• Google Health 5.02 is now rolling out to users
• It comes with several new features and bug fixes
• The reaction online is becoming more positive

The big switch for Fitbit app users to the Google Health app could've gone a lot smoother than it has, but with the latest update that's rolling out to devices now, Google seems to be gradually addressing a lot of the complaints that have been aired.

As spotted by Android Police, Google Health 5.02 is heading to phones now. There's also a forum post outlining some of the changes: the ability to put more metrics on the Today view and an easier way to rearrange them, fixes for editing and deleting sleep sessions, and a return for the Hourly Activity chart.

There are also numerous "bug fixes and stability improvements", as well as improvements to nutrition logging. A lot of these changes focus specifically on parts of the app that users had complained about, so it seems Google is listening to feedback.

We also have the promise of more updates "in the coming weeks", so Google Health should continue to get better over time. There was also a significant update earlier this month that dealt with several problems that had been reported in the app.

User reactions

Google Health app 5.02 update - June 2026 from r/fitbit

There's been plenty of reaction online to the revamping of the Fitbit app as Google Health. Many of the old features were changed, moved, or cut out entirely — while the change understandably frustrated those who had been using the app for years.

Based on the feedback we're now seeing, Google is slowly winning people over again, though there's still a lot of work to do. "It seems they're genuinely working hard to improve it," says one Redditor, while others are praising the Google team for "solid work" and generally being more positive.

That doesn't mean everyone is convinced yet though. One post says there's "no fixes to the real issues" (like better syncing and importing), while others point out that the algorithms used by the app are still unreliable.

The new AI coach is still getting criticized as well, for being too intrusive and verbose: "Nobody wants two paragraphs after a walk through the park," says one user on Reddit. "A one-liner and the ability to expand is needed here."

I've been reviewing the Google Fitbit Air this week, testing all its features in a bid to figure out where it sits among our lists of the best fitness trackers — and those features include the new Google Health app and its premium Google Health Coach service.

Fitbit users have been furious at the changes, and Google has rolled out a number of quality-of-life fixes, but there's no deviating from the nature of the app. Like it or not, Fitbit Premium has transformed into an AI-first service — and Samsung is apparently next.

When I began testing it, I was fully prepared to go all-in with my inherent dislike of chatting and interacting with AI via text. Outside of testing, I wasn't a regular Fitbit user, so I didn't have the rug-pull removal of community features, such as badges and challenges, factoring into my process. I was judging the app purely on its own merits.

But by the end of the testing period... I actually quite liked it. Below, I've outlined exactly why. There are things I disliked about the premium portion of Google's controversial new app — so for transparency's sake, I've outlined those too.

Google Health Coach: The pros

1. Flexibility

The base Google Health app has features spread across four tabs, and looking for features and metrics meant trawling through the entirety of the app, which I didn't love. It wasn't intuitive to use. Unlike apps like Whoop and Oura, there wasn't a 'tag' system to record extenuating factors like jet lag or illness.

This is where I actually enjoyed using the AI coach, by using it to compensate for this lackluster design. After a gym session, during which I noted my sets, reps and amount of weights lifted, I copied and pasted my notes into the Google Health Coach's 'Ask Coach' field and told it to log that session. Not only did it do so with the correct moves and amounts, but it also recommended a workout for me to do later in the week to hit alternating muscle groups.

I asked it to design three gym sessions for me based on a 5x5 set-rep structure, focusing on pushing, pulling and legs as my key muscle groups, and it did just that. I told the Coach I was feeling ill, and it incorporated this into future feedback on exercise and rest. You can use this one feature as a 'macro feature' to operate the rest of the app, and it's incredibly flexible.

2. Memory and context

While the coach is overzealous with the summaries it provides, hiding vital information in reams of text, it did at least provide useful content and context. When I logged a short 2.5K run, for example, the Coach said "this is a solid way to test your lungs after that cold", remembering that I had been ill and placing a shorter run in that context.

Anything you tell the Coach is logged and remembered, from your gym goals to asking it to dial down its sycophantic tone, and this is a useful tool for a fitness app when it comes to surfacing important context. If you failed to complete the prescribed bench press reps on set 3 of 5, for example, the Coach might point to your recent illness or low readiness score as the reason why.

3. Food Logging

By simply snapping a photo of your food and uploading it to the AI, the Google Health Coach can log food and drink. The Google Health Coach provided exact measurements of packaged food that I photographed, including sugar, salt and fat content, with just a photo and the instruction 'log this'.

It also provided reasonable estimations of home-cooked meals, provided I added some context like "Log this lentil-potato curry", along with helpful information such as the average fiber content of lentils and macronutrient estimations for the meal. It's not going to be pinpoint-accurate when working off a photo, but if you're interested in losing or gaining weight, it's a useful baseline to go off. The more detail you can give it, such as weights or portion sizes, the better.

Google Health Coach: The cons

1. The sycophantic tone

An ever-present issue with chatbots is the sycophantic "Great job getting after it!" style of overly cheery yet somehow very corporate enthusiasm that rings hollow coming from a glorified predictive text machine, and it's no different here. The ersatz friendliness and desire to please you is everything I loathe about interacting with chatbots.

Fortunately, a simple request to the chatbot can remind it to be less encouraging and more neutral in tone, although this can take multiple tries before it gets the message.

2. The fact that it's Google

If I were being cynical, Google's decision to force former Fitbit Premium and current Google Health Premium subscribers to interact with an AI chatbot mirrors the decisions of its business as a whole. AI Mode is a constant in Google Chrome, while Google Search's AI summaries cannot be bypassed or turned off.

Google is a data and ad company that is now AI-first as a rule, with interactions going towards improving its AI services. Google has pledged not to use Fitbit data as part of its Google Ads service — but it's only done so because it was forced to by a European Union directive when it bought Fitbit in 2020, and those commitments are legally binding for 10 years. I think in a few short years, it's conceivable that our health data will be feeding Google's algorithms and helping to 'personalize' our new agentic internet. In short, to feed us ads.

That doesn't change the fact that the Google Health Coach is a good service in its current form, and the best health-focused AI assistant I've ever used. But do go into any such usage agreements with your eyes open, especially as Google is keen for you to upload medical records into the app.

• Google has rolled out its first Google Health upgrades following user backlash
• It includes improvements to food logging and activity accuracy
• Despite the 14 new upgrades, it still hasn't scratched the surface for users

Ever since Google Health became the new app for Fitbit users, it’s been met with a tidal wave of criticism for its clunkiness and lack of vital features — but Google has rolled out a huge update after promising to make improvements a few weeks ago.

Yesterday (June 4) Google unveiled version 5.01 of the Google Health app, marking what the company says will be “the first of many improvements to come”. The update will continue to roll out over the next week in phases, and will depend on your carrier and device type, Google says.

The new upgrades are designed to fix a number of pain points which users flagged when they first made the switch from the Fitbit app. In total, there are 14 new improvements split across four different categories, starting with nutrition.

Building the negative feedback to its food logging functions, Google has upgraded this tool allowing you to view and log previously-created custom foods, as well as improved handling when transferring food logs from third party apps like MyFitnessPal. Additionally, Google has added more explanations and guidance for setting your personal macronutrient goals, which also comes with a more accurate nutrition and calories charts.

Exercise tracking has been another persisting issue for Google Health users, particularly with tracking and labelling runs. Google says it’s now fixed this issue and new and previous workouts will now be labelled correctly. It’s also fixed an issue where users reported missing splits in their runs, and Google says these have been restored — as has the Sleep Score tab, which a handful of users reported had disappeared.

Google hasn’t just patched up its fitness tracking tools, but is also rolling out general app improvements, including one for your Today Tab on Android where users reported seeing out-of-date metrics. You can view the full list of Google Health’s new updates on Google’s support page.

Is this enough of a crowd-pleaser?

Given the level of ferocity expressed by users who’ve been forced to abandon the Fitbit app for Google’s new fitness platform, it’s a good thing that Google is acknowledging these issues — especially for those who have just purchased the new Google Fitbit Air . However, it turns out that the 14 new upgrades only scratch the surface.

Since Google announced version 5.01 users have stormed Reddit once more to air their thoughts — one user called the app “an utter downgrade from Fitbit”. At the same time, others have flagged more functions that are still missing from Google Health.

One user in particular expressed their dislike for Google Health’s thumbs up/ down icons which they say appear on every item in the homescreen. This is understandable, it’s not supposed to be like Strava where fitness meets social media. In addition to this, another user flagged that when they’re recording an activity in Google Health, they’re unable to use any other part of the app, which seems bewilderingly restrictive.

As Google said, version 5.01 is just the first stage in its plans to give the Google Health app an overhaul, but how long it’ll be before the next stage arrives we don’t know. That said, if Google doesn’t want Fitbit users to make the switch over to rivals like Garmin, it needs to make these changes sooner rather than later.

Google Fitbit Air: One minute review

For a simple device, there’s a lot going on with the Google Fitbit Air. People feel very strongly about it, for better or for worse, and there’s been a lot of chatter and interest surrounding its release. My experience actually wearing the device has generally been very positive, with tracking accuracy comparable to that offered by my Apple Watch Ultra 3, which is pretty much the gold standard for wrist-based health tracking. Metrics relying on the tracker’s onboard heart-rate monitoring are reliable, matching the Apple Watch closely during work, rest, and exercise during my week with the Fitbit Air.

Set-and-forget trackers are clearly having a moment. Oura has released the Oura Ring 5 just one year after the Ring 4, and Whoop’s success has given rise to a number of copycats from brands looking to recreate the experience of a distraction-free screenless ‘focus band’ for a less premium price.

Google is one such copycat, but the screenless, slender form factor suits the Fitbit brand — the original Fitbit was a digital pedometer — down to the ground. It speaks to the core of what Fitbit used to be, before it became just another company churning out mediocre smartwatches running a limited proprietary operating system. Your Fitbit was always meant to be a discreet little device, and devices don’t come more discreet than the Google Fitbit Air. Weighing just 12g and using a very slender 17mm-wide band, the Fitbit Air is a lovely and (crucially) comfortable device to wear and use. It’s much more comfortable to wear during sleep than any full smartwatch I’ve ever tried (and I have tried a lot), or even the Whoop.

However, it’s hard to separate the Fitbit Air from the Google Health app, with Google’s redesign of the Fitbit app causing particular ire amongst Fitbit users. The app is a bit of a mess, and not intuitive to use, with features dotted all over the place. It feels like it’s designed to primarily function as a home for the AI Health Coach chatbot, which is very intelligent and perhaps the best in-app AI assistant I’ve tried, but it’s not the best way to operate a health app. Whoop’s balance of AI and on-page metrics is much better.

If you’re looking for a consistent screenless focus band to track different sorts of workouts like gym, sports, and yoga, alongside sleep, heart health and general wellness, you can use the Google Fitbit Air as is, paying just the up-front price, and keep your tracking simple.

Whether or not you can get onboard with the Premium option will depend on how much you like chatbots — I found its flexibility immensely helpful, but its constant chirpy summaries and insistence on hiding my data inside walls of text became annoying, so it’s a mixed bag for me. Overall, though, this is the best, most interesting Fitbit to have been released in years.

Google Fitbit Air: Price and availability

• $99.99 in the US
• £84.99 in the UK
• AU$199 in Australia

The Google Fitbit Air costs $99.99 / £84.99 / AU$199, and for that you get the tracker, a band of your choice, and a charger specific to the Google Fitbit Air — proving once again that Google seems to be allergic to making a charger that’s compatible with more than one device.

The Google Health Premium subscription, which gives you access to Google’s AI Health Coach, costs $9.99 / £7.99 / AU$14.99 a month, or $99.99 / £79.99 / AU$140 annually. Existing Google AI Pro members get it at no extra cost.

For comparison, the cheapest Apple Watch SE 3 starts at $249 / £219 / AU$399, while Whoop’s complex pricing structure begins at £169 / $199 / AU$299 per year for the lowest tier. The Google Fitbit Air’s pricing is cheap for what you get, with the Health Coach as an optional add-on rather than a mandatory subscription.

• Value score: 4.5/5

Google Fitbit Air review: Design

• Simple, screenless and elegant
• Light and comfortable
• App design is chaotic

The Google Fitbit Air’s design can be split into two components: the physical device, which is excellent, and the new Google Health app, which is a bit of a misfire.

Let’s start with the positives. The Fitbit Air comprises the tracker itself, and a wraparound band in a choice of three styles — a silicone Active band, the woven Performance Loop, or the polyurethane (pleather) Elevated Modern band. Each comes with their own color options, and a plastic clasp. On the underside of the tracker are the optical heart rate sensor, skin temperature sensor, and an accelerometer and gyroscope for counting steps.

It weighs just 12g, even with the Performance Loop strap, so it’s light and easy to wear, which is crucial for sleep tracking. I wore it on my right wrist, with a watch on my left during the day, and I didn’t feel like an obnoxious techie: unless someone looks closely, it just looks like a wristband, with the lack of a screen helping here. The Performance Loop strap that came with my review unit is the best-looking of the three options in this respect, but none of them look bad.

The tracker also has a haptic vibrate function — if you set an alarm in the app, this can be disabled with a tap on the top of the device. And that’s pretty much all the interaction you have with the sensor and band as a whole; everything else, as with one of the best smart rings or other screenless tracking options, is done via the app.

The app is where Google’s design falls down. Split into four tabs — Today, Fitness, Sleep and Health — the Google Health app features a dashboard with key metrics at the top, and insights or libraries of content below it.

But with information scattered across a quartet of tabs, it’s hard to find certain granular metrics or content you’re looking for compared to the old Fitbit app. I searched for Mindfulness content for 10 minutes before finding the five-minute meditation I was after, for example, and I often ended up starting new chats with the AI coach rather than resuming a chat from my history. It’s just not intuitive to use.

What is right in your face, for Premium users, is the AI coach, which cloaks your metrics in paragraphs of cheery text, so it takes longer to get to your information. It’s clever, and we’ll get onto its functionality in a moment, but I wish it summarized and contextualized less, and just offered more 'glanceability'.

• Design score: 3.5/5

Google Fitbit Air review: Features

• Set-and-forget tracker with a haptic alarm
• Good metrics
• AI Health Coach is a flexible macro-feature

The Fitbit Air records the usual metrics you’d expect with a modern fitness tracker, including step count, heart rate, floors climbed, sleep stages, and so forth. Fitbit’s Daily Readiness score shows you how prepared your body is for exercise, based on recent activity and sleep scores, while it also surfaces weekly cardio goals, hydration, and basic food logging. It can offer irregular heart rate rhythm notifications, which is great for potentially diagnosing atrial fibrilation, and allows you to take an ECG scan manually to monitor your heart health.

Basic tracking is all the free version gets you; there’s no workout builder, mindfulness content, way to log sickness, or any other extras beyond the numbers. It doesn’t add any special metrics for runners, such as stride or cadence, as many of the best running watches do. For some users who just want the numbers, this will be fine, with no need to subscribe to the Premium tier.

For Premium users, food logging can be done via the AI Health Coach, by taking a picture of your food. It’s very good at logging packaged food (it was bang on logging a crinkled package of chips with the message ‘log this’ as a 74kcal snack, also breaking down macros and salt content) but can struggle with plates of homemade food, although a basic description such as ‘log this lentil curry’ is enough for it to provide an estimation. The more information you can provide (weights and measures, etc), the more detailed it gets.

Those without the Health Coach can log food manually, as you can in other apps like MyFitnessPal.

The app also has access to Fitbit’s library of workout and meditation content, including individual moves, which you can use to build your own workout. Again, this is only available through the Premium subscription.

Through it all runs the AI Health Coach, which I actually found to be useful. Although there was no field to input illness as such, I typed my cold symptoms out to the Health Coach, and it remembered I was ill and adjusted its messaging and advice throughout the rest of the week based on my symptoms. I went to the gym without following one of the app’s pre-prescribed workouts, typed my sets and reps into the Coach’s ‘Ask Coach’ field, and it not only logged the workout, but suggested complementary routines to work different muscle groups for the rest of the week.

The AI Coach is a flexible ‘macro-feature’ that works well in conjunction with the rest of the app, and almost allows you to bypass the chaotic layout: you can just ask the Coach to serve you up what you need, which I’m sure was Google’s intent. Your use of the Coach will depend on your tolerance for chatbots: those who use Gemini or ChatGPT for everything will get a lot out of it, while those who loathe AI and just want numbers will likely loathe the Premium tier.

• Features score: 4/5

Google Fitbit Air review: Performance

• Performed well compared to the Apple Watch Ultra 3 in most scenarios
• Poor run estimations
• Battery life as described

As I noted when I compared the Google Fitbit Air against the Apple Watch Ultra 3, the tracker performed well during my 10K test run, at least for the metrics like heart rate and calorie count, which it can use its onboard sensors for. The metrics it uses my phone's GPS to estimate, like distance, were off significantly.

I’ve embedded the results below, but generally there was no statistically significant difference between heart rate or calorie estimations from the two devices. I'll be updating the review with confirmation of heart rate scores tested against a new Polar H10 chest strap, as my old testing unit has malfunctioned.

Previous

1 / 4

Next

Average heart rate

Google Fitbit Air

158

Apple Watch Ultra 3

161

050100150200

Average heart rate Data

Product	Value
Google Fitbit Air	158
Apple Watch Ultra 3	161

Average Pace

Google Fitbit Air

5.37

Apple Watch Ultra 3

5.47

01.534.56

Average Pace Data

Product	Value
Google Fitbit Air	5.37
Apple Watch Ultra 3	5.47

Calories burned

Google Fitbit Air

773

Apple Watch Ultra 3

750

0200400600800

Calories burned Data

Product	Value
Google Fitbit Air	773
Apple Watch Ultra 3	750

Distance

Google Fitbit Air

10.43

Apple Watch Ultra 3

10.03

03.757.511.2515

Kilometers

Distance Data

Product	Value
Google Fitbit Air	10.43
Apple Watch Ultra 3	10.03

My experience of tracking my sleep with the same two devices — I wore one on each wrist — was similar to the above, with close enough metrics but slightly different outcomes.

The Fitbit Air’s total sleep time estimation was within five minutes of the Apple Watch, and sleep stages were similar. However, while my sleep score was 90 with the Apple Watch, Fitbit registered it as only 81, citing a 10-point difference in sleep quality. However, the Google Fitbit Air’s sleep tracking has consistently registered my wake-up times during testing, successfully recording my early-hours bathroom trips and my cat jumping on my legs at 5am.

Because of the lack of a screen, GPS, and specialist metrics, regular runners won’t get a whole lot out of the Fitbit Air. Compared to my usual wealth of data from Apple or the best Garmin watches, I found it lacking, and my GPS map — imported from my phone, as the Air has no GPS of its own —- inaccurate, off by 400m compared to the Apple Watch.

Battery life is excellent, exceeding the seven days the device promised. Charging is fast, with just five minutes delivering a full day of battery life, and a full charge taking around an hour. The device is very comfortable to wear, as previously mentioned — I’ve barely needed to take it off all week.

