Fitbit helped revolutionize thewearable fitness trackerindustry, making exercise a more social experience. Suddenly, people were challenging friends and family to reach their activity goals while achieving some of their own. However, the user experience has significantly changed since Fitbit’s wearables first launched onto the scene. Now, the company is restoring some of the features it dropped along the way in an attempt to appease its customers.
In an update posted to its website on November 14,Fitbit confirmedthat it’s rolling out a series of updates to its app based on user feedback. One of these is the reintroduction of steps streaks, which many people find to be motivating on their fitness journey. On a similar note, Fitbit intends to launch goal celebrations as well. Android users will soon begin to see in-app celebrations upon reaching a milestone, and the feature will debut in iOS in January 2024. Generally speaking, Fitbit notes that all the recent updates it’s made to its app may take some time to show up on your device.
Fitbit also announced on November 14 that it wasbringing back its battery indicator, which users requested. For the time being, the update is only available for the iOS app, but it will likely debut for Android app users in the near future. If you want to check the battery life of your device on your iPhone, simply go to the Today tab in the app. Instead of finding a battery life estimate, you’ll now see an actual percentage in the top-left corner.
A lot has changed for Fitbit since its debut in the early 2000s, including its ownership — Googlepurchased the companyin 2021. In recent months, Google has also made changes to where Fitbit operates. For example, the company updated documentation in November 2023 to note that Fitbit deviceswill no longer be soldin countries including Romania, Poland, Portugal, Thailand, and South Africa. As a result, Fitbit device owners in these countries will not be able to use the subscription auto-renewal feature. They will still have access to software and security updates, customer service, and warranty fulfillment, but Google could technically scale these back in the future. In terms of reasoning, the company says that it’s attempting to “align” its product line to “map closer to Pixel’s regional availability.”
Some have theorized that Google may be looking for a way to integrate Fitbit technology with its line of Pixel Watches. However, there is no definitive evidence that this is the case just yet. For now, all that is known is Fitbit’s once-dominant reputation in the fitness wearable industry is evolving, whether device owners like it or not.
