Since the acquisition closed in 2021, Fitbit’s Googlefication has largely resulted in a reduction in features and a focus by Google on getting people onto the Fitbit app. Longtime users have taken to Fitbit en masse — sometimes at Fitbit’s request — to share hundreds of complaints about recent changes. Google, however, has been largely unresponsive to customer feedback.
Web app shutdown angers users
In June, Google announced that it would be discontinuing Fitbit.com's online dashboard. After July 8, users looking for similar features that the web app offered will have to download the Fitbit mobile app. On the Fitbit Community forum, a company representative confirmed that users' “activity, nutrition, sleep, and weight data and tracking” would remain available through the app. However, the change was inconvenient for users who prefer or need to access such data on a screen larger than that of a phone. Worse, the app lacks some of the online dashboard's features, such as food tracking.
Despite these obvious drawbacks for users, the need to Google Fitbit seemed to be what drove the change. A Fitbit representative had this to say when announcing the news on the Community forum:
Combined with Google’s decades of experience as the best at understanding data, our mission is to be one combined Fitbit and Google team. Consolidating the Fitbit.com dashboard into the Fitbit app is part of that mission and will allow us to focus on features that provide even more valuable insights to our users.
Google has been investing in the Fitbit app, including plans to let premium subscribers test experimental generative AI Fitbit features soon. Google is also developing a large language model for new features for the Fitbit app that users will be forced to use. Google has been pushing users to the Fitbit app for a while; in 2022, Fitbit devices lost the ability to sync with computers.
It’s worth noting that users who are unhappy with Fitbit are more likely to complain online. However, it’s worth noting that Fitbit’s announcement has been met with 1,523 (at the time of writing) mostly negative comments, with new comments still coming in. Another thread on Fitbit’s forums calling for the web dashboard to remain currently has 601 upvotes. You can also find outraged users on Reddit.
The most common complaints are about the loss of previously available functions.
“Change is fine. Removing important features is not,” wrote community member Seymourh86 in June. “Unless you want people to go to competitors…”
Comments this week show that users aren't over the change. DebL555, for example, said today that they are “extremely disappointed and frustrated that I can't open my Dashboard on my PC.” Yesterday, NessWeb called the change “an incredibly bad decision,” adding:
It's especially bad for people who are visually impaired or have a problem with the dexterity of their fingers. It's still bad for everyone else, because you just can't see as much on a 3″ screen as you can on a real computer…
Bring back the web interface!!
As always when Fitbit has had issues post-acquisition, theories have circulated that Google is making Fitbit worse to push people toward the Pixel Watch. Others on the Community forum were angry because they felt Google was ignoring feedback from loyal Fitbit customers.
In June, a user calling herself jessicabilasano wrote:
I just hope Fitbit doesn't end up as another Google acquisition that turns into a nightmare product/company. Google, instead of removing things that users love about Fitbit features, why not improve them? Listen to your customers/consumers.
However, it has become a well-known phenomenon with the Fitbit brand lately that there is hardly any response to negative customer feedback.