• Performance score: 4.5 / 5

Google Fitbit Air: Scorecard

Google Fitbit Air: Should I buy?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

How I tested

I wore the Google Fitbit Air for eight days straight. I ran a 10K while wearing an Apple Watch Ultra 3 and (malfunctioning) Polar H10 chest strap, and a shorter run with a Huawei Watch Fit 5 Pro, as comparison testing alongside my usual workout routines. I also wore the Apple and Fitbit side-by-side during sleep. I tested its alarm, tried the features of its premium Health Coach, and used the app's workout and mindfulness content.

First reviewed: June 2026

The Google Fitbit Air is here, and early adopters are getting to grips with the new screenless fitness tracker and its AI-powered premium Google Health Coach.

I've shared my early thoughts after a few hours of testing and we've covered existing Fitbit users' disappointment and anger over some of the app changes — but how does it compare against an Apple Watch, perhaps the best-known and certainly the most commonly-spotted fitness wearable on wrists everywhere?

To find out, I went on a 10-kilometer evening run (braving the UK heatwave) with the Google Fitbit Air on one hand, and the Apple Watch Ultra 3 on the other. I was also wearing the Polar H10 heart rate monitor, intending to use it as a litmus test for accuracy, but the chest strap malfunctioned so I don't have any meaningful results to publish here.

I'm primarily looking at metrics such as heart rate and calories burned. Both wearables use optical heart rate sensors — LED lights that monitor blood flow on your wrist to estimate your heart rate. The estimation of calories burned combines your heart rate data with movement data and other metrics to calculate your energy expenditure.

As well as calories burned and average heart rate, I've included the results for average pace here too. I'm expecting the Apple Watch, with its built-in GPS, to be more accurate than the Fitbit Air, which is piggybacking off the GPS from my iPhone as it doesn't have any GPS capabilities itself.

It's also worth noting I have not linked Google Health and Apple Health at the time of writing, so these results are separate.

The results

Below are the results from my 10km run. Tap the 'next' tab on the graph to cycle through all three metrics.

Previous

1 / 4

Next

Average heart rate

Google Fitbit Air

158

Apple Watch Ultra 3

161

050100150200

Average heart rate Data

Product	Value
Google Fitbit Air	158
Apple Watch Ultra 3	161

Average Pace

Google Fitbit Air

5.37

Apple Watch Ultra 3

5.47

01.534.56

Average Pace Data

Product	Value
Google Fitbit Air	5.37
Apple Watch Ultra 3	5.47

Calories burned

Google Fitbit Air

773

Apple Watch Ultra 3

750

0200400600800

Calories burned Data

Product	Value
Google Fitbit Air	773
Apple Watch Ultra 3	750

Distance

Google Fitbit Air

10.43

Apple Watch Ultra 3

10.03

03.757.511.2515

Kilometers

Distance Data

Product	Value
Google Fitbit Air	10.43
Apple Watch Ultra 3	10.03

As you can see in the graphs above, both heart rate and calorie readings are quite close. The average heart rate for my workout was just a 3bpm difference between the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and the Google Fitbit Air. It would have been nice to have information from my chest strap to compare this as well, but I'll try this again before my full review with a different electrical heart rate monitor.

However, on previous tests the Apple Watch Ultra 3 matched the electrical heart rate monitor exactly, indicating that the Google Fitbit Air is pretty dang accurate too.

Likewise, the calorie counts on both wearables were relatively similar, with the Google Fitbit Air exceeding the Apple Watch Ultra 3's calculation by less than 25 calories. No two wearables are going to be exactly alike here, but this is close enough that I'd feel comfortable using the Google Fitbit Air day-to-day.

Average pace is a different matter. As previously mentioned, the Google Fitbit Air has no onboard GPS of its own, and although it showed a lovely map of my route obtained via my iPhone's GPS, it also overestimated my pace and thought I was a whole 10 seconds faster per kilometer than the Apple Watch did.

I know how my paces feel — it was a hot day and I had steep declines and inclines at either end of my run, so I ran slower than my usual brisk clip. I'm far more inclined to agree with Apple's assessment than the Fitbit's pace estimation here. Apple also gave me far more detail about my run, such as stride length and vertical oscillation (how bouncy I was during the run), whereas the Google Fitbit Air collects no such information. What Fitbit does surface, however, is steps taken during the workout (9,342 to be precise), which the Apple Watch Ultra 3 doesn't.

Fitbit also massively overestimated my run at 10.43km rather than 10.03km, even though it shows exactly the same map as my Apple Watch, with an identical finishing point, as you can see below in the comparison pic. Unlike 3bpm or 23kcal, over 400 meters and 10 seconds of pace are big differences.

Apple Fitness

Google Health

Analysis

In terms of the metrics relying on the onboard heart rate monitor, the $99.99 / £84.99 / AU$199 Google Fitbit Air is very accurate compared to the $799 / £749 / AU$1,399 Apple Watch Ultra 3.

I wouldn't have expected the Google Fitbit Air to be as reliable for run tracking as one of the best running watches, considering it doesn't even have GPS — as long as it's consistent for casual users, that'll be fine for most people. Anyone (like me) who cares enough to want maps, technique information like stride length, and pinpoint-accurate pace will likely gravitate towards a dedicated running watch anyway. Still, I was hoping for a smaller difference here.

The Apple Watch Ultra 3 has proven itself to be a very accurate wrist-based optical heart rate solution, so far superseded only by dedicated heart rate monitors. Based on this, I'm happy the Google Fitbit Air cleaves closely to this standard — although it's a shame I can't rely on GPS data harvested from my phone for more than a rough estimation.

I’ve only had access to the Google Fitbit Air and the new Google Health app for a few hours, at the time of writing, and already there are some interesting things to say about one of this year's biggest contenders for the best fitness tracker crown.

While the stats and numbers you get in the free tier are a little basic, they’re roughly in line with what you’d expect from a $99.99 / £84.99 / AU$199 tracker. But it’s the premium AI health coach that’s impressed me with its ability to incorporate contextual information and change your weekly plan just by chatting to it.

The tracker is light and comfortable, it’s got some cool features even at the free tier, and Whoop (the other big player in the screenless fitness tracker space) should be worried.

While Whoop offers more detailed metrics, it’s also prohibitively expensive and doesn’t allow you to buy the fitness tracker or use it for free after purchase in any form: it entirely relies on an expensive subscription service starting at £169 / $199 / AU$299 annually, and going up from there. Cancel that subscription, and it’s just an inert hunk of plastic. You can read all about it in my Google Fitbit Air vs Whoop breakdown.

My early impression of the Google Fitbit Air and its Google Health Premium AI coaching service is that it’s designed to help beginner-to-frequently-training athletes, with simple metrics, round numbers, and a friendly interface that does a lot of its calculations behind the scenes.

Those who are already heavily invested in Whoop’s ecosystem won’t get the granularity of data they are used to, and thus might not be tempted by the lower price of the Fitbit. However, for the rest of us, I think this is going to do very well.

Design and comfort

The Google Fitbit Air weighs just 12g. It’s light, slender, and the performance loop band I’m wearing is very comfortable, although it does have a tendency to get a little… dank during a very sweaty workout, such as my first test run completed during a heatwave here in the UK.

It offers no interaction on the device at all, just a charging LED. As I said in previous pieces, it’s almost like an older pedometer-style Fitbit that clipped to your clothes, just in a modern form factor and made by Google.

I have to say, it’s very unobtrusive, being around two-thirds the width of the Whoop MG. It’s very easy to wear this in conjunction with another device or a non-smart analog watch on the other wrist. Funnily enough, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing.

Early comparison testing

I immediately incorporated the Google Fitbit Air into my smartwatch testing routine. I went on two runs with the Huawei Watch Fit 5 Pro on one hand (the device I’m currently closing out on testing, which on previous runs matched very closely with the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro), a Polar H10 chest strap, and the Google Fitbit Air on the other.

Unfortunately, the usually pinpoint-accurate chest strap malfunctioned, but the average heart rate between the two wrist-based wearables was just 1bpm apart. I know the Huawei Watch Fit 5 Pro is quite accurate based on previous testing, so it’s a positive early sign, but before my full review I’ll be using a (working) chest strap to test the Google Fitbit Air.

What I was most impressed with was the Google Health Coach, the app’s flagship AI feature that encompasses everything else. After a brief chat about my goals, it set up an early plan for me, comprised of three gym sessions and two runs a week, to build muscle while maintaining baseline cardiovascular fitness.

After I completed my test runs, Google noted the extreme weather here in the UK, and mentioned it in the workout’s summary as something to take into account when viewing my metrics, as my heart rate was likely to be higher than normal. Very clever: exactly the sort of contextual information fitness trackers have been missing since their inception, pulled in automatically using location and weather data as well as fitness data.

Impressed, I tapped the ever-present blue ‘Ask Coach’ button and typed “I might swap one of my gym sessions for a long run this week. Can you update my plan?”

Hey presto: not only did it update my plan, but it also surfaced the Long Endurance Run activity profile for me to use on my next running day. I must admit, my early experiment with this AI Health Coach is a resounding success.

But at what cost?

All of this, unfortunately, comes at the expense of existing Fitbit badges and features. The app has been renamed, rebranded and redesigned overnight, with all badges and community features lost in favor of the AI-first approach.

Existing Fitbit users are not happy: on the Fitbit subreddit, one complaint thread garnered over 1,500 upvotes and over 600 comments, with users mentioning they are "beyond frustrated" at the changes and calling the app "slop", or a victim of "enshittification".

A particular target of criticism is the food logging feature, which I’ve not yet tried, but Google says "fixes are coming".

• Google Health is now replacing the Fitbit app for most users
• Many Fitbit fans are unhappy about the switch due to missing features
• Google has promised that regular updates and fixes are coming

We're now at the stage where the Google Health app has replaced the Fitbit app for most users on Android and iOS, and Google has just posted an update promising regular improvements and bug fixes, as well as committing to listening to feedback — and there's an awful lot of feedback to get through.

We got a hint of the user revolt that was coming when the Google Health update started rolling out, but now that everyone has the new app, the number of negative reactions has increased exponentially. Users are complaining about missing features, poor user interface choices, and AI they don't really want.

"It's just an atrocious app," is one of the reactions on Reddit that sums up the general mood. Other commenters describe the Google Health update as "unbelievably bad", "clunky", and repeatedly showing "incorrect data".

While a few bumps along the road are to be expected in a major switch like this, it seems users really, really don't like what they're seeing. Previously loyal Fitbit fans — many of whom have owned Fitbits since before Google acquired the company — now say they're switching to Garmin and other competitors.

Fixes and upgrades on the way

wtf is this bs app? I want a refund from r/fitbit

A lot of complaints center around the new look of the Google Health app, which is busier and more cluttered than the old Fitbit one. There's a lot of room given over to the Google Health AI Coach too, though advanced AI features are only available for those with Google Health Premium (previously Fitbit Premium) subscriptions.

According to the survey we ran earlier this month, only 20% of you will be handing over money for the extra AI Coach features, and that's a sentiment reflected in the feedback we're seeing online: most users would still rather analyze their stats themselves.

The food logging capabilities of the new Google Health app have come in for a lot of criticism too, and this is actually something Google says it will address. The ability to "add custom food viewing, creation, and logging" is included on a lengthy list of upgrades due to roll out starting this week.

Other bug fixes and improvements cover issues with exercise tracking (including runs that are inaccurately labeled), calorie tracking, and missing Sleep Scores, as well as making the AI Coach "more concise" in its answers. Google clearly has a lot of work to do with its new app, and that's reflected in the reaction from users.

Last week, Google launched the Google Fitbit Air, its much-rumored screenless fitness tracker designed to be its entry into the set-and-forget 'focus wearable' market. I should say re-entry really, as the original Fitbit and Fitbit Flex bands were exactly this type of device: minimalist pucks or bands, with very limited scope for interaction, and no screens to speak of.

Right now the category of simple, screenless wearables is dominated by the likes of the best smart rings and by fitness trackers such as Whoop, which is undoubtedly the most popular of the wrist-based screenless fitness bands out there. Whoop has been in the screenless tracker game for years, and is a popular choice for serious athletes, biohackers and wellness enthusiasts alike.

But Whoop's offering isn't cheap, as you don't buy the device outright; instead you get it as part of an annual subscription to the Whoop app, with the subscription tiers increasing in price as more features are included.

While I haven't yet had any hands-on time with the Google Fitbit Air (I'm expecting a review unit very soon), we can compare the listed specs, features and subscription prices to identify which fitness tracker is right for you.

Google Fitbit Air vs Whoop: Specifications

Above is a table comparing some of the specifications of the Google Fitbit Air to the Whoop 5.0 and premium Whoop MG bands. Perhaps a good place to start here is the weight, as Google states that the Fitbit Air weighs just 12 grams with a band or five grams on its own, hence the name. The Whoop devices weigh more than double that. The Fitbit is also far better for diving, as according to Google it's water resistant up to 50 meters.

The Google Fitbit Air can last for a week, while the Whoops offer only a few days of battery life each. However, they do come with a battery pack that can slot onto the device while you wear it to charge the device, which means you can get 14 days of constant data with no need to take the device off to charge it at all. In theory, the only time you'd ever need to take your Whoop off is to change the band, should you want to.

As more expensive devices, the Whoops incorporate stainless steel into their clasps, whereas the Fitbit is all plastic.

Google Fitbit Air vs Whoop: Price & value

Where Google wins off the bat is that the Fitbit Air is relatively cheap — you can pre-order it now for $99.99 / £84.99 / AU$199. Even if you choose not to subscribe to Google Health Premium —Google's fitness service, which gives you access to its comprehensive AI Health Coach feature — after the free trial included with your Fitbit Air is over, you can still log your data using the band on the Google Health app's free tier and use it as a basic, screenless fitness tracker.

If you do choose to subscribe, you're essentially paying for the tracker again on an annual basis in order to get all the AI features and unlock advice to help you use those metrics. There's no doubt this is intended to be a core feature rather than an optional extra, but you do have the option not to subscribe. You could also pay monthly, but you end up paying around $20 US dollars more per year than an annual subscription (international pricing is TBC).

Whoop, on the other hand, requires a subscription to work at all, starting at a fairly reasonable £169 / $199 / AU$299 per year for the base Whoop One subscription, which comes with the Whoop 5.0 device but locks metrics like Stress and Whoop Age behind a paywall.

You get those (along with a nicer Whoop MG band and a wireless charger puck) with a Whoop Peak membership, which costs £229 / $239 / AU$419 per year. Then at the highest level you get the Whoop Life subscription plan, at £349 / $359 / AU$629 per year, which comes with the Whoop MG band and heart health features.

There's no doubt about it: over time, the Whoop will be pricier than the Google Fitbit Air by a significant margin. While the Google Fitbit Air is the cheaper option of the two, the breadth of the AI Coach's features might make it a better value prospect too, unless you want specific features like Whoop's Stress score, workout builder or the MG's electrocardiogram (ECG) functionality.

Google Fitbit Air vs Whoop: Features

The Fitbit Air, Whoop 5.0 and Whoop MG all pack PPG LED heart rate sensors, and all the best smartwatch features such as heart rate, step counting, calorie burn estimation, skin temperature and blood oxygen monitoring. I haven't tested the accuracy of Fitbit's sensor yet.

The key difference between the two Whoops, however, is that the Whoop MG has an advanced 'Heart Screener' sensor functionality which can be used for ECG scans, which can aid in detecting atrial fibrillation or irregular heart rate. According to Whoop, it "meets and exceeds clinical-accuracy standards".

The Fitbit Air doesn't have this functionality, but the Fitbit Charge 6 does — so if you're looking to keep an eye on your heart health, you'll need to opt for the Charge series or a more expensive Whoop MG.

The Google Fitbit Air's feature set includes a lot of the same stuff from the Fitbit app, including historic graphs of your movement and sleep data along with a Daily Readiness score, but many of the actionable insights are locked behind the Google Health Coach, the AI coaching service that comes with a Google Health Premium subscription. The Coach shows you demonstrations for different exercises, advises you on how to get better sleep, can generate meal and exercise plans, and can incorporate medical records.

Whoop also has an extensive laundry list of features to rival this. In terms of the amount of features on offer, it exceeds Google's, with all manner of scores for metrics like strain, recovery, sleep (along with actionable insights on how to reduce sleep need), Whoop Age (your body's biological age, only accessible if you subscribe to the mid-tier Peak subscription or the Life subscription), Cardiovascular Age, and lots more.

Whoop's AI coach offers useful, actionable insights too, and its workout builder is based on a comprehensive library of fitness moves that also includes demonstrations. While Google allows you to upload your medical records to the app, serious biohackers can send away for blood tests in the US via the Whoop app, to get results for biomarkers such as hormone levels and vitamin deficiencies that Whoop's AI can incorporate. New features are rolling out that will also allow you to contact licensed clinicians through the app.

However, despite Whoop having a longer list of features, I'm looking forward to spending time with Google's health-focused LLM Coach to identify the breadth of its capabilities. I'm willing to bet that the flexibility of the Coach service, together with the ability to feed it your data, will make it an excellent value proposition.

Early verdict

The Google Fitbit Air is a fairly cheap tracker that looks like a great-value proposition for those who don't want to shell out for a pricey Whoop subscription, especially as over time, it looks like the expense of a Whoop will only increase when compared to the Fitbit's cheaper subscription and one-time purchase. As a consumer, you also have the choice of whether to subscribe to the AI coach or just use the device as a tracker.

The Whoop devices do have some innovations that Fitbit doesn't have, such as that innovative charger, the metallic physical elements and a more comprehensive feature set, but during testing I'll be specifically testing the breadth of the Fitbit's AI coach, trying to see if it can replicate some of the Whoop bands' best features.

This week, Apple announced it's set to pay out millions to iPhone users over its Siri AI promises, and Google unveiled a different kind of Fitbit.

To catch up on all that and more, scroll down to read our recap of the week's seven biggest tech news stories.

Before you catch up with this week’s tech news, why not test yourself on last week’s eight biggest stories to see how well you were paying attention? Take the quiz below.

7. Google’s $3 ChromeOS USB sold out

Last month, Google and Back Market announced a USB stick that could convert many old laptops into a basic Chromebook in a matter of minutes.

This week, the drive sold out, though a fresh batch of ChromeOS converters should be available soon.

The reason you might want to switch is ChromeOS is much less demanding than Windows and macOS. Sure, it has some limitations when it comes to app selection, but if it means you can use your aged laptop instead of needing to buy a new one, that’s a major win.

So if you’re looking to revamp your old machine, take a look at ChromeOS Flex.

• Read the full story: Google's $3 USB stick for revamping old laptops with ChromeOS Flex has sold out

6. Third time's the charm for Star Fox?

Japanese gaming giant Nintendo shocked us all with the sudden reveal of a new Star Fox for Switch 2... kind of. Simply titled Star Fox, the upcoming game is actually a remake of Star Fox 64, which originally released for Nintendo 64 back in 1997.

That game was already remade for both Nintendo 3DS (as Star Fox 64 3D) and Wii U (with Star Fox Zero), and many fans were expecting a wholly new entry to come next.

