"Extraordinarily Disappointed" Users Reckon With the Google-fication of Fitbit (arstechnica.com) 45
Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from Ars Technica, written by Scharon Harding: Since the acquisition closed in 2021, the Google-fication of Fitbit has largely meant a reduction in features and a focus from Google on getting people onto the Fitbit app. Long-time users have flocked to Fitbit -- sometimes upon Fitbit's request -- to share hundreds of complaints about recent changes. However, Google has been mostly unresponsive to customer feedback. [...] It's worth mentioning that users disgruntled with Fitbit are more likely to complain online. However, it's notable that Fitbit's announcement has been met with 1,523 (as of this writing) mostly negative replies, with new responses still coming in. Another thread on Fitbit's forum that requests to keep the web dashboard currently has 601 upvotes. You can find outraged users on Reddit, too.
The most common complaints are around losing previously available features. "Change is fine. Removing key features is not," Community member Seymourh86 wrote in June. "Unless you want people to go to competitors..." Comments from this week show that users are not over the change. DebL555, for example, said today that they're "extremely disappointed and frustrated I cannot access my Dashboard on my PC." Yesterday, NessWeb dubbed the change "an incredibly bad decision," adding: "It's particularly awful for anyone with a visual disability or a finger dexterity issue. It's still bad for everyone else because you just can't see as much on a 3" screen as you can see on a real computer ... Bring back the web interface!!"
As has been the case every time there have been problems with Fitbit post-acquisition, theories that Google is making Fitbit worse to push people toward the Pixel Watch run rampant. Others on the Community forum were upset because they felt like Google was ignoring feedback from longtime Fitbit customers. In June, a user going by jessicabilasano wrote: "I just hope Fitbit does not end up like any other Google purchase that turns into a nightmare product/company. Google, instead of removing things that users love about Fitbit features, why not improve them? Listen to your customers/consumers." However, a lack of response to public negative customer feedback has become commonplace for the Fitbit brand lately. "Users seek alternatives as Google is intent on app-centric focus," captions schwit1. "Google ruins everything, it's already ruined Google."
The most common complaints are around losing previously available features. "Change is fine. Removing key features is not," Community member Seymourh86 wrote in June. "Unless you want people to go to competitors..." Comments from this week show that users are not over the change. DebL555, for example, said today that they're "extremely disappointed and frustrated I cannot access my Dashboard on my PC." Yesterday, NessWeb dubbed the change "an incredibly bad decision," adding: "It's particularly awful for anyone with a visual disability or a finger dexterity issue. It's still bad for everyone else because you just can't see as much on a 3" screen as you can see on a real computer ... Bring back the web interface!!"
As has been the case every time there have been problems with Fitbit post-acquisition, theories that Google is making Fitbit worse to push people toward the Pixel Watch run rampant. Others on the Community forum were upset because they felt like Google was ignoring feedback from longtime Fitbit customers. In June, a user going by jessicabilasano wrote: "I just hope Fitbit does not end up like any other Google purchase that turns into a nightmare product/company. Google, instead of removing things that users love about Fitbit features, why not improve them? Listen to your customers/consumers." However, a lack of response to public negative customer feedback has become commonplace for the Fitbit brand lately. "Users seek alternatives as Google is intent on app-centric focus," captions schwit1. "Google ruins everything, it's already ruined Google."
Google CEO needs to get replaced... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
On what grounds? A CEO's job isn't to make a few customers from an aquisition happy. It's to keep the share price up.
Tell me on this graph, where is the justification to replace the CEO: https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com], make sure you click YTD since he took over as CEO basically just after Alphabet was incorporated.
Re: (Score:1)
As a google shareholder, I am certainly concerned when there are unhappy customers - especially when on a forum as widely read as Slashdot. It's not good business to have pissed off customers.
Re: Google CEO needs to get replaced... (Score:2)
I asked chatgpt if shareholder values was the main reason for corporation to exist. The short answer was no. The full answer doesn't need to be pasted here.
But this gem was part of it.
Customer Satisfaction: Providing high-quality products and services that meet the needs and expectations of customers is essential for maintaining a loyal customer base.
Re: (Score:2)
"I asked chatgpt if shareholder values was the main reason for corporation to exist. The short answer was no."
Proving yet again that you don't go to ChatGPT if you want answers connected to reality.
