22 ms·

Fitbit is now officially part of Google

293 points by blinky88 6y ago

JarlUlvi 6y ago
Suddenly, I'm glad I never bought a fitbit
PaulHoule 6y ago
Didn't they merge with Fitbit a long time ago?
- ocdtrekkie 6y ago
  They announced the acquisition in 2019 but it had to get regulatory approval first. A lot of people expected regulators to reject the acquisition. I consider it a massive failure of our governments that whilst acknowledging Google is a monopoly and engaging in antitrust cases against them, they also permitted Google to buy a multibillion dollar company that will expand their monopoly.
  - Dig1t 6y ago
    Agreed, it is a complete disaster for privacy and competition in this space.
    - breck 6y ago
      I won't comment on the privacy implications, but can you substantiate your claims about competition at all? I saw Apple Watch utterly destroy Microsoft Band and Pebble, and FitBit was headed for the same fate. If not for Google stepping in, competition against Apple Watch would have just been from Garmin (solid company, but they too probably would have been crushed). Source: investor in Apple, FitBit, Garmin, Google, Microsoft; was in the first batch of Pebble 3rd party devs; avid Microsoft Band user and participated in a number of internal projects when I was there.
  - zaptheimpaler 6y ago
    Yep. Maybe they'll object to the acquisition a year later after Google has safely 5x 3-AZ replicated all the heart rate, sleep and location data from millions of people. Apparently Google is simultaneously a monopoly due to the market power they gained using data but yet safe enough to trust with pings every minute from people wearing a watch all day. Its nuts.
  - tomComb 6y ago
    Should they really be penalized before being convicted? Consider that Oracle claims that the regulatory actions around the world against Google are because they ran an extensive but secret lobbying campaign against Google to make this happen. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-23/oracle-for-years-secretly-lobbied-states-justice-department-to-sue-google https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-23/oracle-fo... With enough lobbying dollars much is possible - isn't this a reminder to wait for the outcome before you convict? Also, clearly the monopoly that is being suggested is not in this area - in fact, there is a danger in the dominance of Apple's watch and this should increase competition.
    - josefx 6y ago
      > Should they really be penalized before being convicted? People often land in prison before they are convicted. Also restricting a company that appears to be a bad actor to prevent additional harm on society seems only sensible.
      - ygjb 6y ago
        > People often land in prison before they are convicted. Yeah, and this is seen as a huge injustice by many people. There are clear cut cases where there is a risk of flight or further harm, but in most cases, this type of discretionary pre-trial incarceration tends to impact minorities and people without means to hire lawyers or pay for bonds. This analogy falls apart there because there are few companies that would be subject to monopoly rules that would lack the resources to defend themselves.
rnotaro 6y ago
I wonder if future Fitbit watches will use WearOS instead of the current Fitbit software.
- ocdtrekkie 6y ago
  Nobody knows yet which side will "win" internally. Wear OS is Android-based and a Google product. It's also universally accepted as garbage: Even Android Police bloggers trash on the state of Wear OS. Fitbit is a better platform that has vastly more users and performs better. But it's not Googley at all, so if Google keeps it, there will likely be a lot of changes.
  - brmgb 6y ago
    Wear OS needs work but it's not garbage. Given enough RAM it's usable. The Fossil Gen 5 for example is somewhat fine. The issue is more with Qualcomm releasing garbage CPU. Google releasing a watch would help in the same way the Nexus line helped with phones. What WearOS needs is man power and an easier time getting the fix they need in the Android tree. It's not however a lost cause. With the improved activity monitoring provided by Fitbit it could be nice.
    - ocdtrekkie 6y ago
      > Given enough RAM This is the problem. A smartwatch should not be burning a lot of RAM. It has a battery the size of a dime, it should be doing very little with processor or memory. Wear OS is too bloated to the task.
      - brmgb 6y ago
        > A smartwatch should not be burning a lot of RAM. Then again, the Gen 5 has 1Go and works fine. That's the same amount than an Apple watch serie 4/5. > It has a battery the size of a dime, it should be doing very little with processor or memory. Wear OS is far from perfect but that's more on the Snapdragon 3100. Samsung and Apple CPU are far better but they don't sell them. It's very much a chicken and egg situation. Qualcomm doesn't invest because there is not market and there is no market because poor CPUs lead to products which are not competitive. Google could have unlocked the situation but I guess they were wainting for the Fitbit acquisition to go through before going back to wearables.
karimtr 6y ago
Anyone stopped using Fitbit as a result of this?
- overscore 6y ago
  I have - moved to an Apple watch.
- InitialLastName 6y ago
  I didn't stop using it, but I made a different decision about what watch to purchase because of it, because a) divesting my health data from Google's vacuum seemed wise and b) I no longer trust Google to support hardware/services long term.
- dx87 6y ago
  My wife switched over to a Garmin fitness tracker. She'd been having technical issues with her old Fitbit anyway, but the Google acquisition made it so she didn't even consider a new Fitbit as a replacement.
- oops 6y ago
  I did and I also deleted my account and data. I’ll probably get an Apple Watch but I’d prefer something eink and “dumber” with just clock, heartrate, steps, stairs and GPS, no accounts and no forced uploading to their servers would be ideal. I love the FitBit device though. If there’s some opensource way to keep using it without Google being involved I’ll probably try that.
  - amateurdev 6y ago
    I switched to a Garmin Instinct a few months ago. My Charge 2 died and I wanted something with GPS and decent battery life. I charge my watch every 10ish days (I pair it with my phone only after an activity to see the details, not otherwise). I personally find it great that it has a rugged screen with buttons instead of fancier things like a touchscreen, payment options etc.
  - sitkack 6y ago
    It would be possible to DIY this, it might be clunkier than most would expect and have worse battery life. *edit, found this eval kit by maxim https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/maxim-integrated/MAXREFDES103/11589120 https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/maxim-integrated/... Kinda expensive and not very open for an eval kit. The only somewhat difficult part is implementing the pulse oximetry signal chain and analysis software. Everything else is basic integration.
scohesc 6y ago
I guess it's time to de-activate my FitBit account. It was nice while it lasted. I wish companies wouldn't fall prey to Google money on principle, but that money is oh so good...
- ocdtrekkie 6y ago
  I triggered account deletion a couple weeks ago when the EU announced their approval. With the 7 day deletion timer, hopefully my account was completely terminated prior to Google getting their hands on it.
- Grazester 6y ago
  I wonder how long Fitbit would have been able to survive on it own. Something tells me not very long.
that_guy_iain 6y ago
I was about to buy a new fitbit as my current one is basically dead after 4 years. But the way Google handles things they buy doesn't inspire confidence. I guess I'll investigate others and probably end up with an Apple Watch.
- ocdtrekkie 6y ago
  I'm waiting for PineTime, personally. My significant other just switched from a Fitbit Ionic to an Apple Watch SE and definitely likes the upgrade. Battery life is your biggest loss if you leave Fitbit, almost nobody was making smartwatches as battery efficient.
  - erinnh 6y ago
    How long do they last? Personally, Ive been using Garmin smartwatches for a few years now and they last about a week, with O2 sat scanner enabled over the night. Definitely been happy with them.
    - ocdtrekkie 6y ago
      New Fitbits are similar. (Battery life in all devices decays over time.) Your Apple Watch or Google Wear OS will give you a day or two.
    - miguelrochefort 6y ago
      I get 24-36 hours on my Colmi P8 (same hardware as PineTime), with step tracking and heart rate monitoring turned off. The PineTime is a huge downgrade from pretty much everything on the market. It's only good, at least for now, as a platform to prototype on.
      - Avamander 6y ago
        > The PineTime is a huge downgrade from pretty much everything on the market. Not really, no. Very popular Mi Band 1 up to Mi Band 5 are very much on-par in terms of hardware. The software just has to catch up and that's probably coming. If the project is successful, a PineTime 2 with some minor HW upgrades would be doable. Then it would take much less time because now there's a community and software out there that can be reused.
laurent123456 6y ago
I guess it means that if Google blocks your account due to a false positive on an unrelated service, you can no longer use you watch.
- Grazester 6y ago
  This is my biggest concern, not even the data. Google locks your account and your entire life is disrupted!
  - miguelrochefort 6y ago
    I considered going to China, but decided against because of my reliance on Google services.
    - physicles 6y ago
      Really? For just that reason? I live and work full time in China and we use G Suite and Slack with a good VPN (there are some similar Chinese services but none are nearly as good). Sometimes I can’t watch a YouTube link if I’m away from home and the VPN isn’t working on 4G, but that’s as bad as it ever gets these days.
- aboringusername 6y ago
