Fitbit owners are furious as Google axes even more key features

Date:
Tue, 21 Feb 2023 14:51:22 +0000

Description:
Fitbit community features like Challenges are the latest casualty of Google integration.

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Fitbit has announced that its community features Adventures, Challenges, and open groups are being discontinued from March 27, as part of a streamlining effort to integrate the Fitbit app with Google.

Owners of any of the best Fitbit watches or fitness trackers will no longer
be able to take part in group challenges with other users. Step count, distance and time challenges such as the Workweek Hustle are some of the most common, although anyone could join an open group based around a common interest, such as rock-climbing or yoga.

Adventures were a unique subset of Challenges, encouraging users to explore a different Daily Destination and complete virtual courses based on famous trails in the likes of Yosemite national park.

Now, all three of those features are set for the axe, along with any trophies or virtual rewards users have received by completing those challenges. Users are still able to join smaller closed groups, but the open groups feature is where people would go to connect with other like-minded Fitbit users all over the world, all joining in the same Challenges and Adventures.

A statement from Fitbit on the community forums said: Were working hard behind the scenes to enhance the Fitbit app with Google technology this year. As a result, were streamlining areas of the Fitbit app, including Challenges and Adventures.

Fitbit did state that users could still create a closed group with your friends and connect with other users in the Fitbit Community on our Health & Wellness forums and still compete with friends on your leaderboard and earn badges for personal achievements. It also provided information on how to download your data before the features vanish (fitbit.com/settings/data/export, if youre curious). (Image credit: Andrew Williams)

9to5Google also reports that Fitbit Studio, the browser-based way to create third-party apps and watch faces for Fitbit, will be shutting down on April 20. We could see this coming, as Fitbits most recent watches, the Fitbit
Sense 2 and Fitbit Versa 4 , both lack third-party app support, and Google
has its own Wear OS to look after. However, no mention of this was made in
the above announcement, most likely because this is not a user-facing change but a developer-facing one.

However, users are not happy with these changes, especially the scrapping of Challenges. A post on Reddit shows Fitbits Features Suggestions page overflowing with pleas to keep Challenges, and the Fitbit community forums
are similarly up in arms. Although Fitbit is keen to emphasize that some features are still up, such as the forums and closed group, the logical question is how long for? Analysis: Better integration, but at what cost? (Image credit: Andrew Williams)

In its haste to integrate Fitbit into the wider Google ecosystem, parent company Alphabet has been axing important Fitbit feature left and right. The cutting of Fitbits music capabilities are another example of Alphabet leaving Fitbit owners stranded, pushing them towards to the Wear OS Pixel Watch, and now Google has struck again.

Fitbit owners are right to be angry as many of these features were advertised as being included with the device, and people based their initial purchases
on being able to use them. People use the Challenges features to motivate themselves and each other to stay active, and open groups allow participants to connect with fellow Fitbit users all over the world. It gives the app a sense of community, and rather than incorporate that community into the
Google family, Alphabet has chosen to uproot it in favor of progress.

Googles message seems to be that it doesnt need or care about current Fitbit users. Its not surprising that, when you read the forums and Reddit posts, many people are looking at switching to Apple or Garmin. Googles treatment of Fitbit does nothing to inspire a sense of loyalty to the brand. It even included a link at the end of the email and forum post, informing users how
to delete their accounts if they were unsatisfied with the change.

Although there is a significant overlap between Fitbits watches and Googles own Pixel Watch, it seems the two brands cannot sit side-by-side for very
long in Googles stable. Fitbit accounts will require Google logins from this year, and were likely to see more changes very soon. Alphabet is going scorched-earth with Fitbit, content to burn it down and alienate the existing userbase as it does so a baffling move from a business perspective and a heartbreaking one in the eyes of longtime users.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/fitbit-owners-are-furious-as-google-axes-even-m ore-key-features


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