Still, it looks impressive with cutting-edge graphics, new character designs, and an exclusive competitive online battle mode. That's on top of support for a wealth of Switch 2 features like GameShare and GameChat, not to mention Joy-Con 2 mouse controls.

• Read the full story: Star Fox 64 is getting yet another remake

5. Google I/O-themed Android Show announced

Ahead of Google I/O — the company’s annual developer conference — we’ll be getting The Android Show: I/O Edition, which should give us a good look at what’s in store for Android 17.

Last year, for reference, the Android Show included a look at Google’s Material 3 Expressive interface redesign, along with Gemini Live, Gemini across new devices like watches and TVs, and new safety and security tools.

This year, we’re expecting The Android Show to showcase features such as a new Liquid Glass-like look, App Lock, and a motion assist feature to help cut down your motion sickness.

• Read the full story: 5 Android 17 features that could be announced at Google's pre-I/O Android reveal

4. Vine came back?!

Vine spearheaded short-form video content in the 2010s, and it’s coming back as a new platform called Divine, which is being funded by the co-founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey — the same guy who killed it in 2017.

As well as hosting a nostalgic catalog of over 500,000 of some of its most famous six-second videos, Divine won’t rely on a singular algorithm and will allow you to select how content reaches you through four options: Home feed, Discovery, Trending, and Hashtag feed.

But nostalgia is just one of the platform’s aims, and it’s also taking a stance against AI-generated content by implementing a series of measures, including a user reporting system, machine-learning detection, and human-in-the-loop (HITL) techniques to ensure that you only view content created by humans.

Divine is invite-only for now, but the platform has plans for a wider expansion in the coming months.

• Read the full story: Vine is coming back, and it’s being relaunched by the guy who killed it

3. We reviewed the LG C6 OLED TV

We released our LG C6 review, and the TV earned the full five stars. Not only does it carry across everything we loved about its predecessor, the LG C5, but it delivers some great upgrades. The C6 comes with a new, faster processor, the Alpha 11 AI Gen 3, which is also used in the flagship LG G6 OLED. The C6 also delivers better color accuracy and has received a nice brightness boost compared to the C5.

Its overall picture quality is excellent, it's a phenomenal gaming TV, and its webOS smart TV is one of the best around. The C6 has easily set the benchmark for OLED TVs in 2026. Our review was for the 65-inch model, which uses the standard WOLED panel. We’re hoping to review one of the Primary RGB Tandem OLED models (the 48, 77, and 83-inch models) later this year.

• Read the full story: I tested the LG C6 over two weeks

2. Google Fitbit Air flew in

We've got a new Fitbit! The much-teased Google Fitbit Air has broken cover, and it's a cheap screenless Fitbit to challenge the likes of Whoop in the "focus wearable" space. It's pretty simple, as trackers go — a straightforward data collection PPG sensor with a gyroscope, temperature sensor, and so on, with a choice of bands and all the information available in-app.

But it's the app that makes this interesting: Fitbit is rebranding as Google Health, and the Fitbit Premium subscription has morphed into a comprehensive AI fitness coach. This is a mandatory change, even for existing Premium users, with the update rolling out over the next few weeks.

• Read the full story: The Google Fitbit Air finally breaks cover

1. Apple paid for its AI troubles

Apple’s delayed Siri features have caused plenty of headaches for iPhone owners, and now Apple is set to pay for its AI issues, literally. That’s because this week we heard details of a class action lawsuit it had settled in December, in which it has agreed to pay customers a portion of $250 million — and you could be owed up to $95 per device.

The case claimed that Apple had promoted “AI capabilities that did not exist at the time, do not exist now, and will not exist for two or more years.” It also alleged that Apple’s Siri advertisements “saturated the internet, television, and other airwaves to cultivate a clear and reasonable consumer expectation that these transformative features would be available upon the iPhone's release.”

To make a claim, you’ll need to be able to prove you bought a qualifying device once Apple starts inviting claims (which should happen within 45 days of May 5).

• Read the full story: Delayed Siri features have cost Apple a massive $250 million

• Fitbit's app has completely changed — it's now Google Health
• Many features have vanished, subsumed into its new all-encompassing AI health coach
• I want to hear what you think — vote in the poll below, comment, or email me at matt.evans@futurenet.com, and I'll publish your responses

As well as the launch of the new, screenless Google Fitbit Air — likely set to be one of the best fitness trackers of 2026 — Google has also completely revamped the Fitbit app, changing it into a new entity called Google Health.

Google Health is a one-stop shop repository for all your health data, capable of importing data from the likes of Apple Health and medical records, as well as Google-branded wearables like Fitbits and Pixel Watches.

The Premium version is now a complete AI health coach, capable of using all the information collected via the free version of the app and supplying you with workout plan suggestions, recipe tips, photo-based nutrition tracking, and lots more. While the coach looks impressive at first glance, this enormous, all-encompassing agentic health advisor means that some features Fitbit fans loved are being removed.

Chief among them are the Sleep Animals. 'Old Fitbit' used information about your sleep to assign you an animal profile, such as a sleepy lion or nocturnal hedgehog, and these were reassessed on a monthly basis. Badges, too, another element of fitness gamification common in all the best fitness apps, are also going away.

Instead, Google says, "if you have Google Health Coach, your coach will help to celebrate your progress and accomplishment". The removal of this feature for free users is indicative of Google pushing users towards its premium AI subscription service.

Fans are understandably a little unhappy about this. On one thread on the Fitbit subreddit, users bemoan the loss of favorite features, with one stating, "Why does technology keep getting less fun?"

However, longtime Fitbit users are used to this sort of loss. Ever since the brand was acquired by Google in 2021, community features were slowly stripped away while data collection was improved, with resources likely funnelled into the Google Pixel Watch series while existing Fitbit users felt left behind.

Comment from r/fitbit

However, I want to hear what you think, especially if you're a longtime Fitbit user. Do you love the idea new agentic AI coach with its comprehensive approach to health and wellness, or do you wish Google would just leave your tracker alone?

The changes roll out to all users starting May 19. Vote in the poll below, comment on this article, or you can even email me at matt.evans@futurenet.com, and I'll publish your responses in a follow-up article next week.

Vote in our Google Health poll

We all knew this was coming eventually. In the five years since Google completed its acquisition of Fitbit, there have been enough changes — such as every Fitbit app user needing mandatory Google accounts, Fitbit community features getting axed, and smartwatches reduced in priority in favor of Google’s own Pixel Watch — to signpost that Fitbit users would eventually become Google users.

Now, the Fitbit app is about to become Google Health, in a mandatory update that’s part of a sweeping AI-powered app redesign, coinciding with the launch of the new Google Fitbit Air (yes, that’s the full name, and you can expect any future Fitbits to have the ‘Google’ prefix in there too).

What does this mean for existing, longtime Fitbit users? Do you have to update? What if you already own a Fitbit? What about Fitbit Premium? And are there any changes to the way Google is handling your data? We’re here to answer all your questions with this handy guide.

1. The update is happening for all Fitbit users — whether you like it or not

If you’re a Fitbit user on either the free or premium tiers, you’re getting updated to Google Health. Google Health is billed as a new version of the service, that’s also replacing Google’s native, now-redundant Google Fit and Google Health Connect apps.

It works with Apple Health, Peloton, continuous glucose monitors like Lingo, and hundreds of other apps and devices, so you don’t have to be on an Android phone to use it despite being a Google app. It’s billed as “a cleaner view of your health and wellness”, organising your data across four tabs — Today, Fitness, Sleep and Health.

Once your app updates, you’ll see a new logo, a new layout, but you’ll still be able to access all your old data and use all the best Fitbits (among other devices) to collect health information.

2. It’s now a home for medical records too

Google Health will also allow you to host your medical records on the app, allowing you to export and share data, creating reports accessible via sharable ‘smart health’ QR codes to share with doctors and medical providers.

In a press briefing, Google reaffirmed the commitment it made on acquiring Fitbit, to keep health data separate from Google Ads. That commitment, made with the EU commission in 2020, is legally binding for at least 10 years.

3. Fitbit Premium is now Google Health Coach

While Fitbit had a free and premium tier and Google Health continues that tradition, like so many of the best fitness apps nowadays, Google Health’s premium option is now based around an AI fitness coach. The Google Health Coach has been ‘grounded in scientific and well-established coaching and fitness frameworks’ according to Google, with a Consumer Health Advisory Panel of experts providing feedback and guidance for the coach’s development, to limit any potential harm caused by AI training advice.

The Coach, built with Gemini, can access your data and answer questions about health and wellness, creating training plans which change weekly depending on your performance, offering recipes and nutrition advice, answers questions about injuries, and sleep analysis. It’s described as ‘world-class expertise that’s always available whenever you need it. It constantly adapts based on your personal health and wellness metrics and is uniquely tailored to your goals and real-life circumstances’.

With so many AI-powered training advice services out there, Google is working hard to try and lead this category. It even accesses your medical records or menstrual cycle information should you give it permission to do so. That legally-binding commitment from Google not to use our health information for advertising does make me feel better about allowing Google Health Coach access to this information.

4. The Google Health Coach offers Nutrition Logging

Google Health Coach has a feature similar to Garmin Connect+’s Nutrition Tracking feature: Nutrition Logging, which allows you to set up an adjustable calorie target and upload photos of your meals, which the Coach will use to estimate a calorie or macro count.

You’ll also be able to upload the information manually, but intelligently analysing a quick photo for a calorie or macronutrient count is a useful tool for those serious about losing, maintaining or gaining weight.

5. The price isn’t changing much

Access to Google Health’s premium tier, including Google Health Coach, costs $9.99 / month (other regions TBC, but it’s about £7.50 / AU$14) or $99 / year (around £75 / AU$140). Google Health retains a free tier which allows you to access your uploaded data without the AI-powered insights. The new Google Fitbit Air now comes with just three months of Premium, rather than the six months you get with current-gen Fitbits.

That’s around the same price as Fitbit Premium, which also costs $99 / £7.99 / AU$14.99 a month. Premium subscribers still get access to a library of recipes and workout content from the Fitbit Expert Trainers: however, it seems clear the original Fitbit group challenges and other community features will not be returning anytime soon.

• Google has revealed the new Google Fitbit Air, and as expected, it's a screenless fitness tracker similar to a Whoop band
• Designed as a 'set and forget' wearable just like the original FitBit, it weighs just 12g with the fabric band
• The wearable arrives at the same time as a big Fitbit redesign, with the app rebranded as 'Google Health'

After weeks of rumors and teases by Google (via NBA all-star Stephen Curry's Instagram account) Google has revealed the Google Fitbit Air, the next evolution of the best Fitbits, and it's exactly what we were expecting: a budget screenless 'set and forget' fitness tracker to undercut the likes of Whoop.

Priced at $99.99 / AU$199 (around £75), the tracker is incredibly lightweight at just 12g — without the band, it weighs only 5g.

It boasts a seven-day battery life, fast charging, and all the usual smartwatch sensor arrays for heart rate, step counting, calorie burn estimation, skin temperature and blood oxygen monitoring.

The device doesn't have GPS, differentiating it from the Fitbit Charge 6. It includes a subscription with three free months of Google Health Premium (formerly known as Fitbit Premium, but more on that in a minute), usually costing $9.99 / £7.99 / AU$15.49 per month.

So far, so expected. The Google Fitbit Air saves seven days of detailed motion data, minute by minute, and one day of workout data, syncing to the new Google Health app.

What is the Google Health app?

The Fitbit app and Fitbit Premium subscription service are being rebranded as the Google Health app in a mandatory rollout, which includes a sweeping redesign. It's not going to be a popular move for long-time Fitbit users, but we've known this was coming ever since Google made it mandatory to have a Google account to continue using Fitbit devices.

As part of this, Google Health's premium subscription is now based around the Google Health Coach, an AI health assistant based on Google Gemini. The Coach accesses all the data you allow it, from sleep and heart rate from a fitness tracker, to nutrition logging by uploading photos of your meals. It can even take into account your medical records.

Using this corpus of information, the Google Health Coach becomes a personal assistant of sorts, recommending you workout plans, sleep optimization tips, recipes, injury advice and more based on your goals and health.

The Google Fitbit Air was apparently 'designed for Google Health Coach', but unlike Whoop, you can use the fitness tracker with a free version of the app if you don't want to subscribe. You just don't get all the AI-powered advice, instead simply getting readouts, scores and graphs based on your data as you do with most fitness trackers.

Google Fitbit Air: specifications

The bands come in several styles: a woven Performance Loop Band designed for 'a flexible fit' built from recycled materials; a silicon Active Band; and the more stylish Elevated Modern Band. The Google Fitbit Air Special Edition comes with a Stephen Curry branded band designed for "peak performance and elevated style".

Analysis: undercutting Whoop and returning to classic Fitbit

When news first broke about the upcoming Fitbit Air, I wrote that Fitbit's new screenless Whoop-style tracker is a better fit for the brand than a smartwatch, because it's a return to the 'almost invisible' pedometer of 2008.

I stand by that assessment. Fitbit's always been best as an unobtrusive, reliable fitness tracker and pedometer, and despite the new app's AI smarts and Google's heavy hints that you need the Health Coach subscription to get the most from this band, this is exactly where the Google Fitbit Air sits.

Other screenless options, such as Whoop 5.0, the Polar Loop and even smart rings like the Oura Ring 4 are more expensive, making the Google Fitbit Air a cheap option for 'focus wearable' fanciers.

Vote in our Google Health poll and tell us what you think:

• More details of the Fitbit Air have leaked
• It could launch on May 16 for $99
• Images of the wearable have already appeared

The rumors are that Google is about to launch a Whoop-rivalling, screen-free tracker called the Fitbit Air, and we have some fresh leaks around the device that point to a possible price point and three different color options.

This information comes from Droid Life, and suggests that the tracker price will come in at $99 in the US. That's roughly £73 / AU$138, though Google is unlikely to use a straight currency conversion — something like £99 would be more likely in the UK, where I am.

As for colors, there will apparently be three main options: Obsidian, Lavender, and Berry. They neatly match the colors we've seen on previous Google devices, including the recently launched Google Pixel 10a, adding more credibility to the leaks.

Those main colors are said to be accompanied by a Snow (or white) charging cable, plus a variety of band options — Performance, Active, Elevated, and Metal Mesh. More colors will reportedly be available with the bands, beyond the three mentioned above, including Fog, Moonstone (see also the Google Pixel 10 Pro), Porcelain, Silver, and Warm Gold.

The price is right?

Now the Whoop bands that Google is taking aim at here don't cost anything, but are attached to compulsory subscriptions that start at $149 for the first year, rising to $199 after that — so it's a substantial investment.

It remains to be seen if the Fitbit Air will require a subscription, but Fitbit Premium currently costs $9.99 a month or $79.99 a year. All of the current Fitbit and Google wearables can be used with or without the subscription and extra features.

As well as the leaks about the hardware, there have also been whisperings that Fitbit Premium will be rebranded as Google Health, which may come with new features of its own. Droid Life says May 16 will be the launch date, so we don't have long to wait.

Having been holding on tightly to my Fitbit Charge 6 for three years now, the Fitbit Air is perfectly suited for me — not only am I due an upgrade, I've never really seen the point of a display on a fitness tracker anyway.

I need something light and unobtrusive that I can wear around the clock (unlike my bulkier smartwatch), and this may well fit the bill.

• More leaks about the new Fitbit tracker have hit the web from 'sources familiar with the matter' via 9to5Google
• The screenless band is reportedly being referred to as the Fitbit Air
• Fitbit Premium is also reportedly being rebranded as "Google Health"

More news abounds about the upcoming screenless Fitbit fitness tracker, as teased by Steph Curry on Instagram. This time, we've got a bit more unconfirmed information on the name of the tracker, alongside a revamp of Google's Fitbit Premium subscription service.

According to 9to5Google, which cites unnamed 'sources familiar with the matter', the new Fitbit is named the Fitbit Air. Fitbit has used this moniker before with the Fitbit Aria Air (which featured on our list of best smart scales for a while) but never on a fitness tracker.

The name does make some sense: like a MacBook Air or the Ultrahuman Ring Air, it's likely to be billed as a super-light version of the base device, in this case one of the best Fitbits. It'll be all the lighter for not needed a screen or similar element of interactivity, instead cleaving closer to the pedometer Fitbits of yore.

However, just like Whoop (the current screenless fitness tracker leader), the device will interact with a paid subscription service, in this case Fitbit Premium. Except, it might not be called Fitbit Premium anymore — 9to5Google's sources state the subscription may be rebranding itself as Google Health.

Google continues its Fitbit erasure mission

After Google bought Fitbit in 2019, using the popular brand's Fitbit ecosystem to replace its middling Google Fit app, it began quietly axing models and features from its line that it saw as redundant. These include community challenges and, er, almost all smartwatch models, folding the best stuff into its own Google Pixel Watch line.

Fitbit Premium is an outstanding fitness service — our reviewer gave Fitbit Premium 4.5 stars in our review — and changing the name to Google Health wouldn't necessarily change any of the service's content or functionality, just the branding. But it would go a step towards eliminating the name of Fitbit from Google's ecosystem, strengthening its own brand.

I assume if the rumors are true and the move is successful, Google Health will be incorporated into other Google devices and services, allowing the company to remain consistent, while Fitbits will be reduced to the name of that particular line of trackers. Having 'Fitbit, powered by Google' on a Google Pixel Watch could be complicated messaging for smartwatch buyers who don't know Fitbit and Google are one and the same. If the rumors are true, Google Pixel phones and watches just arrive with Google Health and everyone will know what's up.

Whether any more features will be axed to the ire of existing Fitbit subscribers, only time will tell.

• An unreleased Fitbit wearable has been spotted in the wild
• It’s been repeatedly worn in public by basketball player Steph Curry
• The device was previously teased by Curry and Google

Not everyone that’s interested in fitness trackers wants a wearable with a screen. After all, these products might be some of the best smartwatches out there, but with a high-end display thrown into the mix, they can be too bulky, too expensive, and too short on battery life for many people.

Pushing against this, there are many screenless wearables that quantify your wellbeing without the cumbersome screen. Fitbit has been teasing one such device in collaboration with basketball player Steph Curry, and now a whole treasure trove of images has leaked depicting the as-yet-unreleased product.

The pictures were unearthed by Droid Life, with the outlet saying they came across the images on Steph Curry’s social media pages. These photos depict a screenless wearable wrapped around Curry’s wrist, with what looks to be a gray woven strap with an orange border and metallic clasp.

These match earlier leaked images supposedly portraying Fitbit’s wearable, which was officially teased by Google at the start of April. That lends credence to the idea that the product spotted by Droid Life is the same as the one promoted by Google and Steph Curry a few weeks ago.

Aside from the wearable itself, Droid Life also found a Steph Curry video that shows what looks like a modified version of the Fitbit app running on a Google Pixel phone. The Fitbit app in the video is tracking a Sport activity with live data, which Droid Life doesn’t believe the current app is able to do. The implication is that this is a feature that could come to the Fitbit app in order to complement its new wearable.

