Fitbit has introduced that its group options Adventures, Challenges, and open teams are being discontinued from March 27, as a part of a ‘streamlining’ effort to combine the Fitbit app with Google. 

Homeowners of any of the perfect Fitbit watches or health trackers will now not be capable of participate in group challenges with different customers. Step rely, distance and time challenges such because the ‘Workweek Hustle’ are among the commonest, though anybody might be part of an open group primarily based round a standard curiosity, resembling rock-climbing or yoga. 

Adventures have been a singular subset of Challenges, encouraging customers to discover a unique ‘Every day Vacation spot’ and full digital programs primarily based on well-known trails within the likes of Yosemite nationwide park. 

Now, all three of these options are set for the axe, together with any ‘trophies’ or digital rewards customers have obtained by finishing these challenges. Customers are nonetheless in a position to be part of smaller closed teams, however the open teams characteristic is the place folks would go to attach with different like-minded Fitbit customers all around the world, all becoming a member of in the identical Challenges and Adventures. 

An announcement from Fitbit on the group boards (opens in new tab) stated: “We’re working onerous behind the scenes to boost the Fitbit app with Google expertise this yr. Because of this, we’re streamlining areas of the Fitbit app”, together with Challenges and Adventures. 

Fitbit did state that customers might  “nonetheless create a closed group with your pals and join with different customers within the Fitbit Neighborhood on our Well being & Wellness boards” and “nonetheless compete with mates in your leaderboard and earn badges for private achievements.” It additionally offered data on the right way to obtain your knowledge earlier than the options vanish (fitbit.com/settings/knowledge/export, in the event you’re curious). 

9to5Google (opens in new tab) additionally stories that Fitbit Studio, the browser-based solution to create third-party apps and watch faces for Fitbit, can be shutting down on April 20. We might see this coming, as Fitbit’s most up-to-date watches, the Fitbit Sense 2 and Fitbit Versa 4, each lack third-party app help, and Google has its personal Put on OS to take care of. Nevertheless, no point out of this was made within the above announcement, almost certainly as a result of this isn’t a user-facing change however a developer-facing one.

Nevertheless, customers aren’t pleased with these adjustments, particularly the scrapping of Challenges. A put up on Reddit (opens in new tab) reveals Fitbit’s Options Solutions web page overflowing with pleas to maintain Challenges, and the Fitbit group boards are equally up in arms. Though Fitbit is eager to emphasise that some options are nonetheless up, such because the boards and closed group, the logical query is ‘how lengthy for?’

 Evaluation: Higher integration, however at what value?

In its haste to combine Fitbit into the broader Google ecosystem, mother or father firm Alphabet has been axing essential Fitbit characteristic left and proper. The slicing of Fitbit’s music capabilities are one other instance of Alphabet leaving Fitbit homeowners stranded, pushing them in direction of to the Put on OS Pixel Watch, and now Google has struck once more.

Fitbit homeowners are proper to be offended as many of those options have been marketed as being included with the machine, and other people primarily based their preliminary purchases on having the ability to use them. Individuals use the Challenges options to inspire themselves and one another to remain lively, and open teams enable individuals to attach with fellow Fitbit customers all around the world. It offers the app a way of group, and quite than incorporate that group into the Google household, Alphabet has chosen to uproot it in favor of progress. 

Google’s message appears to be that it doesn’t want or care about present Fitbit customers. It’s not shocking that, if you learn the boards and Reddit posts, many individuals are taking a look at switching to Apple or Garmin. Google’s remedy of Fitbit does nothing to encourage a way of loyalty to the model. It even included a hyperlink on the finish of the e-mail and discussion board put up, informing customers the right way to delete their accounts in the event that they have been unhappy with the change. 

Though there’s a vital overlap between Fitbit’s watches and Google’s personal Pixel Watch, it appears the 2 manufacturers can not sit side-by-side for very lengthy in Google’s secure. Fitbit accounts would require Google logins from this yr, and we’re more likely to see extra adjustments very quickly. Alphabet goes scorched-earth with Fitbit, content material to burn it down and alienate the prevailing userbase because it does so – a baffling transfer from a enterprise perspective and a heartbreaking one within the eyes of longtime customers.