Versa 2, Ionic, and Versa 3 Connectivity Issues?

[RocketManDon]

Hello,

I'm a long term Pebble developer and miss the platform dearly. After Fitbit purchased Pebble I had high hopes of developing within the Fitbit ecosystem. I purchased a Fitbit Ionic for $300 when it was initially released. I started developing on the Ionic and loved initially developing for the smartwatch, but quickly realized that there were tons of connectivity issues between sending data between the watch and the phone. Many others had the same issue that I was seeing. It made fetching data from online sources incredibly unreliable. This greatly limited what kind of apps I could develop. I gave up developing fitbit apps until my wife received her Versa 2. Again I tried to develop on the Versa 2 platform and it had the same issues. (I have like 3 apps ready to be published, but never could due to these issues)

I pulled my Ionic out of my draw the other day and it refuses to turn on. (Makes me sad that it failed when it's not even being used) No biggie - Fitbit and their awesome customer service sent me a coupon for a discount on a smartwatch. The only problem is it doesn't work for any of the smartwatches except for Versa 2. The same one I have had issues with developing on in the past. 😞 

So my question to the community is: Has the connectivity issues between the Versa 2 and Phone been fixed? Are there similar issues on the Versa 3 or were they fixed thanks to hardware upgrades?

BTW: I've had these connectivity issues with at least 3 different phone models and all these watches. 

I was using the Messaging and File Transfer APIs when communicating information between the phone and device. So my typical flow was Watch --> Send text base message to phone --> Phone parses message and fetches data from an API I made --> API returns JSON --> Phone sends watch the JSON file. 

Thank you!

[RocketManDon]

You will be happy to know that I just purchased a Versa 2 with the discount code. I'm still curious is people are experiencing connectivity issues as I described above with Versa 2 or 3? It was years ago, so hopefully the software/hardware is better. 🙂

[JonFitbit · Accepted solution]

You might be interested in reading this blog post about the replacement of the communications stack on device and mobile. https://eng.fitbit.com/introducing-project-golden-gate/

[RocketManDon]

Thank you so much for communicating the article. I found it and https://eng.fitbit.com/what-is-bitgatt-and-why-do-we-need-it/ both very informative. Sounds like Fitbit is aware of some of the issues. Android and Bluetooth fragmentation is always something we will have to deal with, and I feel fitbit's pain. 

I'm receiving a Versa 2 here in a few days since my discount didn't apply to Versa 3. Do you know if there are any differences between Versa 2 vs Versa 3 for the Bluetooth framework? 

Heard Google acquired fitbit and hope the best for fitbit and all its workers. Hoping it provides more resources to your company. ❤️ 

Thank you,

-Don

[RocketManDon]

I just read the forum post about Versa 2 and Versa 3 having a split API version. Looks like I'm going to sell my Versa 2 arriving in the mail and purchase a Versa 3. 😂

-Don