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!

[Vincenza]

Following on to my earlier “theories” about this whole fiasco, as I’ve been out walking  (yes after a bit of a downer I shall carry on regardless, whatever, in no small way thanks to the new leaderboard you invited us to join, Bruce. Thank you so much!) I’ve carried on thinking, The birds singing and the trees help with that.... anyway, it’s worrying me that I may have come over as a bit unfair to some of you. I think the market for Fitbit in the USA is very different to here in U.K. I don’t think they’ve caught on here as much as there. I know very few people who wear them and those that do often lose interest after a few months. . They don’t stick with it like me, why is that? Anyway, I’ve made it my mission to spot Fitbit Wearers. Now is the time to spot people wearing them as it’s warming up and we don’t have our arms covered up. Before you couldn’t see the Fitbit One, but as they’re no longer available, they would all be wrist worn? So I should see them? Yes? And I’m NOT seeing them. None, Not anywhere. I belong to a very popular gym. I go in the evening when all the younger ones go after a day at work. No one I can see is wearing one. All I see are arm strapped devices usually. Phones? And what look like Apple watches. Maybe Versas? Not sure. 

The biggest wearers of Fitbit here in U.K., as far as I can see are older people, women (I’ve definitely  seen a couple of women wearing  them walking down the canal towpath where I walk) and children. Half the children in my 11 year old granddaughter’s class at school are wearing Fitbits. She tells me the boys keep getting into trouble for waving their arms about under the desks during lessons! 

It’s great, but I don’t think this is the serious brand image Fitbit is after. Is it? 

I just keep looking for an answer. Why? Is this why they removed the groups for us? They want to be up there with the big guys? 

[SD_Beaker]

This is absolutely LAME!  This was exactly the feature that got us purchase fitbits!  Our boss gave us all fitbits for a holiday gift.  Then we had a work challenge going on where at the end of each month, the steps and activity duration could be compared and the winner would be recognized at the monthly dinner.  With this feature gone, it's not clear if the fitbit have any value left.

VERY DISAPPOINTING.

[pikachuck]

I have seen several people mention that groups was shutdown about a year ago and then brought back.

Does anyone know why all of that transpired?

I have first hand experience of the challenges of trying to keep several platforms (iPhone, Androi, Web, Zune 😉 all operating in a compatible manner as you try to make enhancements and improvements. It is a pain and expensive. Obviously FitBit has not been hitting it out of the park for its investors. Belts are probably being tightened. I did try the mobile app and the mobile groups and I am flummoxed as to how they could be characterized as an improvement.

Are all of the mobile app features released. It seems like things are at least a year out.

[AnotherNewbie]

I also used Fitbit for that fun part of comparing with others, now I do not see the value in the Fitbit any more.

Fitbit, can this come back please?
W


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[SunsetRunner]

@MatthewFitbitwhy can it not be turned back on, at least long enough for users to create their own groups. 

Fitbit gave no notice. 

Fitbit took something of value away. 

Fitbit needs fix this.

Then this thread can end and everyone can be somewhat happy then.

If this can not be addressed in a correct and timely manner I am sad to say I will be going the way of Garmin.

[checking]

I though it might be interesting to get the take from a company that uses Fitbit (and others) data to create leaderboards similar to the ones lost. Here's the blog from the Count.it website. 

[DWinie]

Fitbit has been a great product for motivation to maintain and increase health awareness, but the main reason I have remained a customer and bought so many devices is the participation in the activity group I took part in. It is the only thing that separates them from better technology elsewhere. I will be leaving Fitbit after this change and not returning. I want to say that I have appreciated the way they designed their site from the beginning, but I cannot remain a loyal customer after they handled this the way they did. 

[Anniea1]

As others have stated, the way that the closing of the activity groups was handled will play a large part in my decision how to proceed.  As my device is pretty ready for replacement (cracked screen) anyway, it's just a matter now of deciding what device/manufacturer I will go with.  There were two groups that were important to me: one for the small city in which I live and one for the university at which I work.  I know that I may never have something like these again, although I hope I do.  But I do know that my next device won't be a Fitbit, and that's 100% because of the way in which the groups were eliminated.  Had this been handled differently, I would have been very disappointed and might have gone to a different company's product anyway, but I would have at least understood the reasons for the company's plan to discontinue this particular feature.  In all aspects of my life I place a high value on transparency and honest communication, and this was way over the line. 