  Which is crazy to me...Google is... Your photo manager Your search engine Your document storage service Your health monitor Your contacts list Your video hosting facility Your calendar Your document editor Your location history Your music engine And I have no doubt I'm missing a load here, point being why the fuck has the EU not stepped in at this point and said "woah buddy, you're a tad too big to be this unregulated". The EU needs to enforce stricter regulation across all Google products, such as making it illegal to "ban" or lock out an account by means of an AI facility without human resolution within 6 hours or less (6 hours is a maximum, anything above incurs an hourly fine). These must be regulated like a public service, because the risk of losing access to an online account can be devastating. The onus, however, is on YOU to diversify, have redundant email addresses (forward+store a copy) so in the event one is RIP you are not boned entirely.
Vermeulen 6y ago
I don't understand the fear of Google from FitBit users in these comments. Google has a clear user agreement with how they use your data, including not selling it - and they rely on users trusting them. I'd rather my data be with one of the tech giants than a unprofitable start up
- mc32 6y ago
  While you’re right that your data might be safer with Google, the fear or unease is with Google having even _more_ data on people. Too much data in the hands of one company.
- client4 6y ago
  I think the concern centers more around Google's horrific customer service and wanton axing of services.
- swarnie_ 6y ago
  Things change, i thought my Whatsapp data was safe from TheZuck.
- dx87 6y ago
  Unless there's a guarantee that breaking the user agreement results in a fine that exceeds the money they got by breaking the agreement, the user agreement is mostly worthless.
- breck 6y ago
  I agree with this. I was worried about FitBit ever since the Apple Watch came out and decimated FitBit's profits. But Google acquiring them makes me feel like they'll last a long time, and I won't have to switch ecosystems yet again (I was coming from Microsoft Band). I would have loved it if FitBit could have remained independent, but basically impossible in today's messed up competitive environment.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- JMTQp8lwXL 6y ago
DaftDank 6y ago
I had a Fitbit Charge 3, and had to replace it about 3 times IIRC in a little over a year period. The 3rd replacement happened a week after the warranty expired, which to their credit they still replaced it. But it once again died shortly thereafter, at which point I just bought an Apple Watch. Mainly for the ECG function -- my wife had bought me the Fitbit after I was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, so I figured I'd rather have something that could help me check more than just my pulse to determine if I was out of rhythm.
- breck 6y ago
  Interesting. In my experience it used to be the case that my FitBit would break once or twice a year—and like you they would always replace it. But I've noticed a trend toward reliability. My Versa 2 has been operating like a champ since the day I got it when it came out. I push it too the limit in the outdoors with activities like surfing, snorkeling, et cetera. Every year I buy the Apple Watch thinking this will be the year I switch. But again, just returned it on Friday. Hardware is super impressive, but it just feels like putting an iPad on my wrist. I don't want a computer on my wrist I just want to be healthy. And the battery life on the Versa 2 is just so much better. I put it on and only have to take it off about once a week for an hour to charge.
  - phire 6y ago
    My Versa 2 started dying as soon as I got it would just lag every time you tried to interact with it (touch screen, button, gestures). Eventually it degraded so much that it would even stop measuring activity at random. Apparently it's a known hardware issue, even if it really felt like a software issue. This all happened during the first lockdown, so I had to wait weeks for the stores to open and get it replaced. But the replacement is going strong, I've had it for 9 months now.
- lkbm 6y ago
  I've had quite a few Fitbits break, which is frustrating, but their redeeming quality is their willingness to replace over and over again. When it breaks, they generally offer a free replacement or the option to buy a newer version at half price, so since my first in 2016, I've had six or seven — three or four replacements and two half-price upgrades. (Charge HR replaced once or twice, Blaze replaced once, and Charge 3 replaced once.) I suspect I'm still a profitable customer, but I suspect they'll become a lot stingier eventually. My main concern with switching to a different brand is that I'm worried that they're be more breakable and less readily replaced. (Also, I'm on Android, so there are too many options and I can't decide.)
swarnie_ 6y ago
So to be clear... Despite trying to avoid big Californian tech companies my health data is now going to Google, my chat data to Facebook and my insurrection attempts to torrent websites? Please make it stop....
lawrencevillain 6y ago
How long before it's killed by Google?
- akmarinov 6y ago
  2-3 years tops.
petercooper 6y ago
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.
- james2406 6y ago
  I've heard good things about the Oura Ring https://ouraring.com/ https://ouraring.com/. It tracks sleep and has a 7 day battery life.
  - webkike 6y ago
    Oura ring is good. Tracks heart rate and sleep satisfactorily. I heartedly recommend.
- LibertyBeta 6y ago
  The Garmin Forerunner 45/245 might fit that bill. I'm wearing one right now and only notice it because its riding up on my wrist from my sweater. And as a bit of a metric nerd the Garmin data exports rock. Oh, and I haven't charged it in over a week.
  - petercooper 6y ago
    After having seen how difficult it is to get an Oura in the UK, I might investigate this first - thanks!
    - LibertyBeta 6y ago
      Sure thing! The forerunner 45s is the cheaper option in the forerunner lineup, BUT it doesn't have standard lugs. There is also the Venu and Vivoactive lines with touch screens, but their battery isn't nearly as good as anything in forerunner's camp.
    - 6y ago
wavefunction 6y ago
My mom got me a fitbit for Christmas and I think I'll return it unopened now. I've thought about warning her about this new relationship with Google but she's elderly, it's probably not an issue she cares as much about and I'm the one who introduced her to fitbits in the first place.
aboringusername 6y ago
One thing that confuses me is why this data needs to be stored within the internet at all. Why can't I have an entirely offline driven system? Data stays local, no ability to upload it online at all, and all processing is done without ever needing the internet. That's a key criteria if I ever was thinking of getting a smart wearable, I'm not going to generate even more data that can be profited from and potentially used against me. It's increasingly looking like storing data is a huge responsibility (although, if it is ever leaked, sadly humans don't tend to see prison time for this crime). What we need is a clause that says "if this data ever touches the internet whether accidental or otherwise the CEO goes straight to jail, are you sure about this?". Sadly, I think society as a whole is just "used" to this by now and a second thought is rarely given, disappointing this merger was approved, especially when the EU is investigating several "anti trusts", why give them even more power? Oh well, I'll see you fellow HN readers on the next "major data leakage from misconfigured MongoDB and nobody is punished" thread.
- johnwayne666 6y ago
  It's the reason I got an Apple watch 3 as a sport watch: all the other options seemed to want to upload everything online.
- sitkack 6y ago
  What really disappointed me about the fitbit was that it required it to be tethered to the phone and my account before it would function as a pedometer. It seems broken that I also have to have a phone, app store access to get a device to drive the pixels for data it already has. Every piece of hardware that does this is effectively "app store locked", your phone is now your software dongle for your hardware.
  - brlewis 6y ago
    See the section "Don't have a mobile device available?" on https://www.fitbit.com/setup https://www.fitbit.com/setup for desktop apps. Some functions, like sleep tracking, are too computationally intensive to do on a wrist computer.
ortusdux 6y ago
Has anyone tried out Wyse's fitness band? How are they as a company? The prices are the lowest around on their entire lineup
- miguelrochefort 6y ago
  I don't know about their fitness band. What I know is that Amazon will acquire Wyze within the next 2 years.
dkersten 6y ago
Guess I will stop using my old fitbit. I've been trying very hard to de-google my life, so them owning fitbit is a deal breaker for me.
akmarinov 6y ago
Well, RIP FitBit's Health API, that'll probably be rolled into Google Fit. As a mobile developer, when we do any Health integration, the topmost platforms by usage are Apple Health and Fitbit, followed by Samsung Health and lastly Google Fit. This easily lets them catapult in second place.
sys_64738 6y ago
I have a Fitbit 3 that is awful for synching with my iPhone. Not sure if it's just me or the SW is a pile of pooh. I'm not really sure if this change will help Fitbit or me.
tomComb 6y ago
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 current market share is not acceptable for a company like Google.
- Dig1t 6y ago
  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 be competitive, so I don't see what Google could add other than lots of money and SWE hours. If Google wants to compete in this space they should have been forced to build it themselves. IMO letting Fitbit die would have been better for users privacy-wise.
  - tomComb 6y ago