Seems legit

Interestingly, Curry has been sporting this wearable publicly since at least January 2026, Droid Life claims. He has been seen with it at basketball games, at press conferences and at promotional events, which seems unusual for an unreleased product that, you would think, would be kept under lock and key until it was ready for release.

One possibility is that the parties involved want the device to be spotted in order to build up excitement ahead of its launch date. In that way, it might be an attempt to seed the product into people’s minds before the arrival of any official press campaign.

The claim that the images were discovered on official pages managed by or featuring Steph Curry gives them some weight — after all, Curry is lending his name to the project alongside Google-owned Fitbit. It’s not like Droid Life has spotted an unknown device on the wrist of some other celebrity and has guessed that they’re looking at an in-development Fitbit product.

With the device seemingly making public appearances now, it might not be long until we get official details from Fitbit, such as the product’s name and asking price. If it’s something you're interested in, you might want to keep your eyes peeled.

It's pretty much an open secret at this point that Google is making a new Fitbit fitness tracker. In a teaser video posted on Instagram, the tech giant's brand ambassador and 'performance advisor', basketball legend Steph Curry, promised that something big (or in this case, small) was coming, while wearing a conspicuous screenless wristband.

The upcoming fitness tracker could be a bit of a cash-in on the screenless wearables trend. The Whoop 5.0, the Polar Loop, and the Amazfit Helio Strap all came out last year, and it looks like a Garmin CIRQA smart band is on the horizon too.

However, I think the move makes sense for Google — it's a return to Fitbit's pre-Google acquisition philosophy and formats, and the new tracker has the potential to shoot to the top of our best Fitbits guide.

Back to where it all began

2008 was a simpler time, in which we were all excited about technology and smart gadgets without worrying about being manipulated by tech companies, or that AI was about to take our jobs.

At the 2008 TechCrunch50 conference, a small startup company debuted the FitBit, a wireless smart pedometer that clipped to your clothes, tracked your steps, monitored your sleep patterns with its gyroscopes, and uploaded your data to a server whenever you passed near the Bluetooth-connected dock. You could log in to view your stats, and add information like nutrition tracking.

Back then, TechCrunch's John Biggs said: "the device clips to almost any piece of clothing and is almost invisible", and called it "a tiny fitness gadget that I actually want". It had a very small LED screen, but no other way to interact with the device other than to log onto a computer and tinker with your data. It was a 'set and forget' wellness tracker in the purest sense.

A few years later, the Fitbit Flex popped the tracker on your wrist and the rest is history. The Fitbit Flex was similarly hands-off, with five LED lights indicating your step count as the only interactive elements of the band.

With all that cardio, no wonder Fitbit's eating itself

That minimalist design ethos didn't last. After the success of the Apple Watch, Fitbit joined every other consumer tech manufacturer in going big on interactive watch-format wearables, and in recent years Fitbit only saw moderate success with its watch-style trackers (we gave the Fitbit Versa 4 only 3/5 stars), especially after Google bought Fitbit and used the brand's best features for its excellent Pixel Watches, which ran Google's more advanced Wear OS operating system rather than Fitbit's clunkier software.

Later, Google quietly axed most Fitbit smartwatches after slowly discontinuing many community features. The Fitbit smartwatches were just superfluous to Google's plans.

However, I think the upcoming screenless tracker could represent a return to form for the brand. Similar to the Fitbit Flex, it's a smart band with very little in the way of on-wrist interaction, just passive data collection. While the phone app is obviously much more advanced than Fitbit's early desktop databases, the principle is the same: focus on your workout or sleep, forget the tracker is there, and access your information when and how you want, rather than being subject to push notifications or flashing screens.

If Google gets this right, it could mean Fitbit returns to relevance again as the best fitness tracker, and a top-tier name in a crowded market. I'm waiting for more news with great anticipation.

• Google appears to be building a screenless Fitbit-style tracker
• The reveal came as Google's 'performance advisor' Steph Curry posted on Instagram
• The tease video featured Curry wearing a screenless wristband

Google is jumping on the same trend as Polar and Amazfit in making what we're referring to as a 'Whoop clone': a screenless fitness tracker.

A screenless Fitbit (perhaps a version of one of Google's best Fitbits without the AMOLED screen) has been raised before, but we finally have proof beyond sketchy leaks. The band appears in an official Google tease video featuring all the usual Google iconography, posted by Google's very own 'performance advisor' — basketball legend Steph Curry, in a paid partnership capacity. So it's legit.

Curry can be seen wearing the band, with his voiceover stating, "I'm excited about what this is going to mean for the world, for health and wellness. It's the first of its kind in a way. I won't spoil it, you kinda have to see it for yourself."

The video doesn't address the band directly, but you can see him wearing an orange wristband with a metal clasp, very prominently, in the footage. No release date or other information is given other than 'coming soon'.

If Google's already releasing official videos about the device, 'soon' presumably means 'later this month' rather than a date later in the summer, the timeframe when Google typically shows off new Pixel devices.

Watch the video below:

Analysis: The latest Whoop clone

Google's new Fitbit (if it is indeed a Fitbit, rather than a Pixel Band or something) is entering the screenless wearable category in good company. Once dominated by the premium subscription-oriented Whoop, screenless tracking has grown to include the Polar Loop and Amazfit Helio Strap.

Even Garmin is throwing its hat in the ring with the long-rumored Garmin Cirqa band. Never mind the screenless options in the best smart rings from the likes of Oura and Samsung.

It's safe to say these 'focus' wearables are having a real moment. Whoop just raised a titanic amount in investor funding, as the company is now worth $10 billion according to TechCrunch.

• Pixel Watch users are reporting errors in the Fitbit app following latest update
• These include inaccuracies with steps and calorie count, as well as mileage
• Neither Google nor Fitbit has addressed the problems

Update: Fitbit replied to us and has confirmed that the issues have since been fixed, providing the following statement:

"We’ve fixed the issue where some Pixel Watch users were seeing overcounted steps and calories. Please be aware that previously recorded data will remain unchanged, as this update applies to new activity only. If you’re still experiencing this issue, please restart your Pixel Watch".

Original story continues.

Has the Fitbit app on your Pixel Watch been playing up for you recently? Don’t fret, you’re not alone, because it turns out that other users have been experiencing similar errors.

Users online have been flagging issues with step count, calorie tracking, and other fitness metrics, claiming that the readings don’t match their real-time activity. These issues have become more common since Google rolled out the latest Pixel Watch update a few weeks ago.

At first, a handful of health tracking issues were reported, such as the skin temperature tool, but the issue has persisted, and now more users are flagging wider data tracking problems with Fitbit’s most popular features — the main one being step count. In a Reddit post, Pixel Watch owners claim that their step counts are more than doubling the actual amount of daily steps they’re taking, with one user saying they took 14,000 steps just by sitting at a desk.

The author of the post revealed that the advice they received from Google support was to conduct a factory reset for their watch, and while other users have claimed that this can work, the issues resume as soon as they sync their watch back to their phone. Another user shared that when they raised it with the Google support team, it disregarded the issues altogether.

Step count issues are just the start, however, and it’s also led to mileage and calorie inaccuracies — one user flagged that, though their step count seemed normal, their calorie count doubled despite not having exercised. These errors are more than just a simple app bug; they interfere with your tracking goals and affect the performance of metrics that are designed to alert to changes in your regime.

When it comes to features like SpO2 readings and skin temperature, these metrics help you to identify trends and shifts in your health, so they depend on consistency. Inaccurate and inconsistent step count readings mean that they won't reflect the reality of how much you're moving, therefore will present false skin temperature and blood oxygen levels as a result.

As it stands, neither Google nor Fitbit has commented on these problems, addressed how they have arisen, or how they're working towards resolving them. So just like you, we're also waiting in uncertainty until both companies find a solution, but we’ve reached out for a comment and will update this story when we know more.

• Fitbit rolls out some "significant updates" to its app for Premium subscribers
• This will include a 15% boost to "sleep staging accuracy"
• Google is also letting you link your health records to the Fitbit app in the US

If you subscribe to Fitbit Premium, you're about to get some new features inside the Fitbit app, as part of the Personal Health Coach feature that launched last year — and one of the upgrades is a better detection algorithm for judging when you're actually asleep.

As per Google's announcement, the incoming updates will apply "an additional 15% increase in sleep staging accuracy" to your stats. The algorithm should be better than ever at recognizing when you're sleeping and when you're just relaxing with a good book.

Google says it's pumped more training data into the sleep tracking AI, so your naps and sleep stages should now be more accurately tracked. That in turn will mean more useful insights and advice as to how to improve your sleep schedule and overall health.

The updates will track "not only how much sound sleep you got, but how long it took you to get there" Google says. These upgrades should start appearing over the next few days for those using the Personal Health Coach (which remains in "Public Preview" status).

A fuller health picture

There are some other improvements to talk about too. Google says it's adding the ability to link your health records to the Fitbit app, for users in the US — again, this only applies to Premium subscribers with access to the Public Preview of the Personal Health Coach.

Connecting health data will mean you get a "fuller picture of your health" according to Google, and it's keen to emphasize the tight security and privacy controls around the feature. None of this health data will be public or used for ad targeting.

One example Google gives for how this can be useful is if you're trying to lower your cholesterol: the health coach will be able to see exactly where you're at with this, rather than giving you generic guidance that could apply to anyone.

Other imminent upgrades include support for continuous glucose monitor devices in the Fitbit app. If you're a Premium subscriber and haven't already signed up for the Public Preview of the health coach, you can check your eligibility here.

• Fitbit has just expanded its AI health coach to iOS users
• The feature was previously only available on Android
• It uses Google Gemini to analyze your metrics and give health tips

Fitbit has been testing an AI health coach on Android for some time now, and it harnesses Google Gemini to analyze your health metrics and give you tips on improving your wellbeing. Its Android-only availability has been a sticking point for some, but Fitbit has just announced that iOS fans can now join up as well, with the feature rolling out to interested users over the next few days.

An official post on the Fitbit community forums explained that the health coach now supports iOS users of Fitbit’s Premium subscription. To sign up, customers will need to join the Fitbit Public Preview and meet other eligibility criteria as specified by Google.

Once joined, users will gain access to Fitbit’s AI-powered health coach, which offers a conversational chatbot that you can ask to investigate your health stats, draw up plans for a fitness regime, point to suggestions and areas to improve, and more.

It can track your heart rate, temperature, blood oxygen levels and your sleep over time, as well as being able to deliver health insights in the morning, after a workout and before bed.

That makes it quite a competent wellness assistant if you need something that’s available all day, every day, without an additional cost. But as with many AI tools, it might not always get things right and is not a full-fledged replacement for a doctor or personal trainer.

Pulling ahead of Apple

Fitbit’s move comes amid rumors that Apple is rethinking its own health coach plans. Although past rumors had indicated that Apple was developing a so-called Health+ service with a built-in AI health coach, a recent report from Bloomberg suggested that Apple had decided to instead integrate the tool into its existing Health app.

The expansion of Fitbit’s own AI coach to many more users, then, stands as a very different approach. It suggests that Google has confidence in Fitbit’s AI coach and the progress it has made on Android so far, as well as indicating that Google believes the decision to launch the coach as a standalone feature is the right one.

It’s worth remembering that Fitbit’s health coach is currently in the Public Preview stage – both on Android and iOS – and that means it’s a work in progress where bugs and unfinished features are possible. Still, it could be seen as a rough indicator of the type of product Apple might be working on for its own devices in one form or another.

We won’t know what Apple is planning for sure until the company reveals its own health coach at some point in the future. But with Fitbit’s offering expanding to more and more users, Apple is going to have its work cut out to catch up with its rivals in this area.

• Fitbit co-founders are launching new fitness tracker Luffu, which shifts from Fitbit's individual health monitoring to tracking for the whole family
• It uses AI 'in the background' to gather health information from connected devices and platforms, as well as giving updates on health changes and answers to your questions
• While it could be a life-saver for caretakers of children and aging adults, there are concerns over the possible added stress it could spark

Two years on from parting ways with Google, Fitbit co-founders James Park and Eric Friedman have stepped into a new era of fitness tracking with their new startup Luffu – which shifts the focus from individual to family health monitoring.

Deemed as an "intelligent family care system", Luffu aims to help families proactively monitor their health and fitness levels from one place, all while quietly using AI "in the background" to gather your family’s medical information from connected devices and services such as Apple Health and Fitbit. It can also be used to input information manually using voice prompts, text, and photos, and allows users to ask questions for family members’ specific needs.

In a press release, co-founder Park went into detail about what influenced him to start Luffu, sharing "I was caring for my parents from across the country, trying to piece together my mom's health care across various portals and providers, with a language barrier that made it hard to get complete, timely context from her about doctor visits.”

Luffu, which will expand from its software startup into hardware in the future, aims to not only help users manage the health of their children, but also their aging parents if they’re primary caretakers. Even pets are included. That said, it will offer more than just a place for you to view the health status of each connected family member.

Though that’s Luffu's main aim, the overall experience will come in different forms. As well as logging your health by accepting voice prompts, photos, and more, its AI model acts as a ‘guardian’ and will watch out for any health changes, alerting you once it’s become familiar with each member’s health patterns.

Additionally, its co-founders say it will serve as an easy Q&A model that allows you to use simple language to ask questions about individual health statuses – which can all be shared directly with family members.

At the moment Luffu is in a stage of private testing, but you can join the waitlist on the Luffu website. However, in light of Park and Friedman’s ambitious new venture, we have our reservations.

“I can also see Luffu adding to that stress”

If there’s anyone who could lead family-wide fitness tracking, it’s the co-founders of Fitbit and on paper, Luffu could ease a lot of pressure for those with caring responsibilities for children and elderly family members – but there are a few gaps in the system.

As a veteran with ample experience with the best fitness trackers, our Senior Fitness and Wellness Editor, Matt Evans, is in two minds about Luffu. Here’s what he thinks about the new fitness tracking service:

"After the Fitbit founders left Google a couple of years ago, their new venture is a surprising one; a health platform focused on family caregivers rather than individual fitness fans.

"I can certainly see this working for some, especially for those juggling young kids and ageing relatives. In the press release, Luffu uses the term 'family CEO', and the app aims to lighten some of that invisible cognitive load, reducing the stress and burnout that comes with it. Interacting with wearables features like Fall Detection, medication reminders and so on could certainly lead to more effective household management.

"However, I can also see Luffu adding to that stress in some cases, as constant streams of information about your loved ones might lead to obsessive checking and encouraging that kind of 'helicopter' parenting and family management, a bit like constantly refreshing social media feeds. Careful implementation of these tools are needed, otherwise the stress of 'cyberchondria' will only add to a caregiver's mental load.”

• Fitbit users have more time to switch to Google accounts
• The new deadline is May 19 (pushed back from February 2)
• Switching is quick and straightforward, via the Fitbit app

Not long after Google bought Fitbit in 2021, it became clear that Fitbit accounts would be swallowed by Google accounts – but if you're yet to make the switch, Google is giving you a little bit more time to get around to it.

As per the official support page (via The Verge), the lights will go off for Fitbit accounts on May 19, 2026: after that time your Fitbit account will no longer work with Fitbit devices. The deadline for downloading your data is a little later, on July 15, 2026.

Previously, Google had said Fitbit accounts would stop working on February 2, which is Monday. That itself was an extension, because the original plan was to get everyone migrated over to Google accounts sometime during 2025.

Google hasn't said why the deadline has been extended, but presumably there are either technical challenges with it, or there are still a substantial number of users who haven't done this yet – and Google doesn't want them to miss out.

How to switch

When you transfer your Fitbit account information over to a Google account of your choice, all your fitness data and stats will be carried over, and the app will stay the same. Basically, you're just changing the email address you use to log in.

If you're not happy with Google having your health and fitness stats, you can export the data from your Fitbit account, and then request that your account is closed. Any Fitbit accounts that haven't been migrated by July 15 will be deleted by Google.

You can find full instructions for transferring your Fitbit account over to a Google account on Google's support hub. Essentially, you can do it from the Settings page in the Fitbit app for Android or iOS, and just follow the prompts on screen.

The process seems to be fairly painless and there haven't been widespread reports of users having trouble with switching from Fitbit and Google. The move has certainly gone smoother than the Gemini for Home upgrade currently rolling out.

• Tech firm UnaliWear is suing Apple, Google, Garmin and Samsung
• At issue is the use of fall detection tech on some of the best smartwatches
• If UnaliWear wins, there could be huge ramifications for the industry

Fall detection is a key feature of many of the best smartwatches, including the Apple Watch and models from Garmin, Samsung and Google’s Fitbit. Yet its future on your device might be in jeopardy, as one company claims that all these devices have illegally copied its technology relating to trips and falls. If it prevails, the smartwatch industry could look very different.

At issue is the aforementioned fall detection tech, which wearables company UnaliWear says infringes on its patents. UnaliWear makes wearables for older adults, with these products featuring a fall detection system called RealFall that it says can distinguish between actual falls and everyday movement.

It’s that ability to differentiate real falls from false alerts that is at the core of the dispute. UnaliWear says that the wearables it has taken issue with – those from Apple, Google, Garmin and Samsung – have infringed upon its patents in order to solve a specific problem.

Right now, the case is being investigated by the US International Trade Commission, with responses expected from the affected companies by roughly the end of January. The case is expected to take over a year to complete, but it could have massive ramifications once it concludes.

For one thing, if UnaliWear is successful, it might request a limited exclusion order. This would block the import of affected smartwatches into the US, leaving the likes of Apple and Garmin unable to ship some of the most popular smartwatches to US customers. As well as that, UnaliWear has filed cases in several US district courts – if it prevails there, it could lead to massive financial penalties being handed out.

How likely is a ban?

Ultimately, it's unlikely that we'll see the likes of the Apple Watch or the Samsung Galaxy Watch banned from import into the US.

One more likely option is that the big-name players might have to license their fall detection technology from UnaliWear. Or they could create a workaround or alternative solution that does not infringe on UnaliWear’s patents, as Apple did when its blood oxygen sensor was ruled to have overstepped on patents held by medical tech firm Masimo.

Speaking of which, the Masimo case demonstrates that this is not the first time that Apple has been sued by a smaller company over the tech it uses in its Apple Watch. In the Masimo case, certain models of the Apple Watch were restricted from import into the US, which meant Apple had to disable the feature for US customers – a significant headache for the Cupertino company.

No doubt Apple – and Samsung, Google and Garmin – will want to avoid anything as drastic this time around. If you’re interested in any of these smartwatches and want to know whether you’ll still be able to buy one in the future, keep an eye on this case.

• A new Plan for Care feature is now available in Fitbit Labs
• It appears to be US-only for a select number of users
• The feature uses generative AI to prepare you for a doctor visit

It's been an interesting few months for Fitbit, what with new AI-powered software features and the promise of new hardware in 2026, and there's now a new feature in testing that's intended to take the stress out of your next visit to the doctor.

It's called Plan for Care, and according to Fitbit it will help you get "personalized support" when assessing your symptoms at home and getting ready for a doctor's appointment. It's available now in the Fitbit Labs testing platform for "a select number of users".

There are two key features here: the option to chat through your symptoms and what they might mean, and a preparation tool for brainstorming what you could say to your doctor and what the visit will potentially involve.

