The culmination of Google’s $2.1 billion acquisition of Fitbit is here, with the Pixel Watch officially coming later this year with a fully integrated Fitbit experience. What does this mean for Google Fit? We’ve been curious to know for a while, but it looks like Fitbit and Google Fit only have plans to coexist.
in an interview with people cnetIn this article, Fitbit founder James Park answers some burning questions about Fitbit’s first attempt at providing its own health software for hardware that its name lacks. In case you missed it earlier today, the Google Pixel Watch will ship with Fitbit as its health suite, along with sleep tracking, heart rate tracking, Active Minutes, and more.
But a big question surrounding it is what happens to Google Fit with the Fitbit in the picture. After all, the two apps have essentially the same goal, and Google Fit has run the show on Wear OS for years as the platform’s go-to health suite. Clearly, Google has no immediate plans to suspend Fit, Park says.
I think for now, the Google Fit and Fitbit apps will continue as they are – I don’t think we want to disrupt the experience for any set of users. Both user groups, which are fairly substantial, like the app they are using for a variety of reasons. For now, we see no reason to change it.
It’s been quite clear for a while that Google hasn’t fully figured out what to do with Fit and Fitbit, resulting in products like the Nest Hub 2nd Gen and its Soli-powered sleep tracking for a while. For sitting in limbo. But it seems, for the time being, this is the situation we’ll be in, for better or for worse.
Park’s interview brings up some other interesting things about the Pixel Watch experience with Fitbit. He added that Fitbit wants to “bring the maximum of Fitbit’s benefits into the Pixel”, and that “it will work both ways” with Google services plugging into the Fitbit experience. As far as sensors go, Park couldn’t exactly share what the Pixel Watch has to offer, but “the goal is to bring the most advanced sensors in the entire portfolio.” Previously, we noted that it appears that the Pixel Watch shares its health sensor with the Fitbit Charge 5.
You can read the full interview for more of the park’s thoughts on the Pixel Watch and how it ties in to Fitbit, and our coverage for more on the Pixel Watch.
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