Google denies reports that it’s discontinuing Fitbit products
Claims that there will be no new Versas or Senses is incorrect, rep says.
As a longtime Fitbit user, the writing is on the wall. The Google buyout has been horrible, features disappearing, support sucking, no more web dashboard, payment issues, calorie goals no longer customizable, etc.
They bought the company for user data and patents. Merge what they want into their watches and discontinue the rest. Absolutely minimize maintenance costs by dropping features and firing employees. They'll keep the Fitbit name, maybe roll that into a watch sub-series, but the buyout was definitely a gut-and-dump deal.
Too bad the antitrust suit won't save what used to be a great product and company in time.
What are the good alternatives? Been a fitbit user for a few years now and not sure who to switch to next.
Garmin watches, IMHO more rugged and they do not put their software behind a paywall. You'll pay for it in the cost of the watch.
I've been using Garmin for fitness since about 2013, I have use a Charge HR for steps/fitness alongside my Garmin watches when I used them only for activities.
Eventually I replaced that with a garmin Fenix 3HR that did steps, activities and looked good enough to wear all the time
I have a Fenix 6 now.
Garmin if you want a watch that receives notifications and can do basic replies. Anything else if you want a mini phone.
Spoken from an ex Pebble user here that's been rocking a Garmin 245 since 2020. Finally now starting to get a bit meh in the battery department and I will probably upgrade maybe next year to another Garmin?
Not a direct replacement by any stretch, but I've been looking at the PineTime. Not sure how accurate anything it has is, but it's FOSS, so that's nice.
Other than that, the last time I looked for watches, it was between FitBit and Garmin for me, so I'll echo what others are saying.
I been looking at nabbing an amazfit and setting it up with gadget bridge (and then uninstalling the huawei spyware app into the ocean)
The antitrust won't save shit, it's just a move to let other vulturous companies have a piece of the public corpse, not for any kind of consumer protection.
The poor Sense 2 was supposed to be the value feature phone of smart watches, and it was absolutely gutted. I’m sure it was simply purchased to remove it from the market so as not to compete with the Pixel Watch.
Yeah, and Google Stadia had great new games coming and they were totally committed to it until woops, never mind, it's dead.
Google has a hell of a credibility problem at this point.
People were literally still working on stadia as they announced its cancellation.
Google didn't even tell all of the stadia team that stadia was being cancelled. Or devs that were working on Stadia games, even ones they had close exclusivity deals with.
Google also laid off thousands of people. Yeah, that product is gone.
At this point any Google product comes with the unstated assumption that it could be considered a prototype or an experiment up for cancellation at any moment.
I called that one dead in 2 years right from the start, and I might have been out by a year.
Either Google continually buys companies for far more than they should or they really suck at buisness. How many times have they aquired healthy companies then absolutely destroyed them? It's hard for me to believe they're not actively trying to at this point.
The point is to exterminate them. To paraphrase another company, embrace, extend, extinguish.
In this case it's more if you can't beat em buy em. But it's from the same school of business.
Yeah, if they are healthy companies they could snag some market share from one of Google's products.
Easier to kill them early.
I would assume some of that is acqui-hiring. Google acquires a company and looks at which employees are the outstanding talent. The best employees are poached for projects Google cares about while the rest are left to keep the product going without the thought leaders who built it.
It means you get to dismantle a competitor, while also retaining the employees otherwise best suited to create a new competitor.
Between Fitbit and Nest, I don't know how they can buy them and not just let them run separately like Waze. They have great brands that were ruined.
It's what Google does, launch products -> cancel them, buy products -> cancel them. I have been burned enough times by them that I don't use anything they make anymore out of the certainty that it'll get canceled just as soon as I've grown to depend on it.
what's the word for a thing that worms its way into your life, makes you depend on it, then uses that to exploit and damage you?
there's a word for that.
I too was married once.
Cat?
Would 'parasite' be appropriate?
Same thing happened to Nest. The cameras and thermostats were great when they were a private company then sh*t the bed when Google took them over.
Google stopped support of their app almost immediately in support of ‘Google Home’ which was to control the thermostat and Camera - which is terrible and requires you to constantly log into it with your email and password if you want to access anything.
Google Home is the biggest piece of shit I've ever had the displeasure to use.
It used to work really well, and now it's trash. I don't know how they could fuck something up so badly.
I went with the BezosBoxHomeAsssssistant. … it sucks too. The challenge to my mind is that it’s hard to make any profit on these things, so it’s hard to spend the dev and server $$$ required to actually make the systems do what they should.
I don't think I've ever had to log into the Google Home app, it just uses the accounts on my phone. Or is this some sort of situation where, "I'm too Android to understand this problem?"
Rip Fitbit. They had a good run.