As per Fitbit, data collected through Plan for Care "will be used by Fitbit for research and development purposes to improve these and future health features", so bear that in mind. Fitbit has instructions here for managing the data it has access to through Fitbit Labs.

Disclaimers abound

"This Lab is for investigational use only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, mitigate, prevent any disease or condition, or be used as a substitute for professional medical advice," says Fitbit.

The feature was originally spotted by Android Authority. The app code refers to a US-only test, and generative AI, and admits that the responses may be "offensive, incomplete, out-of-date or clinically inaccurate or misleading" – a rather hefty disclaimer.

Fitbit doesn't mention generative AI anywhere in its announcement, but that seems to be what's powering this – raising the usual questions about whether or not we should be relying on AI tools for any kind of health or medical advice, even in experimental form.

If Fitbit's AI can't diagnose issues or replace medical advice, and may be inaccurate or misleading, should it really be available in the app? Fitbit clearly thinks so, and it's not alone – Apple is working on something similar too.

• Fitbit Labs is testing a new hypertension feature as well as a new tool that detects changes in your health metrics
• The company is looking for 10,000 participants to wear their Google Pixel Watch 3 as they normally would for 180 days, and they'll be sent an Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring cuff
• Its 'unusual trend' detection will also send you heads-up alerts if your health metrics look different from normal

Now that Fitbit’s AI-powered personal coach app is rolling out widely to users, the company has started working on testing more features for Pixel Watch users, including a Hypertension Study Lab and an ‘Unusual Trend Detection’ tool.

The two new functions are currently in testing through Fitbit Labs, a program where users can sign up to explore Fitbit’s latest experiments and offer feedback as the features are developed. You should also note that this hypertension experiment is only available to users in the US for the time being.

According to 9to5Google, Fitbit wants to ‘use Pixel Watch data to identify early signs of’ high blood pressure - but oddly, the Fitbit Hypertension Lab is just being tested on the Pixel Watch 3, excluding the more recent Pixel Watch 4 from the mix. We don’t know the reason for this, but we'll bring you an update once we do.

To test its new hypertension alerts feature, Fitbit is on the hunt for ‘up to 10,000 eligible participants to wear their Google Pixel Watch 3 as they normally would for 180 days’ in the US. These testers will have an Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring cuff sent to them, which they’ll have to wear for 24 hours, as well as compensation in the form of a $25 gift card.

Hypertension features are far from a new invention when it comes to the best smartwatches. In September, Apple introduced its own hypertension alert tool with the newest members of its Apple Watch lineup, the Apple Watch Series 11 and the Apple Watch Ultra 3. While it’s not accessible on Apple Watch SE models, you can receive hypertension alerts on Apple Watch Series 9 and above, and iPhone 11 or later with the most recent iOS version.

Additionally, Fitbit Labs is also running an experiment to test unusual health changes, which is essentially a heads-up alert you’ll receive if your health metrics look different from normal. Not only will you be able to log causes and symptoms, you’ll also receive recovery and rest tips as well as updates when your health metric patterns return to normal.

You can view all the experiments you’re eligible for by going to the Fitbit Labs page on Android, where you’ll find two sections: one for Labs you’re eligible for and one for Labs you’re interested in. From there, all you have to do is tap ‘Get notified’ and you’ll be added to the waiting list.

Last week, Google announced that new Fitbit devices will be coming next year. A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one. This follows a recent revamping of the Fitbit app – including an AI personal health coach for Fitbit Premium users.

I’ve been critical of Google’s handling of Fitbit in the past. Ever since Google began acquiring Fitbit in 2019, it’s been an endless churn of negative headlines – some of those by me. To start with, the European Union placed a 10-year moratorium on Google using the data it collected as a result of the Fitbit sale for advertising purposes in the European Economic Area, provoking concerns that Google would use Fitbit data for invasive advertising in other regions.

Then came the slashing of features. Many community-based features, such as Challenges on the best Fitbits, got the axe, as did offline music storage. Fitbit Connect, the original piece of software used to pair your Fitbit with your computer and upload your music library, was also discontinued. The ability to create third-party apps for Fitbit OS also vanished, with resources instead being driven towards Google’s own Wear OS platform and the Pixel Watch line.

The Fitbit Versa 4 and Fitbit Sense 2 smartwatches were released as fairly basic smartwatches with the features above gutted, and Google, in a quote to Engadget, said there would be no more after this. It makes sense, I suppose, to leave Fitbit devices as the slim trackers they once were, and keep the Pixel Watch as the range’s sole annual smartwatch entry, but Google pulling apart Fitbit’s ecosystem for scraps and data, keeping what it wants and discarding what it doesn’t, has been a real blow to many existing Fitbit users and led to a decline in Fitbit-branded devices.

However, that’s not to say the current crop of trackers aren’t good. While we didn’t get on too well with the Fitbit Charge 6, awarding it only 3.5 stars in our review, the budget Fitbit Inspire 3 remains a solid set-and-forget tracker. It’s lightweight, slim, and can be worn on a clip or slipped into a pocket as well as on your wrist. It features automatic workout detection – once set up, you just have to start running for Fitbit to record it – and packs a week’s worth of battery life.

It’s everything a Fitbit should be, including arriving with six months’ worth of Fitbit Premium. With the new AI personal health coach, the six months’ free service should provide everything you need to kickstart getting into great habits, even if you don’t continue paying for the service. Fitbit Premium has quietly turned into a 4.5-star service that’s made its way onto our best fitness app list.

With the Google Pixel Watch 4 and its many Fitbit features doing so well, it’s with trepidation, amongst the many years of negative press, that I find myself actually looking forward to a new set of Fitbits.

Follow the Apple Watch SE 3's example

The landscape has changed since Fitbit debuted its first digital pedometer at a TechCrunch event in 2009, and the fitness tracker market has become saturated. These devices are cheap to make, cheap to buy, and vary massively in quality: for every Xiaomi Smart Band 9, there are many other Amazon dupes that aren’t worth your time. The likes of Jawbone are no more. There’s room in this murky space for a trusted brand, and it’s time for Fitbit to lead the way once again.

To do this, it should look at the success Apple has had with the Apple Watch SE series. As I was testing the Apple Watch SE 3 after months of testing nothing but chunky-monkey Garmins, the Apple Watch Ultra 3, the Pixel Watch 4 and the Coros Apex 4, the Apple Watch SE 3 practically felt weightless on my hand (after all, it’s made from cheaper, lighter plastic and nylon composite rather than metal) and felt much more like a fitness tracker than a watch.

At the same time, it had everything casual fitness fans and Apple users could really want, while being priced affordably.

A Fitbit Inspire 4 or Charge 7 could really be treated like a Pixel SE. The Pixel Watch is a thick, domed device with heavier metal parts and tons of communication features, whereas the Fitbit is the slender, lightweight option that still offers access to the excellent Fitbit Premium service and its new AI coaching system. Sharing a bit of design language would help – maybe the same band colors as the Pixel Watch 4, or redesign the Fitbit’s body a bit so it more closely echoes the Pixel Watch 4’s pebble aesthetic.

It might even get a new name – many people I know still refer to fitness trackers as ‘Fitbits’ out of habit, so a single new device called the ‘Google Pixel Fitbit’ wouldn’t be too far out of pocket. This would position Fitbit as the cheaper, slimmer, fitness-oriented alternative to the bigger, do-it-all Google Pixel Watch 4.

I had forgotten how good lightweight fitness trackers could be until I tried the Apple Watch SE 3, and I think the time is ripe for Fitbit to place itself as a "Pixel Watch SE" of sorts. Here’s hoping the original fitness tracker can return to its former heights – now all we need is our community features back.

• A new AI coach is heading to Fitbit Premium users
• Some US users on Android are now seeing the update
• The extra AI features offer insights, advice, and more

Google recently promised new Fitbit devices for next year, but there's an app update landing right now for Fitbit users that brings with it personalized coaching on fitness, sleep, and wellbeing through Gemini AI.

According to Google, the update is arriving first for Fitbit Premium users in the US on Android devices, with an expansion to iOS coming soon. It's also being labeled as a Public Preview – in other words, it's still a work in progress.

Some users on Reddit are now starting to see the update, though clearly it's rolling out in stages, so even if you are in the US, using the Android app, and signed up for Fitbit Premium, it might be a while before you get these new features.

Essentially, the extras you get added in to the app are similar to the chats you might have already had about your fitness with Gemini. The AI will take a look at your stats, and come up with some ideas for setting goals and making improvements.

How it works

With Gemini AI embedded in the Fitbit app, everything can be more conversational. You could set a goal like "I want to be able to run without getting out of breath" rather than setting a steps target, for example.

You still get all your key stats, but there's AI commentary alongside it – celebrating goals, suggesting next steps, and more. You can then ask questions about the data you've logged, workout plans, ongoing trends, or whatever you like.

A redesign for the app comes alongside all this extra AI, to fit everything in on screen – which looks a bit overwhelming at first. The new Today tab is front and center, combining key metrics with personalized AI feedback on your recent activity levels and sleep.

Google says there might be some "rough edges" in the preview, and is inviting feedback from users on what works and what doesn't. At the moment, it's still possible to switch between the new and old app interfaces with a few taps.

• Google says more Fitbits are coming in 2026
• As yet we don't know which devices will get updates
• The last Fitbit tracker launched in 2023

We were starting to give up hope of ever seeing any Fitbit-branded wearables ever again – with Google seemingly more interested in devices like the Pixel Watch 4 – but we've now heard that new Fitbits are officially on the way sometime next year.

As you may remember, Google acquired Fitbit back in 2021, and in a statement to 9to5Google the company says it will be "launching new Fitbit hardware next year" – though there's no indication of what that hardware might look like.

That's good news for Fitbit fans, and those who don't necessarily want to wear a smartwatch-sized tracker around the clock. We're presuming lightweight trackers could be on the agenda, though that's not yet certain.

Last year Google wearable exec Sandeep Waraich seemed to suggest that Pixel watches had taken over from Fitbit smartwatches (such as the Fitbit Versa 4), which makes us think that we're looking at smaller wearables for a 2026 introduction.

Which models might get an update?

The last fitness tracker launched under the Fitbit branding was the Fitbit Charge 6, which made its debut in 2023. Before that, we had the more affordable Fitbit Inspire 3 that arrived in 2022, and the Fitbit Luxe that showed up in 2021.

While they lack some of the advanced features of smartwatches, these smaller trackers are easier and more comfortable to wear during sleep, or while you're engaged in strenuous contact team sports – where a smartwatch is less practical.

One route that Google might go down is the screenless band one, following on from the likes of the Whoop MG and the Polar Loop. With those devices, you need to open the accompanying app to see all of your stats.

For now though, we're just speculating – all Google will say is that new contenders for our list of the best Fitbits are due in 2026, and that there's an "exciting year ahead". We will of course bring you all the details of any new wearables as they're announced.

• Last week, the Fitbit app got a redesign with Dark Mode
• The much-requested feature has been a long time coming, as many competitor apps have been using this design for years
• Here's how to switch Dark Mode on and off using Settings

The Fitbit app is undergoing some big changes. To coincide with the launch of the Google Pixel Watch 4 (you can read our early impressions in our Google Pixel Watch 4 hands-on review) it's getting a personal AI health coach in the US and, as far as we're aware, UI changes as well.

However, before those changes come into effect, Google has given the Fitbit app a significant facelift already, with the launch of Dark Mode.

The Fitbit app, since its inception, has always been set against a bright off-white backdrop regardless whether the rest of your phone is in Dark Mode or not.

It's resisted change even though competitors for the crown of best fitness app, such as Apple Health and Garmin Connect, have been on dark backgrounds to make parsing through complex graphs and planning workouts easier on the eyes.

In my opinion, it's crazy that despite the popularity of the best Fitbits, it's taken so long for the companion app to get a Dark Mode. It's a simple inversion that makes the experience of using the app so much better for most people.

However, if I was being completely cynical, it might have taken so long because Google simply didn't know what to do with Fitbit.

I've written plenty about Google's neglect of the brand while folding the best hardware features into its Pixel Watch series, but it seems as though after last year's app redesign, Dark Mode and this year's heavy investment into the AI health coach, Google's finally seeing a way for Fitbit to exist within Google's complex ecosystem going forward.

When I opened my Fitbit app this morning, Dark Mode was already enabled. However, in case yours hasn't switched over automatically or you're looking for manual adjustment, here's how to toggle Dark Mode on and off.

• Ensure your Fitbit app is updated to version 4.50. If not, navigate to Software Updates in your phone's settings
• In the Fitbit app, tap your profile image and go to Fitbit Settings
• In Settings, tap the new Theme option
• You can choose between System Default, Light or Dark options
• System Default will match Fitbit to your phone's theme, so if you use Dark Mode on your phone's operating system, Fitbit will switch automatically

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Google has finally revealed its new Google Pixel Watch 4 alongside its latest crop of phones and earbuds, and it certainly looks like the best Pixel Watch yet – perhaps the best Android watch of 2025 so far.

With two sizes, both hardware and software redesigns, and a glut of new features, it might finally convince me to make the switch. I can usually be found sporting one of the best Garmin watches on my wrist, but I find myself genuinely excited about some of the features coming to the Pixel Watch line this go-round.

In particular, number 4 on my list is something that’s long been on my wish list for most smartwatches, and it’s a feature not even Apple, Samsung, or Garmin has managed to pull off. I'm certainly hoping they are taking notes – it's got all the makings of an industry game-changer.

So, without further ado, here are four new features coming to the Pixel Watch 4 that I’m most looking forward to getting to grips with once the watch finally drops in October. Let’s get into it.

1. The domed display

The Pixel Watch 4 has a new domed display. That classic black teardrop shape has always given the Pixel Watch range a unique look, but the circular display now expands in three dimensions to create a full domed shape, spelling doom (or should that be dome?) for the old flat format.

Not just the glass, either: the entire screen underneath the glass is domed too, which means it should be way easier to just quickly glance at your wrist as you’ll be able to catch it from the side.

It also provides tons of surface area, with a 16% smaller bezel and 10% more screen overall. The user experience software, redesigned to match the Pixel phone’s new Material 3 Expressive visual language, has been tweaked to make the most of the increased circular surface area.

While my colleague Jake Krol has had hands-on time with the watch and notes the dome does mean the watch sticks out considerably from the wrist, it’s a unique design I can’t wait to see more of.

2. Boosted battery

Finally, the Pixel Watch’s biggest problem is being solved: battery life. Android watches and even the best Apple Watches face demands on their battery due to their bright screens and the processing power needed to run a miniature phone-style operating system on the wrist.

Previously, the Google Pixel Watch 3 was stuck on 24 hours with the Always-on Display feature turned on, but the Pixel Watch 4 reportedly offers six extra hours, for a total of 30 hours with that Always-on Display enabled.

Without it, expect to get a full couple of days out of it, assuming the Raise to Wake feature is sensitive and responsive enough for it not to be a nuisance.

3. The charging dock

This is a really fun redesign that just makes sense: turning your Pixel Watch into a smart alarm clock with this ground-up retooling of its magnetic charging dock. For reasons I’ll go into below, the Google Pixel Watch 4 has been redesigned to charge from the side, instead of the back.

You simply pop the Pixel Watch 4 on its side in the charging dock, and the display reorients. With the crown at the top, it looks for all the world like a little old-school alarm clock, and seems perfectly poised to function as a bedside table companion.

You won’t have to charge it all night, though: it reportedly goes from a fully-drained battery to 50% battery capacity in as little as 15 minutes, affording you a quick bit of juice for your next run or gym session if you’re running low.

4. Replaceable parts

Excellent news for people hoping for a more sustainable smartwatch industry, and a move that should inspire a similar design ethos from Apple and Garmin – both of whom claim eco-friendly credentials such as carbon-neutral production and ethical usage of materials.

The Pixel Watch 4 is designed to be taken apart and to have its battery or screen replaced, rather than being a sealed unit that users have to throw away if it breaks. That’s incredible news, and one that should extend your watch’s life cycle, reducing e-waste.

Google will support the Pixel Watch 4 with replacement parts for two years after its life cycle finishes – so even when Google stops producing the watch in a few years’ time, you’ll still be able to source replacement parts. Any attempt to reduce the environmental impact of consumer tech and improve the life cycle of a product deserves credit in our books.

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Have you noticed your Fitbit is registering you’re awake more during the night, with your graph now showing more awake events than it did previously? It turns out this isn’t a bug lingering from the recent major outage; it’s an intended side effect of a recent update.

That’s according to a note Fitbit shared with its community explaining that “Your sleep tracking just got more accurate.” Noting this is just the first in a “series of upcoming improvements” to sleep tracking.

Specifically, this first update involves some tweaks to how your Fitbit tracks your sleep to make it more accurate. This is perhaps why your awake time and number of awake events have increased as you do briefly wake up throughout the night (even if you don’t realize), but the old system didn’t correctly track all of these instances.

The upshot is that your Fitbit should more accurately track your night's rest to give you a better measure of your body’s recovery.

The only unclear thing is which Fitbits will support this new sleep tracking, but we expect it will at least include the Fitbit Charge 6, Inspire 3, Sense 2, and Versa 4 – as these are the four models Google still sells.

Some older models may also be included, but Fitbit hasn’t clarified which ones.

However, if more improvements are planned, these could be detailed at the upcoming Made By Google event, which will happen on August 20 at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST / 3am AEST.

While Google promises the event will focus on “the latest additions to our Pixel Portfolio of devices,” Fitbit might be included in that, even if it's just as part of a wider Pixel Watch discussion.

Whatever happens, you can be sure we’ll be ready to cover it.

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The Made by Google 2025 event is less than a month away, and it's the event showcasing Google's latest and greatest hardware innovations, such as its best Pixel phones and best Android watches. However, while the Google Pixel Watch 4's appearance is inevitable (despite being as-yet-unannounced), I'm also hoping for a smaller, cheaper device to appear alongside it.

Yes, I believe it's time for a new Fitbit band-style tracker to make its appearance. Fitbits are still synonymous with the fitness band format thanks to years at the top of the category, and there are happy Fitbit fans out there still using ancient models like the Fitbit Flex and Inspire 2.

Last week, the Fitbit app went down, causing login and sync issues, and the outpouring of frustration from Fitbit users proved one thing: that people still love their Fitbits. I heard from Fitbit Charge, Luxe and Inspire users last week, and even though Google has notoriously axed some beloved community features, users depend on these devices as part of their daily lives.

They're inexpensive, reliable pieces of technology, often more comfortable to wear than the best smartwatches due to their slimmer profiles, and their batteries last a week what with low power output and fewer communications features.

Samsung got the memo: last year, it released the Samsung Galaxy Fit 3. The launch came as a surprise: after all, the Samsung Galaxy Fit 2 was released way back in 2020, and everyone assumed the line had been quietly discontinued.

However, Samsung clearly saw a gap in its range for a smart device priced at just $59 / £49 / AU$139. After all, not everyone can afford a Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 or Samsung Galaxy Ring, and some people just want to get on and track their steps, sleep and HR with minimum expenditure and fuss. I assume Fitbit's existing range is still selling well, but I feel like there's an opportunity here for Google to remind people why they fell in love with Fitbit in the first place.

