’s no marvel that Fossil exited the smartwatch enterprise when that is the barrier to entry!

Google Pixel Watch Fitbit Active Zone Minutes

Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority

Google Pixel Watch

If Google supplied Fitbit’s algorithm and experience out of the field with Put on OS, it might scale back the funding wanted for any watchmaker to construct a brand new watch. It might additionally acquire much more person information than if it saved its algorithms unique to the Pixel Watch line-up. And information, as everyone knows, is cash.

By providing Fitbit on all Put on OS watches, Google may collect extra person information. And information is cash.

And for anybody questioning about exclusivity and competitors, I say this: If Samsung making Android telephones will not be a menace to Pixel telephones, I don’t see why making Fitbit obtainable on a Galaxy Watch 6 could be a menace to the Pixel Watch.

Look, I don’t know if that is ever going to occur, nevertheless it simply is smart to me. So I’m throwing this want on the market now and hoping it materializes sooner or later. Then I’ll say, “Ah, see, I informed you Google ought to try this!”

Till then, that is me hoping I can, sooner or later sooner or later, change to a OnePlus Watch or Galaxy Watch with out dropping entry to my Fitbit information. And with out double-wristing with a Fitbit tracker then again.

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