I'm still salty over Pebble
God the Pebble was such a nice piece of hardware. They really focused on the shit that mattered
I've moved to Garmin now, but I have an ocean's worth of salt over Pebble as well.
I'm still wearing an OG Pebble (I've had about a dozen Pebbles total) . However, they're starting to get more rare and expensive. Also, while I'm still on Android 12, I understand Android 14 can break the app.
I had two Pebble Steel watches. One just up and died one day and the other slowly failed as the buttons stopped working. I knew it was fixable, but with the sale to Fitbit happening, I Switched to AppleWatch. I do miss some things (battery life!) but all in all I’m not unhappy with my Apple Watch.
Chromecast gave life to my old TVs for years. I'm watching it slowly die.
Now they can do the walk of shame as a Google product.
I literally just bought a Fitbit because I really needed a watch and it has the features I cared about and was way less expensive than a Garmin.
Honestly I think Google will cancel them because they compete with Android Wear or whatever which can't hold a charge worth a damn. 24 hours for a Pixel Watch? Fuck right off.
May I suggest Garmin? For a smartwatch they have decent battery life and tons of sport/fitness features.
They don't need to, the day the acquisition was announced my Fitbit went in the bin.
Fuck google, the greedy rent seeking parasites.
I had no idea Fitbit sold to google, and had in the back of my mind to buy one eventually. Guess that's not gonna happen, found any alternative?
Garmin. You'll probably spend a bit more on the hardware, but there's nothing locked behind a subscription. I had the Fitbit Sense and switched to the Garmin Forerunner 265. If the skin temperature sensor is important to you, you'll want a different model, but that's the only thing I've noticed as missing so far.
Garmin. Works reasonably well without connection to the phone. Some models supported by Gadgetbridge
Edit: corrected app name
I haven't found any alternatives but I also haven't been looking...
Anything supported by Gadgetbridge. Get corpos out of your private data.
As soon as they require me to use a Google account I'll get rid of mine, too. It's coming soon.
Glad I moved to Garmin a while back. I preferred Fitbit's Dashboard over Garmin
When I heard Google's buying it, I got a Garmin for my next smartwatch just to check the UI. I was thinking of moving back, but I guess I won't.
Garmin seems to be embracing smartwatches with a number of different series
Great to see all the Garmin love, I'll have a look.
Just got an ancient Garmin standalone GPS from the thrift store. Soldered a new battery in and it's GTG. Even with zero updates, the quality is top notch. One example; It's been untouched and turned on in my hiking pack for over a month. Battery is full hot!
The year is 2039.
After successful launch of AILook replacement NextAI, Google is discontinuing traditional Google Search.
You think it'll take that long? Seems optimistic.
FYI for those thinking of migrating to pixel watch: Big oof: The Google Pixel Watch 3 can't be repaired, only replaced
While on this subject, here is the iFixIt list of repairable smartwatches.
It's a shame. This was the case with both their previous watches as well.
Thankful for my first-generation ANCIENT Apple Watch. It needs to be charged every night and the UI is a bit sluggish, but it’s still kickin! Still does everything I want it to (legitimately just activity tracking and reading texts)
Of course they aren't killing fotbit fitbit. This week.
Yeah, and as if anyone would know. They'll send out the announcement internally on the Tuesday before the next fitbit releases, then announce it to the public on Wednesday.
Lots of Garmin love in here! Anything affordable that handles GPS well?
It's like when you stop hanging out with your girlfriend in hopes she breaks up with you. Technically you didn't break up with her.
Alright, where's my replacement once my current Fitbit dies? What company makes a watch that tracks steps, heart rate, sleep, spO2, notifications, is generally water resistant (light swimming) and has a battery that lasts ~5+ days? Bonus points for open firmware/hardware that doesn't require me to design my own apps/systems for each of those items. I don't even use most of what my Versa 3 can do, but I know it won't last forever and I'd at least like an idea of where to go if/when it breaks down.
Garmin is the gold standard in athletic watches. They have a ton of models, from generic entry level to high end, sport specific.
Check out Withings. Not open, but they are pretty good on respecting privacy and check the boxes you want. withings doesn't do the full screen app stuff, but it's a good watch with all the smart features.
Garmin Instinct 2 does all of those things well, and has excellent battery life. I charge mine about every two weeks.
I'd feel kinda happy about that if it happened after what they did to pebble, if it wherent for the fact that the assholes who fucked that up still got their money, and now even more people would have wrist-mounted bricks.
It’s a damn shame they won’t drop Chrome like they do most things. I can dream, I suppose.
They haveb't stopped producing them... Yet. They're just planning to.
They destroyed Fitbit. It was just to kill competitors. I've had so many issues with Google hardware it's insane.