I think an Inspire 4 or Luxe 2 would do the trick: a pebble-style fitness tracker with a few different band options, possibly compatible with the older Luxe or Inspire bands, and perhaps an option to detach the Fitbit and strap it to your arm or chest for greater heart rate accuracy during activity tracking. The Fitbit Inspire 3 has a sold-separately clip, so it would be nice to take that idea and run with it for improved functionality.

The Samsung Galaxy Fit 3 and the continuing success of the best cheap fitness trackers – not to mention the strength of the Fitbit brand name – clearly demonstrates there's an opportunity here to revive the format a bit. The Inspire 3 is now three years old, and could do with a bit of a refresh. Go on, Google – show Fitbit fans a little love.

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We've had quite the week this week, so to help you catch up on all the latest tech news, we have this handy one-stop guide to the seven biggest stories of the past seven days.

From Elmo getting hacked to ChatGPT Agent arriving on the scene, we have your firmware update for it all.

And once you're up to speed, be sure to read our guide to the 7 new movies and TV shows to watch this weekend (July 18).

7. Marshall’s new Bluetooth speaker rocked our world

We’ve been testing the new Marshall Kilburn III, and our reviewer Harry Padoan had a lot of positive things to say.

“The Marshall Kilburn III plates up a delicious meal, composed of well-seasoned audio, meaty features and a beautiful presentation,” adding, “with a 50-hour battery life, you’ll barely ever need to charge it.”

Though he did also highlight some faults, which is why it was half a star off a perfect five-star score, namely that it’s pricier and maybe not as rugged as some might hope.

• Read more: Our Marshall Kilburn III review

6. We watched Stranger Things Season 5…’s trailer

The first trailer for Stranger Things season 5 is finally here.

And if you’ve been worried about spoilers, series co-creator Ross Duffer shared that this first trailer “pulls from every episode except 7, but it’s mostly Volume One and just barely scratches the surface.”

Season 5 is being split into three parts, and this trailer is mostly taking clips from the first drop coming on November 26, so it shouldn’t give too much of the game away.

• Read more: Stranger Things season 5 trailer launch as it happened

5. Fitbit went down with sync and login issues

Fitbit users were left high and dry this week, as a huge spike in Downdetector reports heralded a big outage for Fitbit's mobile app and web API, leaving Fitbit users unable to sync their devices. When the Fitbit Help Center steps were followed, users ended up locked out of their accounts.

Fortunately, Google soon resolved the issue and reached out to us to confirm that a fix was in progress. However, it's not worked for everyone: there is still what seems to be a relatively small percentage of users who are left high and dry, unable to effectively use their devices. S

ome of them have reached out to us via email, while others have taken to Reddit to voice their displeasure and warn other users. One poor Reddit poster has even seemingly lost all their data since 2018!

• Read more: Here's what happened during Fitbit's "major outage"

4. Elmo got hacked and taught us a lesson

The Twitter account for the lovable fuzzy red Muppet was hacked this week and proceeded to spew several deeply offensive posts onto the platform.

Arguments aside that those kinds of posts are maybe more at home on Elon Musk’s rendition of the social media platform than Elmo’s usual messages of love and hugs, the hack reminded us why two-factor authentication is so important.

It’s not a completely foolproof solution, but it can make it significantly less likely your account will get taken over.

• Read more: Don't be like Elmo, turn on 2FA

3. ChatGPT Agent entered the game

Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, has just announced the latest addition to ChatGPT. It’s called ChatGPT Agent, and it’s designed to perform tasks for you, no matter how complicated. If you can do it online, then ChatGPT Agent can get it done.

The entire concept is a unified agent that can handle the legwork, make informed decisions about which websites to use, and navigate the web independently. Think about things like planning a wedding, booking your car in for a service, making an app to solve a problem, or planning and booking a holiday. ChatGPT Agent can do it all, and you can even watch it work if you want to.

If you’re a Plus, Teams, or Pro user, then you can click ‘Agent’ right from the tools drop-down menu to use the new tool. The Agent uses its own virtual computer to perform its tasks, starting by setting up its desktop environment, and then proceeds to understand the prompt you’ve given it and gather the necessary information. It will sometimes ask for more information or a clarifying question.

• Read more: The autonomous AI promises to handle every click and open tab in your browser

2. We went bananas for Donkey Kong

While interest at its announcement was somewhat tepid, it turns out Donkey Kong Bananza is the greatest Nintendo Switch 2 title to date, according to Dashiell Wood, one of our expert game reviewers.

That’s because the title “harnesses the powerful Nintendo Switch 2 hardware to offer a gigantic, open-ended world with dazzling destruction that lets you bash, smash, and crash through practically anything.”

• Read More: Our full Donkey Kong Bananza review

1. Google set a date for its Pixel phone drop

The eagerly anticipated Mage by Google product launch event will happen on August 20 at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST / 3am AEST, and it looks to be a product-packed event.

We're expecting not only the Pixel 10 phone line (so the Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro, and Pixel 10 Pro XL), but a new Pixel 10 Pro Fold, which now has a tough act to follow given the 4.2mm-thick Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7. At least they'll both be running Android 16.

A new, possibly redesigned, Pixel Watch 4 is also expected, but we don't have many details for no,w so we’ll have to wait a little longer to have an idea what Google has up its sleeve.

• Read more: We're getting Made By Google in August

Fitbit users were experiencing problems. Many people found themselves unable to sync their best Fitbit to the Fitbit app, and those who uninstall the app were unable to get back in with their usual account details.

This lead to Fitbit stating that it's "experiencing a major outage" on its status page. Users were effectively unable to make use of the app – an app Fitbit Premium users are paying for – leading to missed sleep and readiness scores, and failed data aggregation and interpretation.

An update: a solution is being rolled out, and Fitbit's status page is marking the issue "closed" at this time. However, some users are still unable to log into their app, suggesting the fix might be taking a while to roll out to everyone.

Are you still affected? Did you miss tracking an important workout or event, like a marathon or Hyrox? Email me at matt.evans@futurenet.com and I'll feature your responses on this liveblog.

Until then, you can read our summary of what happened during the Fitbit outage below, Google's official statement, some useful insights and opinions from Reddit users and TechRadar readers shared live during the outage.

Our first clue something was wrong came from a huge spike in Downdetector, which you can see above. At the time of writing, we're seeing over 2,000 reports of outages, with many more users turning to other sites like Reddit to voice their displeasure.

Reddit speaks out

Trouble Logging In from r/fitbit

Hopping over to the Fitbit subreddit, we found the post above with a barrage of comments all saying the same thing: their Fitbit devices wouldn't sync to the app, and when they tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app, they could no longer log in again. Here are a few examples:

Comment from r/fitbit

Comment from r/fitbit

Fitbit's official status: "experiencing a major outage"

status.fitbit.com confirms the app and web API alike is experiencing a "major outage", with service disruption (not a complete blackout, however) across both channels.

However, it's interesting to note that Device Sync / Pairing is listed as "Available" with a green tick, which contrasts with the reports from users on Reddit in the previous post.

An email from a reader

A reader with the handle D.Z. emailed in to add their voice to our suspicions: "Neither my husband nor I have been able to sync our Fitbits this morning. We've tried on a phone and four different tablets."

It's interesting to note this is a problem occurring across devices: because it's affecting both mobile and web apps, something is going wrong with Fitbit on the back end.

Therefore, if you're reading this, switching devices and trying to log in on something else probably won't work: the problem is coming from your Fitbit account, not the device you're logging in on.

Is there something wrong with my Fitbit?

Probably not. Whether you've got an ancient Fitbit Alta, a cheap-and-cheerful Fitbit Inspire 3, or a top-of-the-line Google Pixel Watch 3, don't panic: your actual device is likely fine, even if it's not syncing to your app. There seems to be no need to restart or tinker with your Fitbit device itself, at least until Google comes out with an official fix.

The issue, as mentioned in previous posts, seems to be from the Fitbit app. You may lose some of today's data as a result of this syncing issue, but it's too early to understand the full ramifications of a big outage like this. However, it's a relief that your best fitness tracker is likely just fine.

We’re back! from r/fitbit

Are we back? One user just posted that they're able to log in once again with their regular details, with others chiming in that it's working.

However, other users are stating that they still can't access their app, so it's clear the fix is slowly being rolled out to the userbase.

That's reassuring news for Fitbit fans, but it's helpful to know how fast this fix is rolling out. If you're still being affected by the outage (or you missed recording an important event or workout), drop us an email at the address above.

Reader email: Some people are still affected

One reader, emailed in to tell us that they're still not back in the app, despite the fix that's apparently rolling out.

"Yes, I'm affected. Can't sync, reinstalled app, now can't login."

This is despite the plunging Downdetector reports shown below, which seem to indicate the worst is behind us. Hang in there!

Incident closed – for some...

Fitbit's official status page is now reporting the incident as "closed", indicating the fix is rolling out to users and the outage has ended, which lines up with those decreasing Downdetector reports.

However, according to our email inbox and the reports on Reddit, many people can't get back into their accounts still. For those people, we have to assume a fix is imminent – but let us know if the problem persists.

How to fix your Fitbit app

Honestly? It seems as though the fix is "do nothing and try to log in later".

Fitbit is rolling out a fix, but it appears to be a slow process, with some users still left unable to log in. However, it is rolling out, so if you still can't sync your watch or fitness tracker, or you can't log into your app, don't worry – try an untracked workout for a change, and pick up where you left off once the fix has reached you. Who knows? You might enjoy the freeing lack of accountability that comes with taking off your fitness watch.

When a tool becomes a crutch

Months ago, a similar outage hit the best Garmin watches, lasting over multiple days, and we experienced an outcry of frustration from Garmin users.

As a Garmin user myself, I remember how much I relied on my Garmin during both marathon training and during the events themselves, as tools such as the virtual pacer and heart rate zones kept me on track to hit (or at least narrowly miss) my race-day goals. The thought of having my running watch crash out on me on race day, after working towards that moment for months, simply didn't bear thinking about.

Fitbit users are suffering a similar issue today, and I can't help but feel for people who rely on that stream of information from their wrist during big life events and competitions, not just daily users looking for sleep and step counts. As a runner, I used that information as a tool during my training: it's only now I realised that tool became a crutch.

Let this be a reminder to take your training watch off every so often and practice working by feel: running coach, author and regular TechRadar contributor Lily Canter penned an excellent piece on why running without a smartwatch – referred to as "naked running" in the community – can be such a useful practice.

Here's what happened

• A few hours ago, reports began surging on Reddit and Downdetector that Fitbit users, regardless which Fitbit device or Google Pixel Watch they actually owned, were experiencing syncing problems with the app.
• Not only that, but when users followed Fitbit's 'help' steps by first uninstalling and reinstalling the app, they could not log back in to their accounts.
• This meant any information their fitness tracker was collecting was not being added to their existing pool of data.
• Fitbit's status page updated to let its users know there was a widespread issue, and irate users took to Reddit to express their displeasure.
• Fortunately, a fix was soon rolled out, and users are now able to log in. If you're still having problems, it's likely you'll receive a fix soon.
• There's no need to reboot or factory reset your Fitbit device, losing all your settings: the problem seems to be (or have been) with the Fitbit app, whether you access it on your phone or via a web API.

We've received official word from Google

A Google representative has reached out to confirm the issue with the Fitbit app is now resolved. Everyone should now be able to log into their accounts and sync their fitness trackers again.

Updates from readers overnight

Hi all! I'm back with some updates from our readers, that trickled in overnight. While Fitbit states the matter is resolved, and a Google representative reached out to us yesterday to confirm this, we have had a few messages from readers who still cannot sync their Fitbits.

Tim said: "I have a Fitbit Versa 4, can’t do anything, won’t sync. Deleted the app & reinstalled, won’t sync still. Tried doing a factory reset, nothing - it’s as though it’s just died."

It's very frustrating for Fitbit users to see everyone else getting their fix, but as we mentioned in our summary post below, the problem is with the Fitbit app and not the devices themselves. Until Google says we need to perform a factory reset to fix the issue, there's not much point in resetting your fitness tracker.

Hang tight, Tim: we're sure Google's fix will roll out to you soon.

Sarah reached out via email to share her problems with her Fitbit Charge 6.

"I'm in the Netherlands. My Fitbit came back last night but this morning, it's not syncing to the app. Bluetooth isn't connecting to my phone either even though it's a saved device. There's no information for those of us still having issues.

"On the actual charge 6 there's no sleep information, or readiness."

It sounds like the incident has had a few knock-on effects on device connectivity. If anyone else is having similar issues to Sarah, please do email us with your thoughts and fixes.

All my data. Lost. from r/fitbit

This poor Reddit user lost all their personal data after the incident, which isn't something we've seen yet.

If this has happened to you, reach out to the Fitbit Help Center: it may well be recoverable.

Fitbit remains a major part of people's lives

Fitbit's gotten a lot of flak in recent years for axing community features and forcing people to switch to Google accounts, among other issues, but the interest in this issue proves one thing: people still love their Fitbits.

Fitness and health tracking is a very intimate area of technology: we wear these devices to bed, in the shower, during workouts, and at work. It tells us about our bodies, helps us understand what makes us stressed, and even saves lives.

A family member of mine, who has atrial fibrilation, uses his Fitbit Charge 5 to collect information about his heart and has even gone to hospital off the back of those readings.

We come to rely on and appreciate tech like our Fitbits as constant, reassuring aids. This is probably why we get so anxious when the technology doesn't work, or we can't access our data.

Issues syncing with other apps?

Fitbit still not syncing weight from Health Connect from r/fitbit

The Reddit post above is reporting continued issues with the Fitbit app syncing to other applications, such as Google Health Connect and the Renpho app, which is used to interface with smart scales to record the user's weight.

We also had an email from Peter, who told us he was having trouble syncing to Strava with his trusty Fitbit Versa 2 and wondered if that was because of the recent outage. Perhaps there is an ongoing issue with third-party syncing for some users? Let us know if you're affected.

• Google has delivered another blow to Fitbit users
• It's quietly withdrawing support for Google Assistant
• It means devices will no longer work with the voice assistant

The death of Fitbit seems more and more inevitable with each passing month, and now Google is ending support for Google Assistant on Fitbit devices, another sure sign of its demise.

While Google Assistant is being replaced with Gemini on the best Android smartwatches, likely starting with the Pixel Watch later this year, there's no such hope for users of the best Fitbits, who will lose Google Assistant altogether in the coming days.

As noted by multiple outlets, Google recently and quietly announced that Google Assistant support would end on Fitbit.

"Over the next few weeks, we will be progressively phasing out Google Assistant on your Fitbit device. You can learn more about this process here. This change means that Google Assistant voice control for activities will soon no longer be available on your Fitbit device," the company said in Fitbit's community forum.

Google added that "We understand that changes can be disruptive, and we value your feedback," and that it remained "committed to continuously improving your Fitbit app and developing exciting new features. "

Fitbit ends support for Google Assistant

Google assistant going away from r/fitbit

Now, Fitbit users on Reddit are reporting notifications that state "Google Assistant on Fitbit watches is being turned down, this feature will stop working in the coming weeks."

Fitbit users have been able to use Google Assistant to ask questions, set alarms, check the weather, and perform many other functions on the devices. The withdrawal makes some sense, given that Google is phasing out Assistant elsewhere. However, as noted, on most devices, that's in favor of the more capable Google Gemini; Fitbit users, however, are simply losing a feature and getting nothing in return.

Google's erasure of Fitbit continues apace, and all signs now point to the brand's demise in the future. The company has confirmed that it will sunset Fitbit smartwatches in favor of the Pixel Watch, and chances are its fitness trackers aren't far behind.

The company has also shuttered the Fitbit website, and recently endured furious user backlash over an update that crushed the battery life of the Fitbit Sense and Versa 3 because of overheating concerns.

How many Fitbit users access Google Assistant on a regular basis is unknown, but the loss of functionality symbolizes another nail in the coffin for the brand and is sure to be unpopular with customers.

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• Fitbit is overhauling its app
• Health Metrics have been revamped to look cleaner and more modern
• Fitbit has also pushed the Google account switch deadline to 2026

After a fairly bleak run, there are two pieces of good news for Fitbit users this week. The company has overhauled its Health Metrics in the app, and users will get to hold onto their Fitbit accounts for a little bit longer.

The much-needed app design refresh was spotted by 9to5Google, which reports a series of sweeping changes to the app. There's a new intro page that shows your health metrics compared to your personal range.

Fitbit has also ditched the two-tab Today and Trends layout, with the Today page now showing your metrics, personal range indicators, and a sleeker list for breathing rate, blood oxygen, resting heart rate, heart rate variability, and skin temperature variation.

If you tap on any of these stats, you'll get the usual trend charts, but with views for week, month, and year instead of seven, 30, and 90 days.

Fitbit account deadline extension

Fresh app aside, Google has also announced it is extending the deadline for switching to a Google account, pushing it into 2026.

In an email seen by TechRadar, Google has written to customers stating, "As we have previously shared, Fitbit is now a part of Google, and Fitbit Account holders will need to transition to Google Accounts to continue using Fitbit. If you want to keep using Fitbit, you must move to a Google Account by February 2, 2026. If you use a Gmail account to sign in to Fitbit, you must also move to a Google Account."

Back in 2022, Google confirmed that accounts would be axed by 2025. While we didn't have a specific date previously, this is definitely an extension of that deadline.

It's welcome news for Fitbit fans, who have otherwise appeared largely unhappy for some time. Google announced it would sunset Fitbit smartwatches in favor of its Google Pixel Watch line and has ditched Fitbit.com as an online store.

More recently, a battery overheating issue with certain Fitbit devices forced a software update that has drastically reduced battery life in some models, with users reporting their devices no longer last a full day on a single charge.

The writing's still on the wall for Fitbit, but these latest developments make for some rare light relief.

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• Fitbit could be getting a new sleep schedule feature
• Sleep Lab has leaked in code
• It could give you personalized recommendations for bedtime and wake time based on surveys

The best Fitbits could be about to get a major sleep upgrade in the form of Sleep Lab, a new leaked feature that could transform the way you monitor and maintain your sleep schedule.

While Fitbit models currently offer various sleep tracking metrics across its range, the new Sleep Lab feature could give you more personalized insight into what time you should go to bed, and what time you should wake up in the morning.

9to5Google reports that new code found in the latest Fitbit for Android app uploaded to the Google Play Store includes a new "Sleep need" experiment, with more details in tow. Here's what you need to know.

Fitbit's sleep schedule experiment

According to the report, Fitbit's new Sleep Lab (or Sleep need labs) has three main aspects. Users will answer a few questions at different times during the day. Using those responses and your sleep data, Fitbit will calculate how much sleep you need each night. With that info, you'll get personalized bedtime and wake-up recommendations.

Surveys are done in the morning, midday, and evening, and you'll get a 1-hour reminder before your scheduled bedtime.

There will also be sleep debt metrics, as well as integrations to edit your alarms to keep you on schedule. You'll also need to wear your Fitbit for 5 days to get the most accurate sleep need and sleep debt data.

