Activity Groups have been closed

[MatthewFitbit]

Fitbit Update 6/14/19: We have removed the web-based activity groups from Fitbit.com. Our enhanced community features within the Fitbit mobile app provide users with a significantly better experience by allowing them to access fitness-related news and local events, connect and message with friends, discover public groups of like-minded individuals, and create their own private groups.

User-created groups on the Fitbit app also allow members to track their progress through group leaderboards and cheer each other on, just as they could through the web. The Fitbit mobile app is available for Android and iOS.

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As of 6/13/2019, Web Activity Groups have been deprecated and will no longer be accessible.

We know that many of you have used this space to connect with friends and fellow Fitbit users, and we recommend considering the in-app Fitbit Community to continue those conversations. Along with topical public threads where you can discuss personal health goals, the Community also offers closed groups with many advantages - including space for up to 2,000 members, and leaderboard statistics.

For more information on joining and inviting your friends to these closed groups, check out this article. We know that this kind of transition can be difficult, but we are confident that you'll find lots to love in the new Fitbit Community!

[bachman_marilyn]

Why can't I vote for some of these wonderful opinions? Everytime I try to vote a facebook sign in page appears. Very strange.

[alice44]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

@MattFitbit

You want more questions:

however, the community features within the Fitbit mobile app allow users to create their own private groups and invite others they know to join and grow the group.

...and what about others they don't know??? Like for example the hundreds on the diabetes activity group?

This can be done using Fitbit user names...

...and how many people as a % have unique usernames? Not very many.

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I don't actually know the people in my groups. In person I don't know more than one person who uses a Fitbit. The groups provided a great international group of peers with which to compare my own progress. The information was inspiring when I was doing badly and when I was doing well.

[klamana-finn]

My two community activity groups disappeared!  How do I get them back?

[Vincenza]

I went for a walk today and started to feel there was no point. That’s stupid I know, but I used to be motivated by the leaderboard. HOW do you set up anything or get to know anyone in the community set-up on the Fitbit app? I’ve looked at it and people just post their achievements and no one else even comments.  What’s that for? How can you find like-minded people anymore, without the public activity groups? I’ve lost friends. How can I find them again? 

[J-flex]

@Vincenza  I know is frustrating.  I’d walk in spite of Fitbit and all their fumbling.  Don’t let them get you down. 

[Vincenza]

Thanks J Flex! I know you’re right! But why do I feel this way? Why DON’T steps count if they’re not going towards your total on a leaderboard?  Why does leaving your Fitbit at home (I don't!) make the whole day seem sort of pointless - so you go back and get it…

[RIRedinPA]

I work in tech. Who the heck pulls down a feature before they have the replacement one available?

[J-flex]

@RIRedinPA   Fitbit is good at doing stuff that this.  Not their first & won’t be their last.

[Vincenza]

Bosco You seem pretty on top of things. If you can think of a way of sorting this, finding a new way of finding people to engage in friendly competitions, please let me know. I did try to send you a friend request earlier. Not sure if that worked.  This is the whole problem here. Because Fitbit ended this so abruptly, if you weren’t already Friends with someone, there’s no way of contacting them now. It’s really upsetting. With a couple of days warning, we could have put everyone we knew on our Friends lists.

[spalding]

I aggree, my fitbit has been replaced 3 times over the years. The groups and interaction were why I am around. I wont be replacing mine. I am already shopping the competitors products.

[SunsetRunner]

@Vincenza

Sadly, there is no way to replicate the web-based activity groups within the app framework.

[Bosco253]

@MattFitbit

I'm not sure if you are the same person as the "Matthew Fitbit" who was
eventually brought in to quell the insurgence in March of 2018, but if you
are, then perhaps you recall the scenario. A series of lower echelon
moderators made vague references to how your tech experts were working on a
fix and would keep us updated; then a week with go by with no new feedback
or explanation. That went on for weeks. At least when Carlos was brought in
the communication improved, even if the situation didn't. Eventually,
Matthew was brought in as the big gun to placate complainers because the
discord didn't disappear.

Last year's problems seem to have started out as incompetence and were
worsened by a lack of concern for Fitbit customers. Fitbit seemed to have
adopted the attitude that they knew what was best for their clientele, even
when that clientele was very specific about what they wanted. It was only
after a significant number of people remained vocal that Fitbit acquiesced.

Here were are now, approximately 15 months later and it is almost
incomprehensible that we have a very similar situation again. I'm not sure
whether Fitbit executives can actually be that obtuse or if they are
intentionally trying to pi$$ people off.

Your product teams need to realize that people are asking to return what
was there - NOT help people migrate to a mobile app. I think those of us
who have been thoroughly disenfranchised will find a way to migrate ... nut
not to the mobile app. We'll just migrate to a different company and other
fitness trackers. Fitbit isn't the only game in town.

For anyone who wants to know how this situation is analogous to last
year's, here is a link to one of my Facebook posts from February 2018.
Notice a pattern?
https://www.facebook.com/notes/terry-warren/unfitbit-fitbit/1697614756973497/

[SunsetRunner]

@Bosco253 

The most extraordinary thing about last year's effort was that Fitbit pretended for quite some time that it was a glitch of some kind, rather than policy.

I recall numerous people being told to <LOL> try a different browser...

[alice44]

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@Vincenza wrote:

I went for a walk today and started to feel there was no point. That’s stupid I know, but I used to be motivated by the leaderboard. HOW do you set up anything or get to know anyone in the community set-up on the Fitbit app? I’ve looked at it and people just post their achievements and no one else even comments.  What’s that for? How can you find like-minded people anymore, without the public activity groups? I’ve lost friends. How can I find them again? 

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It is sort of funny how important this feed back is, except that this kind of feedback is exactly the reason we wear the things, so it shouldn't be all that surprising. This loss is astonishingly demoralizing.

[Bosco253]

@SunsetRunner
Right. I recall that also. Worse than my lack of trust in their competence
is my lack of trust in their willingness to listen to customers. I remember
being told to try a different browser also. Just how much time did they
think they could buy with that? Last year's fiasco lasted the better part
of 2 months!

[SunsetRunner]

@Bosco253 

What genuinely puzzles me about all this is: why are they doing it? The web dashboard shouldn't need any updating or new code or anything else - it's just sat there. Ditto the activity groups. It's very rare these days for a Windows or iOS update to mess with HTML webpages...

Evidently this is *not* true with the (various) Fitbit apps on various platforms and a zillion different mobile devices.

[checking]

@Bosco253 @SunsetRunner My personal belief is that last year's fiasco was an intentionally introduced glitch and then they played (poorly) delaying games hoping the complaints would fade away with community groups dying a quiet death. Either they are stupid (to think we would believe them) or incompetent - anyone who has done any software development knows that you keep backups (quite possibly many) of prior working versions. At most it should take only a couple of hours to reload and check the relevant modules. When complaints didn't fade away, they decided they had to make it work again.

This time they don't have the excuse of an unfindable bug - they know exactly what they did and can reverse it quickly. It is up to us to keep complaining, if we don't, there certainly will be no return of the AGs.     

[SunsetRunner]

m[ne are gone also.

[PatrickCraig]

I was in a group called Fitbit Over 70 .I would check it often and it was a real incentive for me. Do I understand that such groups have been cancelled? 

[LyndiVM]

I think the decision to disband the community groups STINKS!  I create team challenges for a couple of Facebook groups and have used the 7-day and monthly leaderboard numbers in them.  The closed group leaderboards on the app do not give me the same options and information and so now I have to completely regroup and figure out alternatives.  And sadly, the leaderboard on the app closed group does not show the same information.