    I'm a long time Fitbit user and I think their products are great. From that perspective I'm just happy that they will survive. > so I don't see what Google could add other than lots of money and SWE hours That matters. > IMO letting Fitbit die would have been better for users privacy-wise. Have you seen what some companies do when they are on the brink of insolvency? They start firing engineers, best practices lapse, and they start monetizing everything. And have you seen the EU data privacy conditions? And finally, of the companies that could have bought them, which has a better record of keeping their users' data private then Google? But also, as a Fitbit user, if I wanted all my data deleted I could do that, but I absolutely do not. I want it kept private, supported, and crunched by a company like Google to our mutual advantage.
    - breck 6y ago
mlester 6y ago
Hopefully this means a youtube music app for the versa watches.
- valarauko 6y ago
  ... perhaps a new Google chat app?
colordrops 6y ago
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.
- erinaceousjones 6y ago
  There's also "Notify & Fitness for Mi Band" for Android [1] which I used, which was ace. Packed full of advanced features like ability to change what calorie / basal metabolic rate calculations were used, export of the data locally / dropbox, export to google fit + strava etc., no dependency on Xiaomi's servers. Closed source, though. But appears to be one single persons personal project. Those products are awesome if you want a lower-end fitness tracker. Originally I bought a Mi Band 4 because I saw it reported itself as a bluetooth HR accessory, meaning you could get continuous heart rate on bluetooth if you paired your device -- whereas FitBit's protocol was encrypted and proprietary. Did some cool stuff with that (a shirt with an LED matrix screen that pulsed at the wearers heart rate!) Wouldn't say the hardware is "vastly better", I found the continuous heart rate monitoring to be a bit sluggish -- i.e. it averaged out HR over a longer period than the fitbits I've had did, so you were less likely to detect the peaks and recovery periods during excercise. Otherwise it was much of a muchness, but cheaper. I imagine the cheaper HW probably meant corners were cut with the sensors and firmware, but being hardly the athlete I didn't care outside of heart rate sensing. [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mc.miband1&hl=en_GB&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mc.miband1...
  - colordrops 6y ago
    Is Notify proprietary or open source? Does it send data to the cloud? I couldn't tell based on a quick look and search.
- josefresco 6y ago
  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.
CephalopodMD 6y ago
Hopefully this means better support for exporting, say, step and minute by minute heart rate data to Apple health and vice versa. I want to be able to do what I want with my data.
- mdoms 6y ago
  I would imagine the data will go to Google Fit which exposes a comprehensive (but difficult to use) API.
- clintonb 6y ago
  I built an app for this: https://dev.clintonblackburn.com/fitsync https://dev.clintonblackburn.com/fitsync
alfongj 6y ago
I love my Fitbit hardware but loathe their apps. After 5 years or so, they still suck at data synchronization. I hope Google fixes this
- mindways 6y ago
  Gods, yes, this. The FitBit app is like someone said "Let's use a wonderful asynchronous architecture so we won't block on retrieving data!" and then completely ignored all the ways that might lead to terrible UX if implemented poorly. My steps stick at 0, then suddenly are the total of the last 3 days' worth. I log food, and it re-populates the "quantity" field with the old value after I edit it, sometimes up to 8-10 times in a row. My sleep data takes a roulette-spin amount of time to go get processed in the cloud and redownloaded, and even once the main dashboard has the info, the "Sleep" detail page will refuse to admit that I slept last night for another 3d20 minutes. It's like someone connecting the pieces of a car with Slinkys instead of bolts because they're more flexible. If I didn't like the hardware so much I'd have switched ages ago.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
noncoml 6y ago
It's becoming more and more difficult to keep away from Google eyes these days. Picasa, Waze, Nest, Fitbit where all companies whose products I used before the acquisition.
- ipsum2 6y ago
  What other products are you using that aren't acquired by Google yet? Asking for my stock investments.
workOrNah 6y ago
pixel watch coming soon?
- hcurtiss 6y ago
  Any day now . . .
koiz 6y ago
Fitbit has made some solid devices but seriously lacks in the software area. Finding/Installing apps on your versa is as bad as it was on my palm pilot.
s3r3nity 6y ago
More evidence that Google can't create any good, innovative products anymore - they just acquire them. Can't make good watch hardware OR software? Just buy part of Fossil and Fitbit to handle that. Can't make good smart home devices to compete with Amazon's Ring or Simplisafe? Just buy Nest, Revolv, and a huge stake of ADT. etc. etc.
- mav3rick 6y ago
  More evidence that anything Google does is inherently bad for HN.
- missedthecue 6y ago
  whats wrong with Google Pixel
  - Johnyma22 6y ago
    Is Google Pixel the phone or a tablet? Is Chrome a browser of OS?
    - mav3rick 6y ago
      iPad Pro - Phone or Tablet ? For fun or for PROfessionals ? Airpods - Earbuds or Headphones ?
  - mav3rick 6y ago
    Don't worry op won't reply to this.
  - s3r3nity 6y ago
    Bought out part of Motorola to do this
    - mav3rick 6y ago
      Lol no ? They did that to fend Microsoft for parents. There's a reason they sold it after patent war was settled. You have half baked information and make 0 points.
ztetranz 6y ago
Maybe Google will be a bit faster with new features. It took almost six years and a 544 post thread in their community forum to finally provide the ability to use kilojoules instead of calories. It's just a multiplication factor like feet to meters or pounds to kilograms. https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Option-to-show-Kilojoules-in-Dashboard-and-all-apps/idi-p/36199 https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Option-t...
- Triv888 6y ago
  Google is not better in this regard.
wayne 6y ago
I wonder how engineering integration works for an acquisition this size (Wikipedia: ~1694 employees). Google interviews test for very specific things so it's unlikely every engineer in Fitbit would have passed. Fitbit's big enough that I doubt you'd re-interview every engineer and doing that would scare engineers away, but Fitbit's not big enough where you'd let Fitbit continue to do their own thing for a long period of time. Would you just convert every engineer into the Google leveling system best you can and see how it shakes out over time in performance review? Do these things get talked about during acquisition talks?
- wombat-man 6y ago
  I'm guessing at the specific knowledge some of these employees have is valued, and they probably wouldn't take kindly to having to study for a coding test just to keep their job. I'm guessing they automatically hire some, and interview others who are maybe less core to the business. They can always layoff later if it doesn't end up being a fit.
  - capableweb 6y ago
    > They can always layoff later if it doesn't end up being a fit. Such a fucked up thing that that's legal in some parts of the world. "Ah I don't know if we should hire these people or not, let's just hire them now and if we don't need them, fire them later. We can tell them a week before or something" just fills the air with smug MBAs not understanding that some people work for a living, not for fun.
    - dvt 6y ago
      > Such a fucked up thing that that's legal in some parts of the world. It's legal basically anywhere in the United States, as most states follow at-will employment laws. Is it even surprising that young people (20s-30s) job hop every 2-3 years?
      - at-fates-hands 6y ago
        They've been talking about a 100% transient (read: contract) worker population for some time now. A lot of the developers I know rotate between contracting and FTE work. They're FTE timeframes line up with your assertion. They stay at one place, get some new tech knowledge, work a few projects and then move on after a few years. The think the age range has greatly expanded though since most of my group is in their mid 30's now. Maybe more people are starting to contract younger so to them, they see it as a more normalized work career than some other people who want to get one gig, settle in and be there for 20+ years?
macspoofing 6y ago
Somehow I feel Google has no real plans for Fitbit and Fitbit will just disappear. Google isn't great at devices.
- csours 6y ago
  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.
  - macspoofing 6y ago
    Pixel phones are the best Android phones because they come closest to pure Android experience and have the best smart-phone update policy outside of the iOS eco-system. Unfortunately they don't move any significant units because Google doesn't know how to market them, sell them or distribute them ... because Google is bad at devices.
rvz 6y ago
Translation: Google now has access to all your fitness and health data and will be integrated into Google Fit. No thanks and no deal.
- franciscojgo 6y ago
  Exactly. They say it as if joining Google was a positive. No it it isn't. Just tell the truth: you sold Fitbit and made bank. No issue here.
  - radicalriddler 6y ago
    It is a positive. For the owners and all the investors!
- jessehattabaugh 6y ago
  I have been using an app called Fit-to-fit to sync my heartrate and sleep data from Fitbit to Google Fit for years. This saves me some trouble so I'm excited! Any idea when this will be delivered?
- protomyth 6y ago
  This thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10932968 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10932968 gets a lot scarier now. My response then was https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10933325 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10933325 Dear Customer, We are sorry for improperly sending out the "Broken Heart" alert to you on January 21, 2023. We should have sent you the "She's Pregnant" alert. In the future, please ensure both you and your dating partners are running the same OS version. Thank you for your understanding. sorry, FizzyBaneFitness substitue Google Fitness now