This sounds like an exciting upgrade that could turn your Fitbit into one of the best sleep trackers without the need to invest in something like a smart ring or dedicated sleep-tracking products.

This feature isn't live yet, but its presence in the Fitbit app's code suggests its release is imminent, so stay tuned to find out when it goes live.

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• Fitbit recently issued a vital software update to stop batteries overheating
• The Versa 3 and Fitbit Sense were reportedly a risk to their users
• The new update is cutting battery life from five or six days down to less than one.

Just a few weeks after Fitbit issued a battery overheating update for two of its most popular smartwatches, users of the Fitbit Sense and Fitbit Versa 3, two of the best Fitbits on the market, are complaining that the fix is causing catastrophic reductions in battery life.

Google said the overheating problem could pose a risk to users and required an immediate firmware update. The company confirmed that the update would reduce the risk of overheating, but at the cost of some reduction in battery life, and even offered customers $50 if they were affected, however, that compensation figure appears to pale in comparison to just how much battery life users are actually losing now the update is complete.

Fitbit's battery life crisis goes from bad to worse

"Before doing the update my battery would last about 5 -6 days (depending on how much exercise I did)," one user told the Fitbit community forums, "Now since doing the update it lasts less than a day. That's with everything turned off too (eg. Notifications, snore detection, vibrations, etc)."

"The firmware update has caused an extreme battery reduction," another added, noting their device was also lasting less than a day, where previously it would deliver a week of charge.

Elsewhere on Reddit, users are reporting similar issues. "For a very long time, my Sense battery has lasted a very long time. I leave the screen off so I don't usually need to charge it but once a week," one poster wrote. "However, since about a week ago, the battery has started dying rapidly. Tonight it went from 46% to 22% in 3 hours. That used to take about 2 days."

"I’ve started experiencing the same thing since the firmware update they pushed through," said another.

All signs, then, point to Fitbit's recent planned firmware upgrade causing a catastrophic reduction in battery life. User outrage is widespread, and while Google confirmed that the overheating issue could be a safety risk to users, the trade-off in battery life following the firmware update appears to render devices almost unusable. "I had to charge mine twice in one day," one user in the forum said.

As noted, this should only affect the Versa 3 and Sense, the two models identified by Google as presenting an overheating risk. If you've been affected, drop us a line at stephen.warwick@futurenet.com. We've also reached out to Google for comment and will update this piece accordingly with any response.

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• Big upgrades for Android's Health Connect are in the pipeline
• You'll soon be able to store medical record data
• Fitbit could be the first app to tap into that data

We've only just got used to Android 15 being around, but Android 16 is already in its early testing phase – and a new leak suggests that when that upgrade arrives, it'll bring some additional features to your Fitbit app.

According to some code digging done by Android Authority, an upgrade to Health Connect is being prepped in Android 16. Health Connect is the Google-developed central hub for all your health and fitness data, which can be shared between apps.

We already know that medical records are going to be added to Health Connect with the full roll-out of Android 16 – records including vaccinations, allergies, pregnancy details and more – and the hidden code discovered in the operating system suggests that Fitbit will be one of the first apps that can make use of it.

Fitbit can already add data and pull data from Health Connect, so it makes sense that support for medical records would be added when available – giving Fitbit an even more comprehensive look at your health profile.

Making a connection

Google is keen to emphasize that Health Connect goes to great lengths to keep your data secure and private: you get full control over which apps can access which bits of data, from the number of steps banked this week to how much you slept last night.

The advantage of having a central repository for all this information is that you can combine data from different apps together – maybe use a Fitbit tracker to monitor sleep, for example, and a Pixel Watch to count steps.

It also means you don't have to lose all of your carefully compiled health and fitness data if you decide to move to another app. However, it does depend on app developers signing up – and not all of the big names are on board yet (Withings and Polar are, but Garmin and Strava aren't, for example).

We should know more when Android 16 is finally finished and being pushed out to smartphones. It looks as though that will be around the start of June, ahead of some brand new Google Pixel 10 smartphones in the weeks following.

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• Fitbit has issued a battery overheating warning to customers
• They say Fitbit Sense and Versa 3 devices are at risk of overheating
• The company is issuing a firmware update, and could pay $50 to affected users

Google is rolling out a battery performance program for two of its best Fitbits, the Fitbit Sense and Fitbit Versa 3, over concerns they pose a potential risk to users due to overheating.

The company says "a limited number" of devices are at risk of their batteries overheating "which poses a potential risk for users and requires an immediate firmware update."

Reassuringly, the update has already started rolling out, and will continue to do so over the next month.

Google says the firmware will "reduce the risk of the battery overheating," unfortunately this comes at the cost of reduced capacity. If your device isn't impacted (and not all Sense and Versa 3 devices are) your battery performance won't change. If you own either of the affected devices, you should fill out this form to find out whether you need to do the update.

Fitbit battery disaster

As you can imagine, this battery debacle is the last thing Fitbit needs to start 2025. Having to issue a firmware update to reduce the battery capacity of some devices because they could pose a risk to users, is a tough break and one that's sure to annoy affected customers.

To that end, Fitbit says those who do need the update "may be eligible for appeasement" to the tune of $50 (converted to your local currency) as compensation.

So, if you've got a device that needs this firmware update, you should definitely install that right away. Then you should register for potential compensation using this form.

You've got one year to do this, so there's no rush, but why wait?

Users who need the firmware update and who regularly sync their device with the Fitbit app should get a notification on their watch and an email from Google confirming its availability.

"The update will improve the stability of the device's battery performance and reduce the risk of the battery overheating," Google says. However, "As a result, the battery will last for shorter periods between charges and you may need to charge your device more frequently."

Users will need to manually update their firmware; if they don't, the device will automatically factory-reset after a few days, sending your data into the abyss with it (all the data you haven't synced anyway).

Unfortunately, the more you read into it, the worse it gets for affected Fitbit customers. With Fitbit sunsetting its smartwatch range in favor of the Google Pixel line, this episode might be a sign that it's time to take that $50 payout and buy a new cheap smartwatch, be it a Pixel or an alternative model.

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About 12 out of 15 of the best fitness apps actively share your personal data with third parties, de-facto selling out your privacy. Strava and Fitbit are among the most data-hungry, collecting 84% of all potential data points.

These are some of the worrying findings from new research released by Surfshark, one of the best VPN services on the market, after looking at data collection and sharing practices of the most popular fitness mobile applications.

"Our research shows that free apps share significantly more data with third parties compared to paid apps, highlighting the importance of evaluating privacy implications," said Tomas Stamulis, Chief Security Officer at Surfshark.

The hidden price of at-home training

To determine the real price of (often free) at-home training, the Surfshark team analyzed the 15 top fitness mobile applications. These include exercise trackers, workout apps, and personal training platforms.

Surfshark's analysis unveiled a pretty worrying scenario for fitness fanatics. As mentioned earlier, 80% of the analyzed apps share users' tracked data with third parties. These details include device locations, emails, user IDs, device IDs, or profiles. Nike Training Club leads the category, with four types of tracking data shared with third parties. These are coarse location (approximate, generally within a city block), some sensitive info, device ID, and product interaction.

In Apple's own words, "Tracking refers to the act of linking user or device data collected from your app with user or device data collected from other companies’ apps, websites, or offline properties for targeted advertising or advertising measurement purposes. Tracking also refers to sharing user or device data with data brokers."

Most apps (13 out of 15) also collect health and fitness information directly linked to users – Centr and Peloton are the only two applications that don't.

Overall the analyzed apps collect an average of 12 types of information out of the 35 potential data points available – with the least privacy-friendly storing nearly twice as much.

Strava and Fitbit came out as the most data-hungry apps, both gathering 21 unique types of data. In comparison, the most private workout application, Centr, collects just three types of data (User ID, Product Interaction, and Crash Data) with only one of these contributing to user tracking.

Worse still, three apps collect very sensitive information such as racial or ethnic background, sexual orientation, pregnancy or childbirth details, disability status, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, political opinions, genetic information, or biometric data. These include the Nike Training Club app.

Location data is another piece of information many fitness apps collect. Four apps, including popular running applications like Runna and Strava, collect precise location data linked to the user. Five apps collect only coarse location data, with two (Nike Training Club and Peloton) sharing this information with third parties.

As mentioned earlier, free applications collect and share the most data. After all, the only way they can make a profit is to sell your data to data brokers or run invasive ads on the app. This is why Stamulis from Surfshark suggests upgrading to a paid subscription whenever possible.

He also recommends considering whether the app can function without granting permissions that may not be necessary. "If such options aren’t provided, it raises important questions about the intent behind the data collection," he added.

• The Pixel Watch 3 introduced new Cardio Load and Target Load tracking
• The features are designed to prevent over- or under-training
• Google has now rolled out the features to other Pixel Watch models and a raft of Fitbits

If you've got a Google Pixel Watch 2 or Pixel Watch 1, or any of the best Fitbit trackers or smartwatches, it just got a major upgrade in the form of Cardio Load and Target Load.

Cardio Load and Target Load were introduced to Google's wearable lineup in the Pixel Watch 3, our current pick as the best of the best Android smartwatches, earlier this year. These features can track your exertion and intensity during cardio workouts to help you avoid injury through overtraining.

The Target Load feature also gives you personalized training targets each morning, taking into account your cardio load and Readiness score.

As spotted by 9to5 Google, those two features, accessed via the Fitbit Morning Brief, are now available to users of the Pixel Watch 1, 2, and almost a dozen Fitbits.

Google gives Pixel Watch a big upgrade

According to the report, the new Cardio Load and Target load expansion features in the December 2024 Pixel Watch Feature Drop, which started rolling out on December 9.

The feature is now available on all three Google Pixel Watch models, as well the following Fitbits:

• Inspire 2
• Inspire 3
• Luxe
• Sense
• Sense 2
• Versa 2
• Versa 3
• Versa 4
• Charge 5
• Charge 6

On the Pixel Watch these metrics are found in the Fitbit Today section, or in the Cardio Load card found in the iOS and Android Fitbit app.

The inclusion of features such as these in smartwatches reflects how the emphasis has shifted in recent years from doing as much exercise as possible to incorporating a more balanced approach to training. Earlier this year, Apple announced a Training Load feature for watchOS 11 and Rest Days that don't break activity streaks.

While Google has plans to sunset its Fitbit smartwatches in favor of its Pixel Watch lineup, users can take some heart from the fact that, in the meantime, existing Fitbit smartwatches continue to get software upgrades.

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The end is nigh for the Google Fit app on Android phones, it would seem: It looks as though the Fitbit app is going to replace it on these devices going forward, with Google making the most of its 2021 acquisition of the fitness company.

As spotted by 9to5Google, the newly-unveiled Oppo Find X8 comes with Fitbit installed rather than Google Fit. It's the first time we've seen that on a non-Google Android phone, and could well be the norm in the future.

If you've bought one of the Google Pixel 9 phones you'll notice Fitbit has replaced Google Fit here as well. If it's happening on handsets made by Google's manufacturing partners as well, the transition from one app to the other is just about complete.

Should you have a lot of data already in Google Fit, Google's Health Connect service can sync it to Fitbit, if needed: Tap Profile then the gear icon in the Google Fit app to set this up. You can also export your Google Fit data from inside the app by tapping your Google account avatar (top right), then Fit data and privacy.

Fitbit (and AI) is the future

While it's disappointing to see yet another Google app killed off, Google does at least seem to be investing in new features and upgrades for the Fitbit app – even if it did recently abandon the web interface for your Fitbit data.

Google has previously announced an AI health coach that's now in testing and is likely to soon make an appearance in the Fitbit app proper. It's not clear when everyone will get it, but it could show up before the end of the year.

The Gemini-powered feature can answer questions about your health and give you personalized insights into your activity patterns and workouts. We'll have to wait until we can test it out for ourselves to see just how accurate it is.

In recent weeks we've also heard that an AI-driven Sleep Journal is also on the way for the Fitbit app, which will give you detailed feedback on your sleep health and ways in which you might try and improve it. Whether or not these extras will be exclusive to Fitbit Premium subscribers remains to be seen.

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Smartwatch deals can bring premium gadgets down to far more manageable prices - handy if you happen to have your eye on one of the more premium models. We often see brands like Apple, Samsung, Garmin, and Fitbit dropping their prices on new and older models alike, so whether you're after a fitness tracker or a smartphone on your wrist, there's plenty out there. Unfortunately, that can sometimes be more of a hindrance to your hunt.

With so many models at so many price points, it can be difficult to work out if you're truly getting the best value for your cash. To help streamline your search, we're rounding up all the best smartwatch deals right here. You'll find the models that regularly offer the best value across a range of use cases listed below, as well as the web's best prices - updated every half hour.

Not only do we regularly see discounts on all the options below, but budget models are actually offering better value for money these days as well. That's because the technology inside them has grown cheaper over the years, which means features and specs previously reserved for top-tier devices are now making their way to far more affordable smartwatches. From ECG-enabled heart rate monitors to Alexa and Google Assistant compatibility from your wrist, smartwatch sales of all prices now offer an intelligent and intuitive piece of kit for less cash.

Those improvements mean many new models, including the Apple Watch 10, which means many great smartwatch prices. Our technology scans all the key retailers to find the very best deals. We're also comparing the specs against those prices to ensure you're picking up the best smartwatch sales.

The best smartwatch sales and deals

Apple Watch smartwatch deals

The Apple Watch 9 was released in September of last year alongside the Ultra 2. The 41-mm display model starts at $399 / £399 / AU$649, and the larger 45-mm display model starts at $429 / £429 / AU$1,199. Thanks to holiday sales, you can find frequent Apple Watch 9 deals at retailers like Amazon.

The Apple Watch 9 is Apple's first carbon-neutral product, and it's more powerful than ever thanks to the all-new S9 SiP chip, which delivers increased performance and a long-lasting 18 hours of battery life. Apple's new chip also brings new capabilities to the Apple Watch, such as the double-tap gesture, which allows you to control your smartwatch by simply tapping your index and thumb together twice. You also get a brighter display, watchOS 10 with redesigned apps, and for the first time ever, Siri requests can now be processed from your smartwatch.

The 2022 Apple Watch SE shares many of the same features as the Apple Watch 8 but with a much more affordable price tag, with a starting cost of $249 /£259/ AU$399. While the SE lacks the always-on display and ECG app (which many might find unnecessary), the smartwatch includes an improved chip for faster performance and new health and safety features such as fall detection and Emergency SOS.

The smartwatch comes with all the features that people love about the Apple Watch, such as tracking heart rate, activity, sleep, and calories burned, and helps you stay connected with the ability to receive notifications, take calls, and reply to texts directly from your wrist.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 was also released last year, with the Apple Watch 9 as an upgrade to the Apple Watch Ultra. The premium smartwatch is Apple's most durable smartwatch, made with aerospace-grade titanium, which is also why the Ultra 2 is so expensive, with a retail price of $799 / £799 / AU$1,399. The Ultra 2 now includes Apple's new S9 SiP chip, which offers new features like the impressive hands-free Double Tap control and a 50% brighter display.

You're still getting the adventure-seeking features users love about the Ultra Series, such as GPS tracking, durability in high and low temperatures, and the Oceanic+ app, which turns the watch into a working dive computer.

Released in 2022, the Apple Watch 8 GPS-only model starts at $399 / £419 / AU$629, and the Cellular model at $499 / £529 / AU$749. The 45mm model starts at $429 / £449 / AU$679, and the cellular model costs $529 / £549 / AU$779. Thanks to the recent release of the Apple Watch 9, you can easily find Apple Watch deals on the Series 8, so you shouldn't expect to pay the full retail price.

The Apple Watch 8 includes health features such as a temperature sensor, an ECG function, and sleep tracking, plus safety features such as crash and fall detection. You're still getting all the fantastic features of the Series 7 smartwatch, including the Always-On display, activity tracking, an ECG app, and impressive all-day battery life.

Samsung Galaxy Watch smartwatch deals

The latest smartwatch from Samsung is the Galaxy Watch 6, and as of August this year, it is officially available to order. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 has an updated processor and RAM for enhanced performance, a slimmer display, and improved strap-swapping functionality. The Samsung smartwatch also includes new health and fitness features, such as a custom workout option, a redesigned sleep app, a 3-in-1 biosensor, a skin temperature sensor, and GPS technology.

If you're looking to save on the smartwatch, there are already some impressive Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 deals, including free watch bands and trade-in credits.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 was unveiled in August of last year and starts at $240/£269/AU$499 for the 40mm Bluetooth model or $270/£289/AU$549 for the 44mm Bluetooth model. The Galaxy 5 is Samsung's most advanced health-focused smartwatch with a BioActive Sensor included, which offers advanced heart rate tracking, blood oxygen monitoring, sleep tracking, and even a body composition analysis tool. The smartwatch also packs an improved battery life, GPS with voice navigation, and a sapphire crystal glass face for ultra durability.

Thanks to the recent release of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5, there are now impressive Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 deals from third-party retailers like Amazon.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 was released in August of 2021 and is packed with health and fitness features, including activity and sleep tracking and advanced heart rate monitoring that will notify you when an irregular heartbeat is detected. You're also getting a slim, lightweight design, GPS technology, and a two-day battery life.

The Galaxy Watch 4 has a starting price of $249/£249/AU$399, which is less than the retail price of Samsung's previous model. We frequently see smartwatch sales on the Galaxy 4, so you should check our widget to get today's best deal.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 was released in 2020 and the smartwatch features an improved rotating bezel and all-around slimmer, more sophisticated finish compared to the previous model. You're getting similar fitness features to the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2, but there's 8GB of storage available rather than 4GB. That's a considerable boost if you're looking to store music directly on your wrist.

The Galaxy Watch 3 takes everything the more fitness-focused smartwatches offer, polishes it all up, adds a few fancy features, and dresses it in a more pleasing chassis. That means you could get away with spending a lot less than the $399 the smallest model is up for. The Active 2, for example, sees regular smartwatch sales at around $249.99, which is a much more realistic price if you're looking for fitness features over fashion-forward wrist-candy.

Debuting just six months after the original Galaxy Watch Active, the Active 2 was never going to be a massive leap forward – but it is better than its predecessor. It didn’t bring back the rotating bezel that the original Active lacked but it did introduce a software alternative: you slide your finger around the edge of the screen.

The Samsung Galaxy Active 2 introduced a second, slightly larger 44mm version for bigger wrists, and it added an ECG to the array of sensors. It’s an evolution of the original design rather than a revolutionary one, but it’s the better of the two Active generations for a slightly higher smartwatch price.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch looks like a real watch, it lasts four days between charges and it’s one of the most refined smartwatches you can buy today. Its rotating bezel isn’t just a brilliant idea, it also protects your screen from accidental scratches or drops. The Galaxy Watch launched at a premium smartwatch price, but can easily be found for much less these days.

If you've been drawn in by that rotating bezel, however, it's worth noting that the later Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 also offers this nifty feature (the in-between Active and Active 2 models scrapped the idea). There's a lot more power under the hood of this newer 2020 smartwatch, but you are looking at a $399 price tag for the pleasure. That makes the $219.99 sales price regularly found in original Samsung Galaxy Watch smartwatch sales a little more enticing if you're looking for an everyday wearable rather than the latest version.

