It’s official. After more than a year in processing, Google has acquired Fitbit. There are a million questions that long-time Fitbit users probably have for what this means going forward, but there is one bit of good news — the Google deal won’t affect third-party services that Fitbit can sync to.
In a letter, Fitbit CEO James Park today confirmed that Fitbit and Google have worked out as a part of their deal that Google will keep third-party Fitbit services around.
Google also affirmed it will continue to allow Fitbit users to choose to connect to third party services. That means you’ll still be able to connect your favorite health and wellness apps to your Fitbit account. These and other commitments by Google reinforce why Google is an ideal partner for Fitbit who will continue to put our users first and help further our mission to make everyone in the world healthier.
Fitbit syncs with a tremendous number of third-party apps and services. Weight scales, exercise equipment such as Peloton, and even smart water bottles can feed data into the Fitbit app. It would be a true shame to see those connections severed, so we’re definitely glad to see Google commiting to keeping things working.
Then again, we don’t know if this will be a permanent thing. Google kept the “Works with Nest” program running for years, only to unexpectedly kill it off in 2019, which broke a lot of products and workflows before Google finally started working out Assistant actions and features to fill the gaps. Even then, some former connections still don’t work. We really hope that Google won’t make the same mistake with Fitbit.
Still, for the time being, rest assured that your Fitbit products will continue working as they do today.
More on Fitbit:
- Google completes acquisition of Fitbit, reiterates privacy promises
- Fitbit Sense and Versa 3 Review: Solid smartwatches w/ the fitness chops Google needs
- Fitbit is ‘close’ to bringing automatic heart rhythm assessments to wearables
Author: Ben Schoon
Source: 9TO5Google