- blisterpeanuts 6y ago
  Five or six years ago, I would have said, "Great! Now my Fitbit will be better integrated with Android and my Google ecosystem. Plus it will inject some much needed stability into a faltering company, to bolster the quality and advance their products. Yay!" Now I think about the fact that I just looked someone up on contacts.google.com, then added a visit with them to calendar.google.com, and talked with them about it via gmail.com. They know so much about me already, and now they'll have my health history. The only silver lining is that their security is probably better, and my data is less likely to be hacked and stolen. But otherwise... Looking forward to a nice Linux/open software fitness watch, from a Kickstarter or other effort, so some of us can take better control of our data.
norswap 6y ago
My concern is not for my data (because I don't care, not because I trust in Google's goodwill and governance), but Google has a sad history of mismanaging their smaller side projects. I pray that this time, it's different, but I'm not holding my breath.
stuaxo 6y ago
In 3 years time all the customers can look forward to it being shut down.
csours 6y ago
Any statement made by the leader of an acquired business unit should be read like a letter burning in a bonfire - they may mean it at the time, but they have no real power to make it true in the future.
post_break 6y ago
Whenever I think of Fitbit I think of Pebble and get sad. I wish there was a Pebble replacement.
- josefresco 6y ago
  If you liked Pebble, you'll probably be excited about Watchy: https://watchy.sqfmi.com https://watchy.sqfmi.com
  - iamcreasy 6y ago
    Also, how about PineTime? https://www.pine64.org/pinetime/ https://www.pine64.org/pinetime/
    - post_break 6y ago
      Doesn't look like it's for sale for end users.
      - Avamander 6y ago
        You can absolutely buy it as an end user, but the catch is that it doesn't pass the grandma test, you need to be a bit more tech-savy.
  - dTal 6y ago
    No OS. Monochrome. No case, not waterproof, nonstandard strap loops through PCB. It's kinda cool but it's no Pebble, or any kind of daily driver watch.
- cush 6y ago
  So true. All Fitbit did after the acquisition was shelve all of Pebble's tech. Pebble, to this day, still has the best smart watch screen. Those refresh rates were crazy.
- zaarn 6y ago
  Don't worry, Google just killed the Pebble App from the playstore, so you can be more sad now.
m12k 6y ago
Another one for https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/ https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/ Will Fitbit end up in https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/ too?
saisundar 6y ago
This will certainly help give Google an advantage if they enter into health insurance. Aplhabet has non trivial stake in Oscar health, and this fitbit acquisition plays right into being price health insurance policies for users.
tech234a 6y ago
Side note: the blog still has a Google+ sharing button. (Google+ shut down nearly two years ago.)
blacklight 6y ago
Although I criticize Google many times and I try to avoid their products as much as possible, I don't have many alternatives at hand for products like WearOS and Google Fit. And both of them have had major usability, integrations and stability issues over the years that are hard to ignore. In an ideal world, I wish that small companies like Fitbit could compete with Google and Apple and release good all-inclusive smartwatches that developers can use to bukld good general-purpose apps, with a well-designed interface, and that are also very solid fitness trackers. Unfortunately we aren't in an ideal world though, so I can just hope that this acquisition helps bringing some proper vision in the current chaos that reigns in the WearOS and Fit departments.
csours 6y ago
If someone from Fitbit is reading this: It is asinine that the data from my wearable has to go to my phone, up to the cloud, and back down to my phone for display.
- bluescrn 6y ago
  I wanted to switch mine from 12hr to 24hr clock format. I couldn't do it on the watch itself. I couldn't do it on my phone from the app. The only solution was to log in to fitbit.com in a browser, change a setting there, then re-sync my device via the app.
- m463 6y ago
  Sounds like ANY device or peripheral - the data is more valuable that anything else. On acquisition - the exit strategy is to have a pile of data. I think regulation is the only way to change this because it's a gravy train.
  - godshatter 6y ago
    I would pay more for a device that didn't save to the cloud and only saved locally but could still give you nice graphs and whatnot in an old-fashioned desktop program. They can have a website that you can upload to that makes things visible to your friends, as long as it's opt-in only. I wouldn't use it because I wouldn't trust it, though. This sort of thing is as dead as a doornail, unfortunately.
    - lukeschlather 6y ago
      With Garmin watches you don't have to pair it to a phone or set up Wifi. You can just plug it into your computer and download the data. There exist a number of open source tools. I've only used GPXSee for looking at the GPS data, which actually let me see "correct" swimming distance data where Garmin was using some algorithm that didn't make any sense. I mostly use the web ui but loading the data into one of the open source offline tools is on my to-do list. There's actually some analytics/reports I want to generate that Garmin doesn't provide, so I might end up doing it purely to write some reports. (Although the peace of mind I would get knowing that I could pull the plug on my Garmin account whenever I want would be nice.) Though it isn't perfect. When Garmin had the outage last year I unpaired my phone which actually reset some of the configuration I had done on the watch, which was really annoying.
60secz 6y ago
The question now: how soon before my fitness tracker stops working? (Given Google's track record)
- njovin 6y ago
  I learned the hard way how developer-unfriendly Nest became after acquisition. I wanted to do some very basic home automation with a smart thermostat and it was like somebody had released a broken beta of an API and stopped maintaining it. To add insult to injury they were in the process of shutting down the few useful APIs that remained and almost completely closing it off. Sold it and went to a different brand.
budadre75 6y ago
It'll be great if we can have custom firmware for fitbit and selfhost the data collection services.
WClayFerguson 6y ago
I'm sure Google is merely interested in having another great product and this wasn't just another way to expand surveillance data collection.
BooneJS 6y ago
Looking forward to what Fitbit can do within Google. Many people with Apple or Samsung watches started with Fitbit.
kulesh 6y ago
Good for them
sadfev 6y ago
Anti-Trust investigation should break Alphabet to million pieces. Way too many big tech apologists here.
nradov 6y ago
DC Rainmaker has a detailed analysis of what this means for consumers. https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2021/01/google-completes-acquisition-of-fitbit-analysis-of-what-it-means.html https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2021/01/google-completes-acquisi...
cush 6y ago
I'm still pissed about Pebble
fataliss 6y ago
I'm sitting here, still waiting for a new Pebble
rietta 6y ago
Sad ending. It'll be on https://killedbygoogle.com https://killedbygoogle.com within 36 months.
- toyg 6y ago
  And don’t forget https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com
Pxtl 6y ago
Great. Bring back Pebble. Low power, unlit low-res screen, week-long battery. Give me notifications, directions, and the time on my wrist and nothing else and I'm happy.
- webdood90 6y ago
  Have you considered a Fossil HR smartwatch? Checks all of the boxes you've listed. I picked one up last year and have been super pleased with it.
WaitWaitWha 6y ago
I just got a Fitbit present. Now I have to kill it.
mianos 6y ago
This can only be good. I have had 3 WearOS watches over many years. None last more more than a few months of use due to the mindblowingly bad WearOS. 256,000 reviews and 120,000 one star reviews. I have a drawer full of perfectly working hardware that I can't throw out. The bot based support question answers is a complete joke. Maybe not Google's fault but the connectivity between the watches and the phone is the most flakey thing ever. Considering a $20 Xiaomi Band can keep a bluetooth connection forever I don't think it is the hardware. The rest of the software stack is hobbled my a java stack that needs gigs to run.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
sakopov 6y ago
It's incredibly scary to see how many people on HN are content with giant corps becoming even bigger. I would much rather see Fitbit naturally fail and go bankrupt than become part of Google. We need regulations and we need them yesterday. This cannot go on the way it has.
harry8 6y ago
Good jumping off point to ask: What can we use to get our fitness data from our smart watches and keep the data private to ourselves? I have gadgetbridge with a Lenovo WatchX. Cheap, cheerful, works ok without competing with apple watch for quality. Great battery life. https://gadgetbridge.org/ https://gadgetbridge.org/ What else is there?
GiorgioG 6y ago
I wish them luck. I got a Versa 3 for Christmas because I hated charging my Apple Watch everyday. I tried it for the past 3 weeks and have finally gone back to my Apple Watch. The Versa 3 is fundamentally worse at everything...except battery life.
dev_by_day 6y ago
This is a fairly obvious move for google to get further into biometric data harvesting.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