Garmin smartwatch deals

The Garmin Vivoactive can be whatever you want it to be. With music and GPS as standard and an 8-day battery life in smartwatch mode, it can be the digital assistant we all need on our wrists or a high-quality fitness tracker. The Garmin Vivoactive 4 comes in with a higher price tag than those you can currently snag on the 3 model, but it's the latest model with a load of features to get your money's worth.

You're getting more sports apps over the previous model, as well as new metrics to track and on-screen workout animations to keep you company. The new model is more than a refresh, it kits out your Vivoactive smartwatch with a massive range of new features and quality of life improvements worthy of its launch price.

The Garmin Forerunner 35 is an entry-level running watch with smart features rather than a fully-fledged smartwatch. While the 35 has notifications and music control, it's essentially a big fitness tracker that also has a few watch features.

That's no bad thing - it uploads your stats to the excellent Garmin Connect, its heart rate sensor means there's no need for a chest strap when you run, and it doubles as an activity tracker when you're not pounding pavements to improve your personal best. Expect nine days from the battery in everyday use and 13 hours in training mode with GPS activated.

We see plenty of smartwatch sales hitting this model these days as well, so you can pick up a good saving if you're shopping at the right time.

• Check out all the best Garmin deals and sales 

Fitbit smartwatch deals

The Fitbit Sense 2 was launched in August of last year, two years after the release of the original Fitbit Sense. The 2nd-generation smartwatch features a more sleek, lightweight design and now includes a physical button in addition to the touch display. The fitness and health-focused Sense 2 tracks sleep, heart rate, and activities and helps manage stress with insightful notifications and guided breathing and meditations.

The Fitbit Sense 2 is waterproof and includes built-in GPS technology so you can track runs on your wrist without your phone. The smartwatch can receive and send messages and calls and works with Amazon Alexa and the Google Assistant so you can get the news, set reminders, and control compatible smart home devices completely hands-free. The Sense 2 has a starting price of $299.95/£269.99/$447AU, which costs more than the original Sense, costing $159.99 / £219.99 / AU$224.95 at the time of writing.

Released last year, the Fitbit Sense is packed with advanced health features and GPS technology while also keeping you connected with apps, messaging, and notifications. The swimproof smartwatch tracks activity, heart rate, and sleep and includes an EDA Scan app that detects electrodermal activity, which claims to indicate your body's response to stress.

When first released, the Sense retailed for $329/£299/AU$499.95, making it Fitbit's most expensive smartwatch. You can typically find the smartwatch on sale and close to a $200/£200/AU$300 price tag.

If you're looking for a fitness tracker that can also fit into a digital lifestyle, Fitbit has long been the brand to look for. That's no different with the Fitbit Versa 2. There are a few core features surprisingly missing from Fitbit's latest premium wearable - such as Spotify integration and compatibility with Apple Health or Google Fit, but everything has always been kept distinct in Fitbit's framework, so you're not missing out on any older features.

Fitbit smartwatch deals are also a pretty good bet regardless of the season, so you're sure to find a great price on this as well as the cheaper models.

The Fitbit Versa Lite is a stripped-back version of the more expensive Fitbit Versa. Aimed at first-time smartwatch owners, it’s one of the cheapest branded smartwatches you can buy. As you’d expect from a Fitbit, its fitness tracking features are at the forefront of the experience, as well as the impressive four-day battery life.

That emphasis on fitness tracking does come at the expense of some of the more smartwatch features. There's no onboard WiFi so app installations and updates are slow, and it doesn't offer storage for your music. It is cute, though, and comfortable too. Plus, you'll find it a frequent favorite in recent smartwatch sales which means big savings available if you know where to look.

Where to find smartwatch deals

We tend to see smartwatch deals taking off in the earlier months of the year, as we all take on those new years resolutions. However, with more and more seasonal sales events popping up throughout the year, there's never a bad time to be shopping for cheap smartwatches. Below you'll find a selection of retailers we head to in order to find the best smartwatch deals.

US:

• Best Buy - smartwatch deals on a range of top brands
• Amazon - cheap smartwatch prices and regular sales
• Walmart - a wide selection with some of the best prices around
• B&H Photo - shop for discounts on more premium models
• Adorama - less range but plenty of smartwatch deals
• Newegg - great prices on cheap and refurbished models

UK:

• Amazon - cheap smartwatches and the biggest brands
• Currys - all the latest smartwatch deals on the latest models
• Very - a wide range of wearables with frequent discounts
• John Lewis - a smaller range with excellent free guarantees 
• Argos - frequent bundle offers with regionalised stock

What makes a good smartwatch price?

A good smartwatch price all depends on which features you're looking for. Fitness trackers with simple calorie and heart rate tracking can be found for well under $100 / £100, whereas you'll be paying a little more for more premium offerings like specialized or multiple GPS services and onboard training.

If you're looking for a smartwatch to use more as a digital companion to your phone, you'll generally be shopping a little higher up the scale. A smartwatch price that includes features like smartphone notifications and call functions will be a little lower, and these options usually sit on more premium fitness trackers than cheap smartwatches. The Fitbit Versa 2, for example, offers these features for between $150 - $200. If, however, you're shopping for NFC payment features, virtual assistant integration, and music playback controls you may be looking at a slightly higher smartwatch price.

When to look for the best fitness smartwatch deals

We usually see the best fitness smartwatch deals in the early months of the year, but with the rapid growth of the wearables market and new releases on their way seemingly every month, that's not such a hard and fast rule any more. That means you can usually find fitness smartwatch deals any time of the year, but particularly after a new model hits the shelves, during the summer or holiday sales, and in the early months of the year.

Still looking for more options? Check out the latest Apple Watch deals or maybe compare the latest cheap Fitbit prices and deals.

• Back to the top ^

Whether you're after the latest Versa or the stylish Luxe, Fitbit deals can score you a discount on everything from the latest releases to the oldest (and cheapest) fitness trackers.

We regularly see plenty of savings across the brand's range of smartwatches, with significant savings on old and new models. That's all, provided you're looking in the right place at the right time; however, with more and more models filling the shelves, we are seeing Fitbit sales dropping more frequently these days.

We're bringing you all the lowest Fitbit prices on today's best-selling models from around the web, with our comparison tech scouring the shelves every half an hour to locate the biggest deals.

Since there are quite a few Fitbit models available, the models below are all from our best Fitbit guide, which includes fitness trackers and smartwatches, all of which have been thoroughly reviewed by the TechRadar team. That means you can do your research on what Fitbit is best for you, while also taking advantage of the best prices around the web.

Didn't find a Fitbit sale or price to your liking? If you're looking for viable alternatives, we recommend checking out the latest Garmin fitness tracker deals or the best Apple Watch deals and sales, which offer excellent rival devices to the likes of Fitbit.

If you're looking for other fitness bargains, you can see our roundup of the best cheap massage gun sales happening right now.

Google has just updated its popular Fitbit Ace LTE with a new family communication feature that makes it more useful than ever.

The Fitbit Ace LTE is a cheap kids' smartwatch designed to keep the whole family connected without the need to spend big on one of the best smartphones for your kids.

Now, the Fitbit Ace LTE is receiving a big upgrade that makes it even more useful as a family communication device. Announced November 13, Google's new Family chat feature means you can have a whole family conversation across your Google smartwatch ecosystem. Messages sent via the Ace app or from your device now reach everyone in your Google family, so you can all stay connected throughout the day.

There's also new support for direct messages between siblings, so they can argue err send each other messages, or call each other via their Fitbit Ace LTEs.

Fitbit Ace gets new Family Quests

Fitbit Ace now also includes new Family Quests, which are fun ways to help get your family more active. There are new challenges and rewards for kids, and the more your family moves and hits its goals, the more tickets your kids will get to spend on eejie items.

If you're in the market for your first Fitbit Ace LTE, Google is planning a Black Friday sale where you can save $50 on the Fitbit Ace LTE from November 21 through December 4. So it's likely worth waiting a few days if you want to score one.

If you're after your own Fitbit, the best Black Friday Fitbit deals are a great starting point to save you big on some of Fitbit's top fitness trackers and smartwatches, including the Versa 4 and Sense 2, which Google is sunsetting in favor of its own Pixel line.

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• Fitbit has a Sleep Journal feature in the works
• An APK Teardown revealed the feature under construction
• It could be an AI-powered feature

According to a recently-unearthed bit of code, Fitbit is looking at introducing a new sleep feature soon to Fitbit Premium subscribers. A Sleep Journal functionality would allow users of the best fitbit trackers and smartwatches to log their sleep as usual, and make notes in-app when prompted, about any sleep problems they had via text or even a voice note. The Fitbit app then uses this information to generate more personalized sleep tips.

Discovered by Android Authority during an APK teardown (a process that looks at unfinished app code) the feature is still bare-bones and under construction, but it looks as though the feature will be AI-powered. Fitbit may plan to use generative AI to pick up on key words and phrases in your journal entries, offering you advice based on those key phrases.

The feature was found by Android Authority in the Fitbit app (version 4.30.fitbit-mobile-110146981-694155636), and it allegedly “appears to be early on in development”. The UI is apparently quite basic at the moment, although the development team is clearly keen for Fitbit’s big userbase to engage with the feature - one message suggests “To get deeper insights and more personalized suggestions for better sleep, complete your journal each day.”

If you don’t submit an entry, a reminder pops up saying “Sharing what impacted your sleep helps create more personalized insights and tips”, with an option to go back if you decide not to fill in the Sleep Journal feature.

This is likely to be a Fitbit Premium feature, based on the pricing schemes for other experimental AI services like Oura Advisor. Given that it’s fairly early on in development, we wouldn’t expect it to land until 2025.

Analysis: generative AI is coming to Fitbit

I imagine this service will be similar to Oura Advisor, the experimental generative AI service used by the Oura Ring companion app, in that it uses text prompts to summon the correct wellness advice, personalized to your needs by cross-referencing your sleep and exercise data. If you sleep poorly and do a lot of exercise, you might be encouraged to dial it back in the evenings. Such is the power of generative AI.

We may be jumping ahead of ourselves (after all, there’s no hard evidence it will be an AI feature) but entering your sleep data into an artificial intelligence owned by Google, a company with a notoriously loose grasp on data privacy, may be a sticking point for some users.

Some, but not all; for others, the convenience will be worth it. A report from the National Institutes of Health found that “sleep diaries are the gold standard for subjective assessment of sleep variables in clinical practice. Digitization of sleep diaries is needed, as paper versions are prone to human error, memory bias, and difficulties monitoring compliance.” This live, responsive version of a sleep diary could be just what the doctor ordered.

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The best Black Friday deals often include great savings on smartwatches and fitness trackers. With a diverse range of products available for iPhone and Android users, and models to suit every taste and budget, deals on Garmins, Galaxy Watches, Apple Watches, Fitbits, and more smartwatches will come thick and fast.

But for one particular set of smartwatches, 2024’s Black Friday event could be a pivotal discount swansong for one vital reason. Some of the best Fitbit Black Friday deals are already live, and we expect more to follow, but earlier this year Google (Fitbit’s parent company) confirmed that it would quietly discontinue the Fitbit Sense and the Fitbit Versa.

As we wrote at the time, the death of Fitbit smartwatches is an end we could see coming a mile away, Google’s town simply isn’t big enough for the Versa, the Sense, and its own Pixel Watch lineup. But Fitbit’s smartwatches are popular alternatives to many of the best Android smartwatches on the market and have served their customers well for years.

Since the news, we’ve also seen Google ditch Fitbit.com, moving all of its products to the Google Store. Latterly, even Fitbit’s X account has been shuttered, and socials have moved to the @MadeByGoogle account instead.

The end of an era

So if you’re an avid Fitbit user, or you’ve had your eye on one of the Versa or Sense smartwatches for a while, Black Friday 2024 could truly be the last time you get to snag a big discount on one of these models. With Google discontinuing both in favor of the Pixel Watch, it’s only a matter of time before they quietly disappear from online shelves.

Both the Fitbit Versa 4 and the Fitbit Sense 2 are over two years old already. As such, if you see a great deal on either the Fitbit Versa 4 or the Fitbit Sense 2, then this might well be the last chance you have to buy one at a great price. Leave it any later, and they’ll probably start going out of stock, and prices may even start to rise.

Of course, this isn’t true for other Fitbit models Google is keeping around. The company has previously told us it is committed to Fitbit and its customers, and says we’ll “continue to see new products and innovation from Fitbit.” Those innovations just won’t be smartwatches, but fitness trackers like the Charge and the Inspire should persist at least for a while longer.

Should you buy a Fitbit on Black Friday?

The question then is should you buy a Fitbit smartwatch at all this Black Friday? If you’re looking at either a Fitbit Sense 2 or a Versa 4, the biggest draw is price. Much cheaper than the Pixel Watch or any other Wear OS alternative, we’ve seen both reduced to as little as $79 and $104 respectively, making them some of the best-value Android fitness trackers out there.

You’re not going to find a Pixel Watch, or really any other Android smartwatch at that price over the Black Friday event, making the Fitbit the ultimate budget pick. They might be a couple of years old and on their way out the door, but that’ll make them a steal for those who can find them at a decent price.

Fitbit’s smartwatches might not boast some of the more advanced capabilities of the Pixel Watch range, but they’re great for beginners, as gifts, or for those who just want a cheap fitness tracker with a screen. If you want more advanced running metrics, fitness insights, or the Pixel Watch’s more premium design, then you might want to consider pushing the boat out for one of those instead.

Just remember, if you see a good Fitbit Sense or Fitbit Versa deal this Black Friday, it might be your very last chance to buy one at a discount.

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At TechRadar, I often find myself pitting wearables against each other. Next week, you’ll be able to read what happened when I took the Coros Vertix 2S, Garmin Fenix 8 and Oura Ring Gen 4 out on a 5k run at the same time. I performed a similar test when pitting the best smartwatches against Strava while running the 2024 London Marathon.

One aspect of health tracking I haven’t group-tested is sleep tracking. Fortunately, researchers from Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, have done the legwork for me by testing the Oura Ring Generation 3 against an Apple Watch Series 8 and Fitbit Sense 2, to see which one is the most accurate. To set a benchmark, the three devices were also tested against a gold-standard, medical-grade polysomnograph (a tool used to diagnose and measure sleep disorders).

Studying 35 participants, the results showed that all devices accurately detected sleeping and wakeful states. However, the Oura Ring was best at discriminating between sleep stages, matching the polysomnograph with about 80% accuracy.

Published in the journal Sensors, the researchers wrote: “The Oura ring was not different from PSG [the polysomnograph] in terms of wake, light sleep, deep sleep, or REM sleep estimation.

“The Fitbit overestimated light (18 min; p < 0.001) sleep and underestimated deep (15 min; p < 0.001) sleep. The Apple underestimated the duration of wake (7 min; p < 0.01) and deep (43 min; p < 0.001) sleep and overestimated light (45 min; p < 0.001) sleep.

“In adults with healthy sleep, all the devices were similar to PSG in the estimation of sleep duration, with the devices also showing moderate to substantial agreement with PSG-derived sleep stages.”

While all three devices were accurate when it came to tracking wakefulness and sleep, the Apple Watch was the least accurate at measuring sleep stages overall. It’s worth noting that this test was conducted before the release of the Vitals app on watchOS 11, which has changed the way Apple tracks sleep using an Apple Watch. The Fitbit Sense 2, on the other hand, hasn’t changed the way it tracks sleep, so we can expect this to still be accurate, as far as it goes.

It’s worth noting that with only 35 participants tested the results might not be statistically significant, but the study is a good indication of what smart rings can do. The Oura Ring was the only device that stuck to the PSG’s readings throughout different sleep stages, while the watches either over or underestimated.

This could be due to the ring’s positioning on the hand, rather than on the wrist. In my briefing with Jason Russell, VP of Consumer Software Product at Ōura, it was mentioned that the ring’s placement on the finger was beneficial as the LED has a smaller distance to reach while measuring the blood flow than if the sensor was trying to get through your wrist, ensuring a more accurate measurement overall. The new Oura Ring 4 also mitigates this by offering more “pathways” for the sensors’ lights to follow.

If this is the case, then all of the best smart rings, such as the Samsung Galaxy Ring, could be considered more accurate than smartwatches for heart rate measurement and sleep tracking. Samsung even reports increased accuracy when the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 and Ring are used together. There’s also the aspect of being slightly more unplugged: wearing a smart ring instead of a smartwatch means there’s one less screen in your life, and they tend to last longer than many smartwatches: the Apple Watch Series 10 caps out at 18 hours, while the Oura Ring trucks along for around seven days.

I don’t think smartwatches are going to be entirely replaced just yet, though. Screens allow for a level of granularity and interaction that are just too useful for many people. This is especially important in the case of workouts: I use the screen on my best running watches to follow a preset route during runs and check my heart rate/pace at regular intervals. Just because a smart ring is slightly more accurate from a metrics perspective doesn’t mean it’s inherently more useful, and I could always pair my watch with one of the best heart rate monitors.

Nonetheless, a clinical study pitting the Oura Ring against not just other wearable devices, but a medical-grade PSG, means you can put your trust in its night-time metrics. It’s certainly a relief to Oura users: after all, those rings aren’t cheap and you want to know your expensive initial purchase (and ongoing subscription) is worth it.

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Fitbit’s much-anticipated AI chatbot powered by Google Gemini was first revealed back in October of last year at the Google Pixel 8 event. It's been a long wait for the AI health tool, which lets you ask Gemini about your workouts and general health, but users won’t have to wait much longer, as the chatbot is beginning public testing.

Google has launched its Fitbit Labs experimental feature program, which allows users to try out upcoming features before they're rolled out to the general public. One of these features is called Insight Explorer, and it allows Fitbit users to ask Gemini questions about their workouts using the fitness tracker. Gemini will then give users personalized insights to help tailor and improve their fitness.

This exciting addition to Fitbit will become readily available in the future; however, at the moment Fitbit Labs is only open to a limited number of people. In order to be eligible for Fitbit Labs you’ll need a to have Fitbit Premium subscription, use the Fitbit app on Android, live in the US with the app set to English, and be at least 18 years old. If you meet these requirements and are signed into Fitbit via your Google account then you may see an invitation to Insight Explorer lab on the Fitbit app’s You tab.

Fitbit notes that you'll need to wait 48 hours before asking Insight Explorer for details on a workout, and that due to its generative AI nature, there may be variances in the information the tool provides.

There aren’t any details on exactly how Google decides who gets Fitbit Labs access, so it's possible that you might meet the above criteria but still miss out. However, this is a positive sign that Google’s development of the feature is nearly ready for mass rollout. Until then check out our best Fitbit buying guide.

Gemini extends its reach

Just this week Google improved Gemini’s extensions with the addition of Gmail and more capabilities previously handled by Google Assistant, such as integration with apps like WhatsApp, Google Messages, and Spotify. With more services like Fitbit taking advantage of Google AI, it’s an exciting time as we continue to see new ways in which AI can help improve existing software rather than replace it.

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