Fitbit is now officially part of Google • Hacker News Board

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#171

Post by JshWright » Thu, Jan 14, 2021, 9:12 PM UTC

nxc18 wrote: post #161

Dig1t wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason why it's difficult for them to compete with Apple and Samsung isn't readily apparent to me. There still seems to be a large hole in the smartwatch market for a GOOD Android-compatible smartwatch. There are a lot of options, but, to me, none of them are as polished or feature-heavy as the Apple Watch. It doesn't seem that one of these companies would need access to any special internal APIs or anything to b…

Unpopular opinion here, but I think the Fitbit versa (from 2018) was/is better than Apple Watch (latest) in significant ways, even when paired with iPhone. I replaced my versa with Apple Watch when the versa died. I don’t necessarily regret it, but it didn’t feel like an upgrade and came with significant downsides. In particular, Fitbit gives far more control over notifications, especially for built-in apps like mess…

I love my Versa 3. I charge it for ~20 minutes every couple days, and I've literally never seen it below 50%.

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#172

Post by josefresco » Thu, Jan 14, 2021, 9:13 PM UTC

petercooper wrote: post #28

What is a good lightweight 24/7 heart rate and sleep tracker that's not a Fitbit? I have an Apple Watch but the Fitbit's sleep tracking is way better and I keep it on for days (whereas I charge my Apple Watch overnight). I am super happy with my Fitbit but given Google I assume it will be "sunset" within a year or two so I want to switch early.

Xiaomi Mi Band.

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#173

Post by JshWright » Thu, Jan 14, 2021, 9:14 PM UTC

snowwolf wrote: post #97

Dig1t wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason why it's difficult for them to compete with Apple and Samsung isn't readily apparent to me. There still seems to be a large hole in the smartwatch market for a GOOD Android-compatible smartwatch. There are a lot of options, but, to me, none of them are as polished or feature-heavy as the Apple Watch. It doesn't seem that one of these companies would need access to any special internal APIs or anything to b…

The killer feature for me which lead me to me switching away was Fitbit Pay. They just don't have the take up by banks that the competition (Apple and Samsung) have. Maybe that would have changed, but if they integrate Google Pay instead, I may switch back.

I much prefer contactless payment with my phone anyway. I usually find it very awkward trying to position my wrist near the NFC reader on the terminal.

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#174

Post by josefresco » Thu, Jan 14, 2021, 9:16 PM UTC

colordrops wrote: post #103

I deleted my account and uninstalled the app a few days ago - just in time to prevent google from slurping up my health data. I purchased a Mi Band 5 for $35 which is a vastly better device than fitbit equivalents for a quarter of the price. You can use it without data being sent to the cloud if you use the open source package GadgetBridge.

Also a fan of the Mi Band. I have a Mi Band 2, and just bought a Mi Band 5 for a family member. At $35 USD it's a good entry device (with mid level features) for those new to fitness tracking.

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#175

Post by m12k » Thu, Jan 14, 2021, 9:16 PM UTC

Another one for https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/ Will Fitbit end up in https://killedbygoogle.com/ too?

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#176

Post by csours » Thu, Jan 14, 2021, 9:19 PM UTC

macspoofing wrote: post #140

Somehow I feel Google has no real plans for Fitbit and Fitbit will just disappear. Google isn't great at devices.

I understand you, but I love my Pixel series devices. Every other one had some compromise that I did not agree with, but on the whole they have been good for me.

You may point to other competitive devices that do things better, but I think that just shows how hard it is to compete in the smartphone business.

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#177

Post by vanous » Thu, Jan 14, 2021, 9:20 PM UTC

colordrops wrote: post #103

I deleted my account and uninstalled the app a few days ago - just in time to prevent google from slurping up my health data. I purchased a Mi Band 5 for $35 which is a vastly better device than fitbit equivalents for a quarter of the price. You can use it without data being sent to the cloud if you use the open source package GadgetBridge.

> I purchased a Mi Band 5 for $35 which is a vastly better device than fitbit equivalents for a quarter of the price. You can use it without data being sent to the cloud if you use the open source package GadgetBridge.

Gadgetbridge is mentioned regularly in these threads, thank you! Privacy is one of our main goals. We support quite a few bands and watches and the list of devices and features is growing. We are also happy for contributing members, so if you think that your movement data and notifications should remain private and can do some Android development, stop by, we are at Codeberg. https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#178

Post by PurpleFoxy » Thu, Jan 14, 2021, 9:20 PM UTC

josefresco wrote: post #172

petercooper wrote: post #28

What is a good lightweight 24/7 heart rate and sleep tracker that's not a Fitbit? I have an Apple Watch but the Fitbit's sleep tracking is way better and I keep it on for days (whereas I charge my Apple Watch overnight). I am super happy with my Fitbit but given Google I assume it will be "sunset" within a year or two so I want to switch early.

Xiaomi Mi Band.

The mi bands seem great if you want something very basic. Super cheap but still retains a lot of the features of premium smart watches.

Only issue I noticed was the heart rate monitor was wildly inaccurate but this was on a much older version (the 2 I think, maybe the mi band 5 has fixed this)

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#179

Post by josefresco » Thu, Jan 14, 2021, 9:25 PM UTC

PurpleFoxy wrote: post #178

josefresco wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Xiaomi Mi Band.

The mi bands seem great if you want something very basic. Super cheap but still retains a lot of the features of premium smart watches. Only issue I noticed was the heart rate monitor was wildly inaccurate but this was on a much older version (the 2 I think, maybe the mi band 5 has fixed this)

Yeah the heart monitor on my Mi Band 2 isn't very accurate, even when I "press" the band to my wrist. It came out in 2016 so I'm assuming the 5 will feature a much more modern sensor suite.

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#180

Post by dr_dshiv » Thu, Jan 14, 2021, 9:26 PM UTC

m00x wrote: post #108

tomComb wrote: post #93

I'm sure the sentiment here will be very much against this acquisition, but keep in mind that Fitbit was getting killed and would likely have gone out of business without this. It is tough for a company like Fitbit to compete with Apple & Samsung. This should lead to more competition by making it possible for Fitbit to compete with Apple. If it doesn't then the acquisition was a failure for Google anyway - Fitbit's c…

I have a Fitbit and I love this acquisition. I want to be able to put my fitness data in the rest of the Google ecosystem. The more data Google has on me, the more use I get out of Google's tools. I really don't care that it has tons of data on me, Google has been super responsible of my data and its uses. The risk/reward is 100% worth.

Lol, I totally agree. I actually believe that they care a lot about protecting my data -- more than any other data caretaker. Probably because if they abuse our data it would be financially costly. But that's the beautiful thing about capitalism...