293 points by blinky88 6y ago

JarlUlvi 6y ago

Suddenly, I'm glad I never bought a fitbit

PaulHoule 6y ago

Didn't they merge with Fitbit a long time ago?

ocdtrekkie 6y ago
They announced the acquisition in 2019 but it had to get regulatory approval first. A lot of people expected regulators to reject the acquisition. I consider it a massive failure of our governments that whilst acknowledging Google is a monopoly and engaging in antitrust cases against them, they also permitted Google to buy a multibillion dollar company that will expand their monopoly.
- Dig1t 6y ago
  Agreed, it is a complete disaster for privacy and competition in this space.
  - breck 6y ago
    I won't comment on the privacy implications, but can you substantiate your claims about competition at all? I saw Apple Watch utterly destroy Microsoft Band and Pebble, and FitBit was headed for the same fate. If not for Google stepping in, competition against Apple Watch would have just been from Garmin (solid company, but they too probably would have been crushed). Source: investor in Apple, FitBit, Garmin, Google, Microsoft; was in the first batch of Pebble 3rd party devs; avid Microsoft Band user and participated in a number of internal projects when I was there.
- zaptheimpaler 6y ago
  Yep. Maybe they'll object to the acquisition a year later after Google has safely 5x 3-AZ replicated all the heart rate, sleep and location data from millions of people. Apparently Google is simultaneously a monopoly due to the market power they gained using data but yet safe enough to trust with pings every minute from people wearing a watch all day. Its nuts.
- tomComb 6y ago
  Should they really be penalized before being convicted? Consider that Oracle claims that the regulatory actions around the world against Google are because they ran an extensive but secret lobbying campaign against Google to make this happen. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-23/oracle-for-years-secretly-lobbied-states-justice-department-to-sue-google https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-23/oracle-fo... With enough lobbying dollars much is possible - isn't this a reminder to wait for the outcome before you convict? Also, clearly the monopoly that is being suggested is not in this area - in fact, there is a danger in the dominance of Apple's watch and this should increase competition.
  - josefx 6y ago
    > Should they really be penalized before being convicted? People often land in prison before they are convicted. Also restricting a company that appears to be a bad actor to prevent additional harm on society seems only sensible.
    - ygjb 6y ago
      > People often land in prison before they are convicted. Yeah, and this is seen as a huge injustice by many people. There are clear cut cases where there is a risk of flight or further harm, but in most cases, this type of discretionary pre-trial incarceration tends to impact minorities and people without means to hire lawyers or pay for bonds. This analogy falls apart there because there are few companies that would be subject to monopoly rules that would lack the resources to defend themselves.

rnotaro 6y ago

I wonder if future Fitbit watches will use WearOS instead of the current Fitbit software.

ocdtrekkie 6y ago
Nobody knows yet which side will "win" internally. Wear OS is Android-based and a Google product. It's also universally accepted as garbage: Even Android Police bloggers trash on the state of Wear OS. Fitbit is a better platform that has vastly more users and performs better. But it's not Googley at all, so if Google keeps it, there will likely be a lot of changes.
- brmgb 6y ago
  Wear OS needs work but it's not garbage. Given enough RAM it's usable. The Fossil Gen 5 for example is somewhat fine. The issue is more with Qualcomm releasing garbage CPU. Google releasing a watch would help in the same way the Nexus line helped with phones. What WearOS needs is man power and an easier time getting the fix they need in the Android tree. It's not however a lost cause. With the improved activity monitoring provided by Fitbit it could be nice.
  - ocdtrekkie 6y ago
    > Given enough RAM This is the problem. A smartwatch should not be burning a lot of RAM. It has a battery the size of a dime, it should be doing very little with processor or memory. Wear OS is too bloated to the task.
    - brmgb 6y ago
      > A smartwatch should not be burning a lot of RAM. Then again, the Gen 5 has 1Go and works fine. That's the same amount than an Apple watch serie 4/5. > It has a battery the size of a dime, it should be doing very little with processor or memory. Wear OS is far from perfect but that's more on the Snapdragon 3100. Samsung and Apple CPU are far better but they don't sell them. It's very much a chicken and egg situation. Qualcomm doesn't invest because there is not market and there is no market because poor CPUs lead to products which are not competitive. Google could have unlocked the situation but I guess they were wainting for the Fitbit acquisition to go through before going back to wearables.

karimtr 6y ago

Anyone stopped using Fitbit as a result of this?

overscore 6y ago
I have - moved to an Apple watch.
InitialLastName 6y ago
I didn't stop using it, but I made a different decision about what watch to purchase because of it, because a) divesting my health data from Google's vacuum seemed wise and b) I no longer trust Google to support hardware/services long term.
dx87 6y ago
My wife switched over to a Garmin fitness tracker. She'd been having technical issues with her old Fitbit anyway, but the Google acquisition made it so she didn't even consider a new Fitbit as a replacement.
oops 6y ago
I did and I also deleted my account and data. I’ll probably get an Apple Watch but I’d prefer something eink and “dumber” with just clock, heartrate, steps, stairs and GPS, no accounts and no forced uploading to their servers would be ideal. I love the FitBit device though. If there’s some opensource way to keep using it without Google being involved I’ll probably try that.
- amateurdev 6y ago
  I switched to a Garmin Instinct a few months ago. My Charge 2 died and I wanted something with GPS and decent battery life. I charge my watch every 10ish days (I pair it with my phone only after an activity to see the details, not otherwise). I personally find it great that it has a rugged screen with buttons instead of fancier things like a touchscreen, payment options etc.
- sitkack 6y ago
  It would be possible to DIY this, it might be clunkier than most would expect and have worse battery life. *edit, found this eval kit by maxim https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/maxim-integrated/MAXREFDES103/11589120 https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/maxim-integrated/... Kinda expensive and not very open for an eval kit. The only somewhat difficult part is implementing the pulse oximetry signal chain and analysis software. Everything else is basic integration.

scohesc 6y ago

I guess it's time to de-activate my FitBit account. It was nice while it lasted. I wish companies wouldn't fall prey to Google money on principle, but that money is oh so good...

ocdtrekkie 6y ago
I triggered account deletion a couple weeks ago when the EU announced their approval. With the 7 day deletion timer, hopefully my account was completely terminated prior to Google getting their hands on it.
Grazester 6y ago
I wonder how long Fitbit would have been able to survive on it own. Something tells me not very long.

that_guy_iain 6y ago

I was about to buy a new fitbit as my current one is basically dead after 4 years. But the way Google handles things they buy doesn't inspire confidence. I guess I'll investigate others and probably end up with an Apple Watch.

ocdtrekkie 6y ago
I'm waiting for PineTime, personally. My significant other just switched from a Fitbit Ionic to an Apple Watch SE and definitely likes the upgrade. Battery life is your biggest loss if you leave Fitbit, almost nobody was making smartwatches as battery efficient.
- erinnh 6y ago
  How long do they last? Personally, Ive been using Garmin smartwatches for a few years now and they last about a week, with O2 sat scanner enabled over the night. Definitely been happy with them.
  - ocdtrekkie 6y ago
    New Fitbits are similar. (Battery life in all devices decays over time.) Your Apple Watch or Google Wear OS will give you a day or two.
  - miguelrochefort 6y ago
    I get 24-36 hours on my Colmi P8 (same hardware as PineTime), with step tracking and heart rate monitoring turned off. The PineTime is a huge downgrade from pretty much everything on the market. It's only good, at least for now, as a platform to prototype on.
    - Avamander 6y ago
      > The PineTime is a huge downgrade from pretty much everything on the market. Not really, no. Very popular Mi Band 1 up to Mi Band 5 are very much on-par in terms of hardware. The software just has to catch up and that's probably coming. If the project is successful, a PineTime 2 with some minor HW upgrades would be doable. Then it would take much less time because now there's a community and software out there that can be reused.

laurent123456 6y ago

I guess it means that if Google blocks your account due to a false positive on an unrelated service, you can no longer use you watch.

