Several of Fitbit’s community-driven features will be going offline on Android and iOS starting March 27 to make way for a new app powered by Google.
The news of the upcoming change was rather unceremoniously mass-mailed to users. On that date, “open groups will no longer be available”. However, users can still create closed groups with their friends or other users in the Fitbit Community Forums (opens in new tab). “All challenges and adventures, including trophies” also get the axe. Around the same time Fitbit Studio will be released, a browser tool that allows developers to create apps and watch faces for Fitbit OS switch to read-only mode (opens in new tab). Then, a month later, on April 20th, Fitbit Studio will shut down for good. The company is asking the same developers to switch to the command-line SDK available for download from the Fitbit website (opens in new tab).
Fitbit prompts users to download their user data from these features using Data export tool (opens in new tab) before March 27th or it will all be gone forever.
Dissatisfied users
To say that people are disappointed with this new direction is quite the understatement. The official forums are illuminated (opens in new tab) by many angry users and with good reason. Some of Fitbit’s biggest draws have been its community features, which brought people together to push each other. challenges (opens in new tab) Allow users to compete to see who can walk the most steps in a day. Adventure encouraged people to see the world through virtual pathways like the Valley Loop in Yosemite National Park.
It’s entirely possible that the removed features will get new versions or something better once the aforementioned Google technology is fully implemented. The announcement states that as the app continues to evolve, users can also expect “faster load times.” And in defense of the company, Nicol Addison, director of communications at Fitbit, informed The Verge via email (opens in new tab) that all sunset functions were “restricted use”. Apparently, the number of users who actively participate in the platform’s challenges is lower “compared to other offers”. So it seems the logic is that since not many people have done the challenges, there is little harm in getting rid of them. However, exact figures were not given.
Hopefully what Google comes up with for Fitbit will make up for the loss, although skepticism is warranted. The company’s last two smartwatches, the verse 4 And sense 2, made you want more. Both lacked support for third-party apps and didn’t always provide the most accurate readings (although their interfaces were pretty nice). Perhaps Fitbit can rise to the top under this new management.
Be sure to check out TechRadar’s list of The best fitness trackers of the year if you’re looking for a high-tech way to track your workouts and calories.
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