Any plans for a Fitbit Lite app that does not require Location?

[gardengal4]

I am considering purchasing the Luxe to upgrade from my current Fitbit One.   But it is a dealbreaker for me to keep Location on my phone for my tracker to sync.   I read this

The location permission helps your Fitbit device sync with the Fitbit app on your phone and supports features like the Weather app, notifications, and GPS, depending on your device.

If you don't want to share your location, you can turn off the location permission for the Fitbit app on your phone.

I thought it was always the case that tracker syncing is done via bluetooth.  Is that no longer true?    Location was mandatory to install the app. The bolded sentence implies it is not mandatory.   What will happen when Location is turned off?

I have been syncing my One via my Android 7 tablet.  But the latest Fitbit App is not compatible with my tablet.    Just for ha-ha's I attempted to install the latest Fitbit app on my phone  (samsung s8 android 9) and it was a mess.  Not only couldn't I sync the One (I think it's because the One is too old), I couldn't get the App to stop attempting to sync and pushing fail notifications even after I did a force-stop and killed the background process.  The process kept restarting.    I had to uninstall it. 

That experience does not make me feel warm and fuzzy about using the Fitbit app to sync a potential new Luxe.  If I could sync the Luxe on my tablet, that would be swell.  It mostly stays plugged in so I don't care about background services as much as I do on my phone. I don't care about routes or connected GPS.  My tracker needs are quite minimal - steps, and a few other things will do the trick.  I don't need or want my phone on my wrist.  Just want a simple tracker, not another computer!!  

And I want the Fitbit Lite app to be compatible with Android 7 -- not requiring Location.   Rather annoyed that you dropped support for Android 7.

Without a better app, I probably will have to explore other tracker options or just keep using the One until it dies.

[Odyssey13]

Hi @gardengal4  using Android 9 myself on a Samsung Galaxy S8 phone and to test it, I turned off location and tried to sync. I couldn't sync until I enabled location. You can turn off location when you want to sync and/or just log out of the app until you want to sync. I have the Luxe, but I do know people sure did love their One. Even if you got a newer tablet, you'd still need location on in order to sync. Wish there was a true solution for you.

[BraulioFitbit]

Nice to see you here, @gardengal4. I appreciate the assistance provided, @Odyssey13.

@gardengal4 Fitbit devices still sync using your phone's Bluetooth. As stated on this help article: "Google added the locations permission requirement to alleviate concerns that Bluetooth beacons can be used to track your location without your permission during a Bluetooth low energy scan, such as the scan required to sync your tracker. By granting the Fitbit app permission to access your location, your tracker will be able to sync, but your location won't be recorded or tracked by Fitbit." For more details about Android and location services, you can check this website.

This is not an exclusive requirement from Fitbit, this is a requirement for any Bluetooth Low Energy device that you want to pair to your mobile device. It was implemented when Android 6 was released so it's not possible to develop an app for these type of Bluetooth devices on Android 7 without requesting access to location. You can turn off the location services for the Fitbit app but you will be prompted to turn it on in order to sync your device.

In case that you experience some trouble syncing your One you can always try the troubleshooting steps listed on this help article: Why won't my Fitbit device sync? to sync with your phone since one of the minimum requirements is to have installed Android 8 or higher. If you experienced trouble downloading the app on your phone, please share more details of what happened.

Thanks for stopping by, see you around.

[gardengal4]

Thanks for the response, but I am not sure about all that location/bluetooth relationship because I use other bt devices with Android 9 without Location, but will leave that for the moment.  The comment "...your location will not be recorded ... by Fitbit" sounds weird if you have to have Location turned on.   There is no way to confirm it is not being recorded.  We take G's word for it?  

Regarding "...to sync with your phone since one of the minimum requirements is to have installed Android 8 or higher."  ...

That is a brand new requirement.  The fitbit app on my tablet is old and predates that requirement.  It was working just fine for years on Android 7 until last week when the app (v2.something) logged itself out and won't log back in.    I suspect something happened on the server side that killed the older app's access.

See https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Android-App/Does-new-update-kill-older-Fitbit-app-versions/m-p/49836...

[BraulioFitbit]

Hi, @gardengal4.

Fitbit will track your location only when you start an exercise using the Exercise feature with your phone's GPS or when you use the Connected GPS function (depending on your Fitbit device) on your Fitbit device. Otherwise, the app won't track your location. Regarding the minimum requirements, as mentioned on the post that you shared "you can still continue syncing your Fitbit using Android OS 7. However, if the app is uninstalled, you won't be able to install it again." For that reason we recommend to check your Android's version before uninstalling the app on your phone or tablet.

Regarding the login issue, it will happen if you typed your email or password incorrectly. One way to verify that everything is correct is trying to login on the Fitbit's website and, if you receive the same error message (invalid email or password), you'll know that one of those is incorrect. The Fitbit app will log you out if you don't use it for a long time or if you clear the app's data from your phone's settings.

Hope this information helps.

[gardengal4]

• Tablet's old fitbit App was not uninstalled.  Fortunately, thoughts of upgrading were not realized because the Play store did not have an available app for the device
• Password/username are verified on website and phone login.
• App Data was not cleared.   App cache was cleared in an attempt to fix login issue to no affect.
• Attempts to reset password fail with errors accessing fitbit.com

I still can't login on app on tablet on 7.0 no matter what. All these links to the same tips are not working as stated several times.   This has to be a server side issue.   What other piece of software could possibly determine "invalid email/password" besides a server component??

We are overloading this thread.  I still think there is a need for a Fitbit Lite app, for folks who just want a step tracker and not a computer on their wrist.  Maybe we need a Fitbit Two device with its own matching simple app.  Yeah!  That's what I really want!!!  

[Rich_Laue]

@gardengal4 changing the app version on the phone, will not change the options on the tracker. 

BTW, recently apple also added the requirement for full location services while doing a BT Low Energy. If your BT devices are not of the Low Energy then this will not be a requirement. 

[BraulioFitbit]

Hi, @gardengal4.

Thanks for the update. It's not usual that you can login on your online dashboard but not on the Fitbit app. As recommended on your other post, you can contact our Support team by chat or calling them so they can investigate if this is related to the Fitbit servers or related to your account.

Have a nice day.