Grazester 6y ago
This is my biggest concern, not even the data. Google locks your account and your entire life is disrupted!
- miguelrochefort 6y ago
  I considered going to China, but decided against because of my reliance on Google services.
  - physicles 6y ago
    Really? For just that reason? I live and work full time in China and we use G Suite and Slack with a good VPN (there are some similar Chinese services but none are nearly as good). Sometimes I can’t watch a YouTube link if I’m away from home and the VPN isn’t working on 4G, but that’s as bad as it ever gets these days.
aboringusername 6y ago
Which is crazy to me...Google is... Your photo manager Your search engine Your document storage service Your health monitor Your contacts list Your video hosting facility Your calendar Your document editor Your location history Your music engine And I have no doubt I'm missing a load here, point being why the fuck has the EU not stepped in at this point and said "woah buddy, you're a tad too big to be this unregulated". The EU needs to enforce stricter regulation across all Google products, such as making it illegal to "ban" or lock out an account by means of an AI facility without human resolution within 6 hours or less (6 hours is a maximum, anything above incurs an hourly fine). These must be regulated like a public service, because the risk of losing access to an online account can be devastating. The onus, however, is on YOU to diversify, have redundant email addresses (forward+store a copy) so in the event one is RIP you are not boned entirely.

Vermeulen 6y ago

I don't understand the fear of Google from FitBit users in these comments. Google has a clear user agreement with how they use your data, including not selling it - and they rely on users trusting them. I'd rather my data be with one of the tech giants than a unprofitable start up

mc32 6y ago
While you’re right that your data might be safer with Google, the fear or unease is with Google having even _more_ data on people. Too much data in the hands of one company.
client4 6y ago
I think the concern centers more around Google's horrific customer service and wanton axing of services.
swarnie_ 6y ago
Things change, i thought my Whatsapp data was safe from TheZuck.
dx87 6y ago
Unless there's a guarantee that breaking the user agreement results in a fine that exceeds the money they got by breaking the agreement, the user agreement is mostly worthless.
breck 6y ago
I agree with this. I was worried about FitBit ever since the Apple Watch came out and decimated FitBit's profits. But Google acquiring them makes me feel like they'll last a long time, and I won't have to switch ecosystems yet again (I was coming from Microsoft Band). I would have loved it if FitBit could have remained independent, but basically impossible in today's messed up competitive environment.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
JMTQp8lwXL 6y ago

DaftDank 6y ago

I had a Fitbit Charge 3, and had to replace it about 3 times IIRC in a little over a year period. The 3rd replacement happened a week after the warranty expired, which to their credit they still replaced it. But it once again died shortly thereafter, at which point I just bought an Apple Watch. Mainly for the ECG function -- my wife had bought me the Fitbit after I was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, so I figured I'd rather have something that could help me check more than just my pulse to determine if I was out of rhythm.

breck 6y ago
Interesting. In my experience it used to be the case that my FitBit would break once or twice a year—and like you they would always replace it. But I've noticed a trend toward reliability. My Versa 2 has been operating like a champ since the day I got it when it came out. I push it too the limit in the outdoors with activities like surfing, snorkeling, et cetera. Every year I buy the Apple Watch thinking this will be the year I switch. But again, just returned it on Friday. Hardware is super impressive, but it just feels like putting an iPad on my wrist. I don't want a computer on my wrist I just want to be healthy. And the battery life on the Versa 2 is just so much better. I put it on and only have to take it off about once a week for an hour to charge.
- phire 6y ago
  My Versa 2 started dying as soon as I got it would just lag every time you tried to interact with it (touch screen, button, gestures). Eventually it degraded so much that it would even stop measuring activity at random. Apparently it's a known hardware issue, even if it really felt like a software issue. This all happened during the first lockdown, so I had to wait weeks for the stores to open and get it replaced. But the replacement is going strong, I've had it for 9 months now.
lkbm 6y ago
I've had quite a few Fitbits break, which is frustrating, but their redeeming quality is their willingness to replace over and over again. When it breaks, they generally offer a free replacement or the option to buy a newer version at half price, so since my first in 2016, I've had six or seven — three or four replacements and two half-price upgrades. (Charge HR replaced once or twice, Blaze replaced once, and Charge 3 replaced once.) I suspect I'm still a profitable customer, but I suspect they'll become a lot stingier eventually. My main concern with switching to a different brand is that I'm worried that they're be more breakable and less readily replaced. (Also, I'm on Android, so there are too many options and I can't decide.)

swarnie_ 6y ago

So to be clear... Despite trying to avoid big Californian tech companies my health data is now going to Google, my chat data to Facebook and my insurrection attempts to torrent websites? Please make it stop....

lawrencevillain 6y ago

How long before it's killed by Google?

akmarinov 6y ago
2-3 years tops.

petercooper 6y ago

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.

james2406 6y ago
I've heard good things about the Oura Ring https://ouraring.com/ https://ouraring.com/. It tracks sleep and has a 7 day battery life.
- webkike 6y ago
  Oura ring is good. Tracks heart rate and sleep satisfactorily. I heartedly recommend.
LibertyBeta 6y ago
The Garmin Forerunner 45/245 might fit that bill. I'm wearing one right now and only notice it because its riding up on my wrist from my sweater. And as a bit of a metric nerd the Garmin data exports rock. Oh, and I haven't charged it in over a week.
- petercooper 6y ago
  After having seen how difficult it is to get an Oura in the UK, I might investigate this first - thanks!
  - LibertyBeta 6y ago
    Sure thing! The forerunner 45s is the cheaper option in the forerunner lineup, BUT it doesn't have standard lugs. There is also the Venu and Vivoactive lines with touch screens, but their battery isn't nearly as good as anything in forerunner's camp.
  - 6y ago

wavefunction 6y ago

My mom got me a fitbit for Christmas and I think I'll return it unopened now. I've thought about warning her about this new relationship with Google but she's elderly, it's probably not an issue she cares as much about and I'm the one who introduced her to fitbits in the first place.

aboringusername 6y ago

One thing that confuses me is why this data needs to be stored within the internet at all. Why can't I have an entirely offline driven system? Data stays local, no ability to upload it online at all, and all processing is done without ever needing the internet. That's a key criteria if I ever was thinking of getting a smart wearable, I'm not going to generate even more data that can be profited from and potentially used against me. It's increasingly looking like storing data is a huge responsibility (although, if it is ever leaked, sadly humans don't tend to see prison time for this crime). What we need is a clause that says "if this data ever touches the internet whether accidental or otherwise the CEO goes straight to jail, are you sure about this?". Sadly, I think society as a whole is just "used" to this by now and a second thought is rarely given, disappointing this merger was approved, especially when the EU is investigating several "anti trusts", why give them even more power? Oh well, I'll see you fellow HN readers on the next "major data leakage from misconfigured MongoDB and nobody is punished" thread.

johnwayne666 6y ago
It's the reason I got an Apple watch 3 as a sport watch: all the other options seemed to want to upload everything online.
sitkack 6y ago
What really disappointed me about the fitbit was that it required it to be tethered to the phone and my account before it would function as a pedometer. It seems broken that I also have to have a phone, app store access to get a device to drive the pixels for data it already has. Every piece of hardware that does this is effectively "app store locked", your phone is now your software dongle for your hardware.
- brlewis 6y ago
  See the section "Don't have a mobile device available?" on https://www.fitbit.com/setup https://www.fitbit.com/setup for desktop apps. Some functions, like sleep tracking, are too computationally intensive to do on a wrist computer.

ortusdux 6y ago

Has anyone tried out Wyse's fitness band? How are they as a company? The prices are the lowest around on their entire lineup

miguelrochefort 6y ago
I don't know about their fitness band. What I know is that Amazon will acquire Wyze within the next 2 years.

dkersten 6y ago

Guess I will stop using my old fitbit. I've been trying very hard to de-google my life, so them owning fitbit is a deal breaker for me.

akmarinov 6y ago

Well, RIP FitBit's Health API, that'll probably be rolled into Google Fit. As a mobile developer, when we do any Health integration, the topmost platforms by usage are Apple Health and Fitbit, followed by Samsung Health and lastly Google Fit. This easily lets them catapult in second place.

sys_64738 6y ago

I have a Fitbit 3 that is awful for synching with my iPhone. Not sure if it's just me or the SW is a pile of pooh. I'm not really sure if this change will help Fitbit or me.

tomComb 6y ago

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 current market share is not acceptable for a company like Google.