Re: Google CEO needs to get replaced... (Score:2)
I could have used a different source.
Companies have responsibilities to many stakeholders not just their shareholders. Customers are just one category of stakeholders involved.
If shareholder value is pursued at the expense of anything else, this would fit with the definition of sociopathic capitalism. You can research it if you like. Google actually meets the majority of the defining criteria. One being short-term focus on profits, rather than playing the long game. There is no tech company I know that fit
Re: (Score:2)
Historically speaking, I think a CEO's job may have been to keep profits up. Share price was kind of used as a proxy. But sure, nowadays it's become the main show.
I'm not sure that's a good or even an acceptable thing, mind. The share price tends to go up and down based more on the emotions of the shareholders and the marketplace at large than on rational projections of business success.
There is a place on the Google Graveyard (Score:5, Insightful)
for every Google app or product!
negative goodwill (Score:1)
Garmin (Score:4, Informative)
I gave up on my Fitbit and got a Garmin.
Tracker watches seem much more integral to Garmin's business success.
Google can toy with Fitbit like a cat toys with an injured mouse and be no worse off if it meets the same fate as the mouse.
Nothing is perfect, DYOR.
Re: (Score:2)
I was chatting with a guy a couple years ago and he mentioned he used to work for the fitbit team. He was wearing a Garmin. That pretty much told me all I needed to know, but I got one for my wife over Christmas and it's just so much better than my Fitbit Sense (and WAY better than any of the android wear devices I'd owned previously).
Re: (Score:2)
Nothing is perfect, DYOR.
This. Unfortunately. Literally no product out there is perfect. They all range in price, capability, build quality, data access, app quality. They all have ups and downs.
I like my Huawei. I hate that I can't export data.
My colleague loves his Garmin, at least he did until his band snapped and they wanted 1/3 of the cost of the entire watch for a replacement (for me it was only $20)
Re: Garmin (Score:2)
Had a Garmin vivosmart 4 . I loved it. But the band broke and was not replaceable. It became e-waste.
I have a Fitbit Charge 5 now.
I have macular degeneration.
I seldom use the screen on it for anything.
The smartphone app is still usable on my s22 ultra . I don't know for how much longer.
"Google announces Fitbit project to end" (Score:2, Interesting)
You know this headline is coming.
It's in the air, you can taste it.
Not sure what I'll use after they kill it or make it unusable. I see other people on this article talking about Garmin.
Suggestions highly welcomed.
Re: "Google announces Fitbit project to end" (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I have two vivosmart 4s, lets me always have one charged and running, and they are very nice and superior to the Fitbit Charges in every way. Except for the band not being replaceable.
I dropped mine the second they required linking to (Score:4, Insightful)
google account. I got a Garmin replacement, and while more expensive, it's much better in every way.
Re: (Score:3)
I used to sync from all of the various providers so I know how they all work. Garmin sucks if you have no internet. It's impossible to see any of the data until you sync and that requires an internet connection.
Sadly Apple is by far the best in this field right now because it stores all the data on the phone and you don't need the internet to see it.
Somehow Garmin completely forgot that the most active users are somewhere off the grid when doing their thing.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Garmin sucks if you have no internet. It's impossible to see any of the data until you sync and that requires an internet connection.
If this were true - which it *very* clearly is not - I must be hallucinating all those stats I can review whilst out on my morning jog.... far away from any form of connectivity.
Re: (Score:2)
What model and software? I have a Garmin triathlon watch, and I can easily review all the data from an activity at any time, on the watch's display, even far from an internet connection.
You got it wrong, jessicabilasano (Score:4, Insightful)
Listen to your customers/consumers."
You're not the customer, you're the product.
Google-fication (Score:4, Insightful)
Google-fication is just a special case of enshitification. Pretty much all Google products are well into their enshitification phase.
Re: (Score:2)
Could Google-fication be repeated enshitification googol times?
I wanted a simple walking app (Score:2)
All I wanted was a simple app that kept track of how far you walked.
I don't want to create an account to use it
I don't need to set goals
I don't need to count steps
I don't want to share my progress with others
Years ago when I had an Android phone one such app fit the bill. Today I don't think it exists.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd be surprised if nothing on Android does this. It's built into iOS. You could probably just use any number of running apps and ignore the extras.
Re: (Score:2)
Step count isn't accurate on your phone. Get a watch. If you must the Samsung Health app might work. I haven't used it in years but it used to not require an internet connection.
