As Galaxy Watch updates Samsung TV integration, what’s up with Fitbit stats on TV?

Ben Schoon | Mar 6 2024 - 1:05 pm PT

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 6 is getting an update in some regions that revamps how users show data from their smartwatch up on their TV, functionality that’s supposed to be coming to Fitbit eventually.

In an update rolling out to Galaxy Watch 6 now in Korea, Samsung is updating the ability to cast your fitness stats to the TV. Samsung explains in the (translated) changelog:

By connecting a Galaxy Watch with a Samsung TV product that supports Health View, exercise data measured by the watch can be displayed on the TV screen.

This feature supports only Samsung’s latest TVs, monitors, and projectors which were released in 2024. It also requires using the same Samsung account across both devices.

Notably, Samsung has supported this feature for some time, with the company’s official website mentioning the feature as far back as 2021’s Galaxy Watch 4 series (as pictured above), and it was still available when the Galaxy Watch 6 first launched. It’s not clear what’s changed with this latest update, but we’re guessing “Health View” will be able to show additional data beyond the current heart rate and calories burned.

While this feature may not seem all that useful to some, it may come in handy if you’re casting a fitness program to the TV, or just to keep an eye on your stats while watching a show or movie while working out. Samsung also launched its Health app on Samsung TVs not too long ago.

Meanwhile, over at Google, this functionality is effectively being left behind to some extent.

“Real-Time Metrics” have been supported for a couple of years now, but as it stands today, they seem to work exclusively on Fitbit’s older trackers and smartwatches, like the Versa 4 and Sense 2, and the newer Charge 6. That’s because these devices transmit live heart rate stats back to your phone.

But the Pixel Watch series that Google and Fitbit seem to be all-in on doesn’t support this functionality and cannot show stats on the TV. That’s something Google doesn’t tell users anywhere, including a support page regarding the feature.

A report from 2022 said that Google was also working on more native Fitbit integration on the TV, but the company has been silent on the matter, and there are still no real signs that it’s coming. What happened to those plans? Will Google ever support this feature on Pixel Watch? Your guess is as good as ours, but Samsung’s update is a good reminder that Google is lagging behind here.