Dig1t 6y ago
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 be competitive, so I don't see what Google could add other than lots of money and SWE hours. If Google wants to compete in this space they should have been forced to build it themselves. IMO letting Fitbit die would have been better for users privacy-wise.
- tomComb 6y ago
  I'm a long time Fitbit user and I think their products are great. From that perspective I'm just happy that they will survive. > so I don't see what Google could add other than lots of money and SWE hours That matters. > IMO letting Fitbit die would have been better for users privacy-wise. Have you seen what some companies do when they are on the brink of insolvency? They start firing engineers, best practices lapse, and they start monetizing everything. And have you seen the EU data privacy conditions? And finally, of the companies that could have bought them, which has a better record of keeping their users' data private then Google? But also, as a Fitbit user, if I wanted all my data deleted I could do that, but I absolutely do not. I want it kept private, supported, and crunched by a company like Google to our mutual advantage.
  - breck 6y ago

mlester 6y ago

Hopefully this means a youtube music app for the versa watches.

valarauko 6y ago
... perhaps a new Google chat app?

colordrops 6y ago

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.

erinaceousjones 6y ago
There's also "Notify & Fitness for Mi Band" for Android [1] which I used, which was ace. Packed full of advanced features like ability to change what calorie / basal metabolic rate calculations were used, export of the data locally / dropbox, export to google fit + strava etc., no dependency on Xiaomi's servers. Closed source, though. But appears to be one single persons personal project. Those products are awesome if you want a lower-end fitness tracker. Originally I bought a Mi Band 4 because I saw it reported itself as a bluetooth HR accessory, meaning you could get continuous heart rate on bluetooth if you paired your device -- whereas FitBit's protocol was encrypted and proprietary. Did some cool stuff with that (a shirt with an LED matrix screen that pulsed at the wearers heart rate!) Wouldn't say the hardware is "vastly better", I found the continuous heart rate monitoring to be a bit sluggish -- i.e. it averaged out HR over a longer period than the fitbits I've had did, so you were less likely to detect the peaks and recovery periods during excercise. Otherwise it was much of a muchness, but cheaper. I imagine the cheaper HW probably meant corners were cut with the sensors and firmware, but being hardly the athlete I didn't care outside of heart rate sensing. [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mc.miband1&hl=en_GB&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mc.miband1...
- colordrops 6y ago
  Is Notify proprietary or open source? Does it send data to the cloud? I couldn't tell based on a quick look and search.
josefresco 6y ago
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.

CephalopodMD 6y ago

Hopefully this means better support for exporting, say, step and minute by minute heart rate data to Apple health and vice versa. I want to be able to do what I want with my data.

mdoms 6y ago
I would imagine the data will go to Google Fit which exposes a comprehensive (but difficult to use) API.
clintonb 6y ago
I built an app for this: https://dev.clintonblackburn.com/fitsync https://dev.clintonblackburn.com/fitsync

alfongj 6y ago

I love my Fitbit hardware but loathe their apps. After 5 years or so, they still suck at data synchronization. I hope Google fixes this

mindways 6y ago
Gods, yes, this. The FitBit app is like someone said "Let's use a wonderful asynchronous architecture so we won't block on retrieving data!" and then completely ignored all the ways that might lead to terrible UX if implemented poorly. My steps stick at 0, then suddenly are the total of the last 3 days' worth. I log food, and it re-populates the "quantity" field with the old value after I edit it, sometimes up to 8-10 times in a row. My sleep data takes a roulette-spin amount of time to go get processed in the cloud and redownloaded, and even once the main dashboard has the info, the "Sleep" detail page will refuse to admit that I slept last night for another 3d20 minutes. It's like someone connecting the pieces of a car with Slinkys instead of bolts because they're more flexible. If I didn't like the hardware so much I'd have switched ages ago.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

noncoml 6y ago

It's becoming more and more difficult to keep away from Google eyes these days. Picasa, Waze, Nest, Fitbit where all companies whose products I used before the acquisition.

ipsum2 6y ago
What other products are you using that aren't acquired by Google yet? Asking for my stock investments.

workOrNah 6y ago

pixel watch coming soon?

hcurtiss 6y ago
Any day now . . .

koiz 6y ago

Fitbit has made some solid devices but seriously lacks in the software area. Finding/Installing apps on your versa is as bad as it was on my palm pilot.

s3r3nity 6y ago

More evidence that Google can't create any good, innovative products anymore - they just acquire them. Can't make good watch hardware OR software? Just buy part of Fossil and Fitbit to handle that. Can't make good smart home devices to compete with Amazon's Ring or Simplisafe? Just buy Nest, Revolv, and a huge stake of ADT. etc. etc.

mav3rick 6y ago
More evidence that anything Google does is inherently bad for HN.
missedthecue 6y ago
whats wrong with Google Pixel
- Johnyma22 6y ago
  Is Google Pixel the phone or a tablet? Is Chrome a browser of OS?
  - mav3rick 6y ago
    iPad Pro - Phone or Tablet ? For fun or for PROfessionals ? Airpods - Earbuds or Headphones ?
- mav3rick 6y ago
  Don't worry op won't reply to this.
- s3r3nity 6y ago
  Bought out part of Motorola to do this
  - mav3rick 6y ago
    Lol no ? They did that to fend Microsoft for parents. There's a reason they sold it after patent war was settled. You have half baked information and make 0 points.

ztetranz 6y ago

Maybe Google will be a bit faster with new features. It took almost six years and a 544 post thread in their community forum to finally provide the ability to use kilojoules instead of calories. It's just a multiplication factor like feet to meters or pounds to kilograms. https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Option-to-show-Kilojoules-in-Dashboard-and-all-apps/idi-p/36199 https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Option-t...

Triv888 6y ago
Google is not better in this regard.

wayne 6y ago

I wonder how engineering integration works for an acquisition this size (Wikipedia: ~1694 employees). Google interviews test for very specific things so it's unlikely every engineer in Fitbit would have passed. Fitbit's big enough that I doubt you'd re-interview every engineer and doing that would scare engineers away, but Fitbit's not big enough where you'd let Fitbit continue to do their own thing for a long period of time. Would you just convert every engineer into the Google leveling system best you can and see how it shakes out over time in performance review? Do these things get talked about during acquisition talks?

wombat-man 6y ago
I'm guessing at the specific knowledge some of these employees have is valued, and they probably wouldn't take kindly to having to study for a coding test just to keep their job. I'm guessing they automatically hire some, and interview others who are maybe less core to the business. They can always layoff later if it doesn't end up being a fit.
- capableweb 6y ago
  > They can always layoff later if it doesn't end up being a fit. Such a fucked up thing that that's legal in some parts of the world. "Ah I don't know if we should hire these people or not, let's just hire them now and if we don't need them, fire them later. We can tell them a week before or something" just fills the air with smug MBAs not understanding that some people work for a living, not for fun.
  - dvt 6y ago
    > Such a fucked up thing that that's legal in some parts of the world. It's legal basically anywhere in the United States, as most states follow at-will employment laws. Is it even surprising that young people (20s-30s) job hop every 2-3 years?
    - at-fates-hands 6y ago
      They've been talking about a 100% transient (read: contract) worker population for some time now. A lot of the developers I know rotate between contracting and FTE work. They're FTE timeframes line up with your assertion. They stay at one place, get some new tech knowledge, work a few projects and then move on after a few years. The think the age range has greatly expanded though since most of my group is in their mid 30's now. Maybe more people are starting to contract younger so to them, they see it as a more normalized work career than some other people who want to get one gig, settle in and be there for 20+ years?

macspoofing 6y ago

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

csours 6y ago
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.
- macspoofing 6y ago
  Pixel phones are the best Android phones because they come closest to pure Android experience and have the best smart-phone update policy outside of the iOS eco-system. Unfortunately they don't move any significant units because Google doesn't know how to market them, sell them or distribute them ... because Google is bad at devices.

rvz 6y ago

Translation: Google now has access to all your fitness and health data and will be integrated into Google Fit. No thanks and no deal.

