Fitbit

The culmination of Google’s $2.1 billion acquisition of Fitbit is here, with the Pixel Watch officially coming later this year with a fully integrated Fitbit experience. What does that mean for Google Fit? We’ve been curious to know for a while, but it seems Fitbit and Google Fit only have plans to coexist.

Back in March, we revealed that Fitbit is working on a pair of new smartwatches. 9to5Google can now report that the next two Fitbit wearables will be the Sense 2 and Versa 4, as well as some of their hardware details.

Earlier this year Fitbit issued a recall on its original smartwatch, the Ionic, over reports of the watch causing skin burns for some owners. Now, a lawsuit is alleging that all Fitbit products are affected by the same defect, which could lead to skin burns.

At the moment, Google Assistant’s health integrations are limited to asking about sleep. Moving forward, you’ll be able to see steps, calories burned, and other activity metrics from Fitbit or Google Fit on the Nest Hub.

Earlier this month Fitbit was granted clearance by the US FDA to passively send notifications when signs of Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) were detected by its smartwatches and trackers. Now, Fitbit is officially rolling out Irregular Heart Rhythm Notifications to nine of its products, including the Sense and Charge 5.

With the design fully leaked, questions about Google’s Pixel Watch turn to the software and internal hardware specs. One clue about the health capabilities is how the Pixel Watch’s rear sensors are very similar, if not identical, to ones found on the Fitbit Charge 5 and Luxe.

Just a few weeks after announcing its intentions, Fitbit and Google have today announced that clearance has been granted in the United States for select trackers and smartwatches to detect irregular AFib heart rhythms.

Last year, Google introduced a new Bug Hunters platform to encompass all its Vulnerability Reward Programs. An expanded “Android and Google Devices Security Reward Program” now brings Nest and Fitbit into the fold with Pixel.

Evidence within the Fitbit app suggests that Google’s acquisition has multiple fitness wearables on the horizon, none of which appear to run Wear OS.

Fitbit today offered a number of guided programs as part of its premium subscription. The Google-owned company is now testing one called Quantified Self that’s personalized and involves using “Fitbit data to figure out which strategies can meaningfully boost your stats.”

Like last year, Fitbit has taken until the end of January to release a personalized “2021 Year in Review” based on your health and fitness metrics. Owners of the Google-owned wearables started receiving the email on Saturday.

In recent years, Fitbit has offered a few months of free Premium when purchasing a new tracker or smartwatch. Subscribers that took advantage of that offer are now discovering that they’re eligible for another free trial.

For the past several years, Fitbit has used aggregated and anonymized user data to release global health stats. The 2021 year in review reveals that Fitbit users around the world slept 6.5 hours every night.

The “Sleep Score” is one of Fitbit’s most alluring metrics that people like to compare and improve on. Fitbit is now testing “Sleep Animals” as a friendly but surprisingly smart way to encourage “better sleep health.” 

Alongside sleep tracking updates for the 2nd-gen Nest Hub, Google-owned Fitbit is rolling out the Daily Readiness Score to its latest smartwatches and trackers, while the Charge 5 gets an ECG app.

Fitbit OS 5.3 is rolling out as a smaller update for the Sense and Versa 3 that introduces status indicators. It follows the bigger release in June that added audible Google Assistant responses and better clock face switching.

At the end of last month, the Charge 5 went on sale as Fitbit’s first tracker to feature an always-on display mode. Fitbit is now adding an AOD to the Luxe through a firmware update. 

Starting today, Fitbit’s latest health tracker is shipping to customers. The Fitbit Charge 5 is now available, and it’s coming with an upgrade to Fitbit Premium, too, in the form of new content from Calm.