We always knew that Google's acquisition of Fitbit would result in certain synergies but it was hoped that the move would create a better experience for those with Fitbit devices rather than a diminished one. Sadly, it's the latter proposition that is the present situation, with today's announcement that the Fitbit app is losing three features on March 27th, namely the challenges, adventures, and open groups.
The removal of adventures, open groups, and challenges means that any trophies you earned whilst competing with friends will also be removed. Fitbit does state that users can still create private groups for competitions. Meh.
“We’re working hard behind the scenes to enhance the Fitbit app with Google technology this year. This evolution will enable us to develop new features, deliver faster load times and improve your experience. And ultimately, ensure Fitbit helps you live a healthier, more active lifestyle. To deliver these improvements we will be streamlining areas of the Fitbit app and the following features will be removed on Android and iOS as of March 27, 2023:
- Open groups will no longer be available – but you can still create a closed group with your friends and connect with other users in the Fitbit Community on our Health & Wellness forums.
- All Challenges and Adventures, including trophies, will no longer be available.”
In an email sent to Fitbit users, the brand has the cheek to say that it will “continue to update the Fitbit app and develop new features that create an even better experience over time”. Frankly, in plain terms, this is a crock of you-know-what. Since when is improving the app experience achieved by removing features?
According to a statement given to The Verge, the head of comms at Nest and Fitbit says that the affected features ‘had a limited number of active users' but declined to reveal specifics.
You can download and export your Fitbit data from the affected features until March 27th, whereupon the history of and data will no longer be available. If you want to make some noise about this development, you can head over to Fitbit's community forum to make your voice heard.
It's also bad news for developers because Fitbit is removing the Fitbit Studio option and pointing affected users to its command-line SDK instead, apparently so that Google can better integrate its tech.
