The previous 12 months hasn’t been nice for Fitbit customers. Fixed outages, characteristic removals, and a few weird habits from Google are slowly eroding Fitbit’s repute. Sadly, it feels just like the unimpressive and overpriced Pixel Watch is Google’s precedence proper now.
On February sixth, Fitbit companies suffered an outage that prevented customers from syncing (and even ) their information. This outage continued for 2 days, and lots of customers misplaced well being and health information that was not accurately synced. One other (a lot shorter) outage occurred on February 23rd, leaving prospects to marvel how typically it will occur.
What’s worse, Fitbit plans to ditch a lot of its social options, together with Adventures and Challenges. These options have all the time been a promoting level for Fitbit, as they encourage family and friends to satisfy train targets collectively. As famous by The Verge, many purchasers are fascinated with leaving Fitbit as a result of of this characteristic removing—the r/Fitbit subreddit is sort of a funeral service proper now!
However right here’s the weirdest factor; Google is refusing to deliver new apps to the Fitbit Versa 4 and Sense 2, its premium “smartwatches.” Third-party app improvement for these gadgets is “solely for watch faces.” It’s asinine habits; what’s the purpose in promoting an costly “smartwatch” if you happen to’re going to deal with it like a less expensive health tracker?
Many Fitbit prospects are coming to an fascinating conclusion—they consider that Google is forcing the Pixel Watch down their throats. And if that’s the case, then Google must do some considering. The Pixel Watch is not an amazing product, and it’s not a stand-in for a health tracker. Whereas a Fitbit is inexpensive, easy, and full of a weeks-long battery life, the Pixel Watch is pricey, considerably sophisticated, and final lower than 24 hours on a cost.
We hope that Google doesn’t squander the Fitbit model. However Google is understood to neglect its products, so maybe that is inevitable.