The purchase of Fitbit was one of Google’s most significant moves in recent years. But also one of the most controversial because of the possible consequences it could have for the wearables manufacturer. At this point, the future of Fitbit seems clearer every day.
After the complete redesign of the Fitbit application to adopt the Google platform, and the integration of Fitbit technologies into the Google Pixel Watch 2, Fitbit’s role within Google seems to have become less important; especially after the departure of its founders and the integration of the Fitbit division into Google’s devices division.
Google’s latest decision reinforces this idea. Without warning, Google decided remove application support third parties on Fitbit watches already sold; In other words, even if your Sense, Versa, or Ionic smartwatch is compatible with apps and watch faces, you’ll have to say goodbye to them by mid-year.
Google loads apps for Fitbit watches
The decision was not publicly announced by Google. We only know it because 9to5Google discovered a new entry on Google’s support page that mentions this change.
The page confirms that Google will eliminate third-party apps and watch faces in June 2024; and that users will only be able to download and install applications until this date. As a result, any unofficial content from Fitbit or Google will be removed and users will lose a fair number of options on their devices.
For the moment, activity bracelets do not seem to have been affected, only Fitbit connected watches. Concretely, the list of products concerned is as follows:
- Fitbit Sense 2 and Fitbit Sense
- Fitbit Versa 4, Fitbit Versa 3, Fitbit Versa 2, Fitbit Versa Lite and Fitbit Versa
- Fitbit Ionic (which was recalled)
Will apps continue to work after June if we have already downloaded them to our watch? Google has not answered this question, although there are indications that apps might stop working.
To reach this conclusion, we rely on a sentence in the document which indicates that after these changes, Users will only have access to “selected Fitbit and Google apps”; Therefore, it is unclear whether already downloaded or purchased apps will be removed from devices and whether users will be able to continue using them after this date.
Google also hasn’t explained the specific reason for this decision; the company He only alluded to “new regulatory requirements” in the supporting document. But if we take into account that this measure only concerns users in the European Union, it is easy to see that it refers to the DMA, the new law on digital markets which establishes new obligations in matters privacy and antitrust for big tech companies.
However, this doesn’t explain why Google decided to remove the apps, instead of making the necessary changes to comply with the new law. Google has already adapted its services to DMA, including significant changes to web and Android search; so you shouldn’t have any technical issues doing the same on Fitbit, if you want.