franciscojgo 6y ago
Exactly. They say it as if joining Google was a positive. No it it isn't. Just tell the truth: you sold Fitbit and made bank. No issue here.
- radicalriddler 6y ago
  It is a positive. For the owners and all the investors!
jessehattabaugh 6y ago
I have been using an app called Fit-to-fit to sync my heartrate and sleep data from Fitbit to Google Fit for years. This saves me some trouble so I'm excited! Any idea when this will be delivered?
protomyth 6y ago
This thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10932968 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10932968 gets a lot scarier now. My response then was https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10933325 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10933325 Dear Customer, We are sorry for improperly sending out the "Broken Heart" alert to you on January 21, 2023. We should have sent you the "She's Pregnant" alert. In the future, please ensure both you and your dating partners are running the same OS version. Thank you for your understanding. sorry, FizzyBaneFitness substitue Google Fitness now
blisterpeanuts 6y ago
Five or six years ago, I would have said, "Great! Now my Fitbit will be better integrated with Android and my Google ecosystem. Plus it will inject some much needed stability into a faltering company, to bolster the quality and advance their products. Yay!" Now I think about the fact that I just looked someone up on contacts.google.com, then added a visit with them to calendar.google.com, and talked with them about it via gmail.com. They know so much about me already, and now they'll have my health history. The only silver lining is that their security is probably better, and my data is less likely to be hacked and stolen. But otherwise... Looking forward to a nice Linux/open software fitness watch, from a Kickstarter or other effort, so some of us can take better control of our data.

norswap 6y ago

My concern is not for my data (because I don't care, not because I trust in Google's goodwill and governance), but Google has a sad history of mismanaging their smaller side projects. I pray that this time, it's different, but I'm not holding my breath.

stuaxo 6y ago

In 3 years time all the customers can look forward to it being shut down.

csours 6y ago

Any statement made by the leader of an acquired business unit should be read like a letter burning in a bonfire - they may mean it at the time, but they have no real power to make it true in the future.

post_break 6y ago

Whenever I think of Fitbit I think of Pebble and get sad. I wish there was a Pebble replacement.

josefresco 6y ago
If you liked Pebble, you'll probably be excited about Watchy: https://watchy.sqfmi.com https://watchy.sqfmi.com
- iamcreasy 6y ago
  Also, how about PineTime? https://www.pine64.org/pinetime/ https://www.pine64.org/pinetime/
  - post_break 6y ago
    Doesn't look like it's for sale for end users.
    - Avamander 6y ago
      You can absolutely buy it as an end user, but the catch is that it doesn't pass the grandma test, you need to be a bit more tech-savy.
- dTal 6y ago
  No OS. Monochrome. No case, not waterproof, nonstandard strap loops through PCB. It's kinda cool but it's no Pebble, or any kind of daily driver watch.
cush 6y ago
So true. All Fitbit did after the acquisition was shelve all of Pebble's tech. Pebble, to this day, still has the best smart watch screen. Those refresh rates were crazy.
zaarn 6y ago
Don't worry, Google just killed the Pebble App from the playstore, so you can be more sad now.

m12k 6y ago

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

saisundar 6y ago

This will certainly help give Google an advantage if they enter into health insurance. Aplhabet has non trivial stake in Oscar health, and this fitbit acquisition plays right into being price health insurance policies for users.

tech234a 6y ago

Side note: the blog still has a Google+ sharing button. (Google+ shut down nearly two years ago.)

blacklight 6y ago

Although I criticize Google many times and I try to avoid their products as much as possible, I don't have many alternatives at hand for products like WearOS and Google Fit. And both of them have had major usability, integrations and stability issues over the years that are hard to ignore. In an ideal world, I wish that small companies like Fitbit could compete with Google and Apple and release good all-inclusive smartwatches that developers can use to bukld good general-purpose apps, with a well-designed interface, and that are also very solid fitness trackers. Unfortunately we aren't in an ideal world though, so I can just hope that this acquisition helps bringing some proper vision in the current chaos that reigns in the WearOS and Fit departments.

csours 6y ago

If someone from Fitbit is reading this: It is asinine that the data from my wearable has to go to my phone, up to the cloud, and back down to my phone for display.

bluescrn 6y ago
I wanted to switch mine from 12hr to 24hr clock format. I couldn't do it on the watch itself. I couldn't do it on my phone from the app. The only solution was to log in to fitbit.com in a browser, change a setting there, then re-sync my device via the app.
m463 6y ago
Sounds like ANY device or peripheral - the data is more valuable that anything else. On acquisition - the exit strategy is to have a pile of data. I think regulation is the only way to change this because it's a gravy train.
- godshatter 6y ago
  I would pay more for a device that didn't save to the cloud and only saved locally but could still give you nice graphs and whatnot in an old-fashioned desktop program. They can have a website that you can upload to that makes things visible to your friends, as long as it's opt-in only. I wouldn't use it because I wouldn't trust it, though. This sort of thing is as dead as a doornail, unfortunately.
  - lukeschlather 6y ago
    With Garmin watches you don't have to pair it to a phone or set up Wifi. You can just plug it into your computer and download the data. There exist a number of open source tools. I've only used GPXSee for looking at the GPS data, which actually let me see "correct" swimming distance data where Garmin was using some algorithm that didn't make any sense. I mostly use the web ui but loading the data into one of the open source offline tools is on my to-do list. There's actually some analytics/reports I want to generate that Garmin doesn't provide, so I might end up doing it purely to write some reports. (Although the peace of mind I would get knowing that I could pull the plug on my Garmin account whenever I want would be nice.) Though it isn't perfect. When Garmin had the outage last year I unpaired my phone which actually reset some of the configuration I had done on the watch, which was really annoying.

60secz 6y ago

The question now: how soon before my fitness tracker stops working? (Given Google's track record)

njovin 6y ago
I learned the hard way how developer-unfriendly Nest became after acquisition. I wanted to do some very basic home automation with a smart thermostat and it was like somebody had released a broken beta of an API and stopped maintaining it. To add insult to injury they were in the process of shutting down the few useful APIs that remained and almost completely closing it off. Sold it and went to a different brand.

budadre75 6y ago

It'll be great if we can have custom firmware for fitbit and selfhost the data collection services.

WClayFerguson 6y ago

I'm sure Google is merely interested in having another great product and this wasn't just another way to expand surveillance data collection.

BooneJS 6y ago

Looking forward to what Fitbit can do within Google. Many people with Apple or Samsung watches started with Fitbit.

kulesh 6y ago

Good for them

sadfev 6y ago

Anti-Trust investigation should break Alphabet to million pieces. Way too many big tech apologists here.

nradov 6y ago

DC Rainmaker has a detailed analysis of what this means for consumers. https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2021/01/google-completes-acquisition-of-fitbit-analysis-of-what-it-means.html https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2021/01/google-completes-acquisi...

cush 6y ago

I'm still pissed about Pebble

fataliss 6y ago

I'm sitting here, still waiting for a new Pebble

rietta 6y ago

Sad ending. It'll be on https://killedbygoogle.com https://killedbygoogle.com within 36 months.

toyg 6y ago
And don’t forget https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com

Pxtl 6y ago

Great. Bring back Pebble. Low power, unlit low-res screen, week-long battery. Give me notifications, directions, and the time on my wrist and nothing else and I'm happy.

webdood90 6y ago
Have you considered a Fossil HR smartwatch? Checks all of the boxes you've listed. I picked one up last year and have been super pleased with it.

WaitWaitWha 6y ago

I just got a Fitbit present. Now I have to kill it.

mianos 6y ago

This can only be good. I have had 3 WearOS watches over many years. None last more more than a few months of use due to the mindblowingly bad WearOS. 256,000 reviews and 120,000 one star reviews. I have a drawer full of perfectly working hardware that I can't throw out. The bot based support question answers is a complete joke. Maybe not Google's fault but the connectivity between the watches and the phone is the most flakey thing ever. Considering a $20 Xiaomi Band can keep a bluetooth connection forever I don't think it is the hardware. The rest of the software stack is hobbled my a java stack that needs gigs to run.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

sakopov 6y ago

It's incredibly scary to see how many people on HN are content with giant corps becoming even bigger. I would much rather see Fitbit naturally fail and go bankrupt than become part of Google. We need regulations and we need them yesterday. This cannot go on the way it has.

harry8 6y ago

Good jumping off point to ask: What can we use to get our fitness data from our smart watches and keep the data private to ourselves? I have gadgetbridge with a Lenovo WatchX. Cheap, cheerful, works ok without competing with apple watch for quality. Great battery life. https://gadgetbridge.org/ https://gadgetbridge.org/ What else is there?

GiorgioG 6y ago

I wish them luck. I got a Versa 3 for Christmas because I hated charging my Apple Watch everyday. I tried it for the past 3 weeks and have finally gone back to my Apple Watch. The Versa 3 is fundamentally worse at everything...except battery life.

dev_by_day 6y ago

This is a fairly obvious move for google to get further into biometric data harvesting.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]