Re: (Score:2)
I use an app called Runner Up for tracking my bicycling. I got it from F-Droid [f-droid.org] but a Google search shows it might be in the Play store, too. It is open source so more trustworthy than the average privacy invading app.
No account needed. There are apparently ways to add account information to share stuff if you want, but I've never done that.
Though I see now you imply that you don't have an Android phone anymore, so this might not help you, I'm posting this in case others are interested in the same thing.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, it does indeed exist on Android: https://f-droid.org/en/package... [f-droid.org]
Why? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
wonder what would happen if (Score:1)
wonder what would happen if those that own fitbits and have had functionality reduced went back to the retailer and demanded refunds - this is no longer the product they chose and paid for, they have been fundamentally changed, not cosmetically, or if did charge backs on credit cards for the devices as the functionality they paid for is no longer being provided.
Companies don't care about complaints and forums, legal and monetary costs are the only things that sway their paths...
To be honest, I'm beyond frus
The competition is actually amazing (Score:3)
And the Garmin app doesn't have Premium nags on literally every screen, pop-up ads, or slide-out screens nagging you to sign up for a subscription for Deepak Chopra's pseudoscientific woo bullshit. I can't believe I actually had to patch the fitbit APK to get rid of that nonsense. Yes, Garmin's app store app ("Connect IQ") is as terrible as Fitbit's, but the general day-to-day Garmin app (Connect) works very well.
Yes, Fitbit finally offered to combine the discount from my two most recent broken fitbits towards buying a third (it would have been ~60% off), but not after I sent them a return receipt and a photo of a Garmin product on order. But, I'm not going back.
I feel Garmin quietly came into the casual fitness market by leveraging a lot of learnings from their high-end lines. They don't just have a bunch of watches, but they have their own SDK, simulator, toolchain, API docs, and language. It's a weird mix of C++ and Javascript but it works well enough, especially if you're targeting modern watches which have about 10x the RAM of the older ones. The lack of obnoxious vendor lockdown (compared to fitbit) is somewhat refreshing. Want to sync your fitbit device? Gotta go through the shitty app, and be a slave to the cloud. Garmin seamlessly does that too, but you have additional options. The charger cable doubles as a USB transfer cable and you can just plug the watch into a laptop and see a filesystem, grab your
I'm happy (Score:2)
It was an I told you so moment when my wife's fitbit got stuck on the logo and nothing would fix it not even Google. A coupon for a discount just doesn't cut it.
One more person converted not to to buy anything that requires Internet to work when it really doesn't have to.
"However, McDonalds has been... (Score:2)
...mostly unresponsive to beef cattle feedback".
Re: (Score:2)
MooooO?
Alternate meaning for 3E's (Score:2)
Fitbit was awful from the start (Score:2)
Google has just turned the knob to 11ty
Fitbit's connectivity and patching in particular was a shiatshow.
Got a Garmin and it was like a breath of fresh air. Rugged design. Great connectivity. Decent app support.
Hasn't been recalled yet for exploding....
They trashed my Fitbit (Score:2)
I wanted the fitbit primarily to enhance my sleep or at least better understand it. But the fitbit didn't help. A placebo group with a duck analyzing their sleep would have probably gotten just as accurate a reading as I did.
So I started using it as a less intrusive alarm clock. Which stopped working the moment I let the fitbit's battery dry out once. At that point, the internal clock wasn't correct anymore. To get that right, all you can do is sync it with the app.
Unfortunately, that doesn't work anymore.
I switched to an Oura ring (Score:2)
and i'm never going back to Fitbit.
Oura has much better technology and a much more usable app. WHich by the way integrates with your iPhones much much better.
Here's an idea.. (Score:2)
1. Create a bundle of existing FOSS packages with bullet-proof instructions which allow even unsophisticated Windows users to set up their own Fitbit server.
2. Create a new FOSS package which both replicates the lost Fitbit functionality and keeps their data out of corporations' hands.
3. (non) Profit!
Not the Reason (Score:2)
Nest (Score:1)
On the same Note, Nest Thermostats haven't seen software updates or new functionality for years. At least features haven't been removed.
Heck with Google... (Score:2)
... I'm still salty at Fitbit for killing the Pebble II watches.
I still use a Pebble Time. It doesn't do as much as newer watches, but it does the things it does really well.