[PatrickCraig]

My devise is also cracked and ready for replacement. I was looking at a new Fitbit but that won't happen now. I will be exploring for a new one.

[gideon02]

Sorry Matt. I'm done with Fitbit.

No inclusion with and for customers

No transparency

No communication of merit

goodbye

[Bosco253]

@pikachuck stated:
I have seen several people mention that groups was shutdown about a year
ago and then brought back.

Does anyone know why all of that transpired?

My conjecture:
When we lost groups in 2018, the claim was that it was a glitch and that
their engineers were working on a fix. I now believe that Fitbit was
floating a balloon to see whether they could dismantle groups at that time
without losing too big a share of their consumer base. I believe that
getting rid of groups was their intention last year, but they acquiesced
after there was so much push-back that they realized the discontent wasn't
going to go away. Groups were gone all of February and most of March.
Access to leaderboards disappeared before I could give accolades to people
in the group I manage for their January achievements.

I posit that Fitbit is guilty of ageism. I think that they are trying to
change their branding image. Not understanding that we old fogies have a
better history of brand loyalty than other demographic age groups, Fitbit
is willing to cast us aside. They don't want to be associated as a company
whose target market came of age during the last millennium. How many older
people are represented in their advertisements? Not nearly as many as there
were a half dozen years ago.

I speculate that many, maybe even most, of the users who utilzed the old
groups and their leaderboards were baby boomers who checked their status
and data via laptops and desktops, or at least tablets, rather than
smartphones. I am a sexagenarian who has absolutely no interest in using my
smartphone for any Fitbit activity beside joining challenges and checking
on those challenges. I use my desktop for interacting within the community
groups and the group leaderboards (or at least I used to, before Fitbit
jettisoned those groups). Fitbit's response to the complaints regarding the
loss of the old web-based groups is the new app offers a much better
experience. Perhaps for the people developping those apps, but not for me.

[Vincenza]

Yes, Bosco. This is what I was trying to say. You have worded it perfectly. The more I think about it the more obvious it seems. This is exactly what is going on, HAS been going on, all along - starting with the “blip” last year. That was no technical glitch. I bet you’re right about that too. 

The activity groups are not coming back and we will have to decide each of us how best to carry on without them.  Fitbit know that eventually one way or another we will do this. Rant, stamp, sulk? Throw our Fitbits in the bin? Buy a different brand? They don’t care. They’re after the younger ones. The ones who didn't even know the activity groups existed. 

Whatever you do decide to do though, don’t stop now. Find incentive elsewhere. Keep moving! 

[treeman_22ca]

My Band broke yesterday so there is no need to have it as just a watch.  Not even going to buy a new band to keep it going.   With the only thing that kept with fit bit is now deleted.  I am done.  Good Luck

[TB5918]

Well, this is entirely unhelpful. I'm currently having problems accessing the Fitbit app and logging in, and now because of this change, cannot communicate with anyone in my Fitbit groups.

A single point of access is a single point of failure. You have no user interface redundancy. 

I hope you can appreciate how frustrating this is.

[TB5918]

I am having problems logging into the Fitbit app, and so cannot access any of the "enhanced community features within the Fitbit mobile app." How do you propose I get around this problem?

[MatthewFitbit]

@Vincenza @Bosco253 PResumably you are referring to this outage last year. I can confirm that this was indeed a bug that our team resolved, and not something carried out intentionally.

@TB5918 If you're having trouble logging into the app, I'd recommend resetting your password as detailed here. If you need further help, reach out to our support team so they can assist.

[Smitty0324]

I currently run a Fitbit challenge and we have purchased around 30 fitbits for our employees. Activity groups were literally the only reason we bought them. I was able to track the steps and the employees were rewarded with cash if they met a step goal each month. Fitbit better have a good reason for taking them away because if there is not an equivalent, we will be taking our business elsewhere. 

P.S. We were planning on buying everyone new Fitbit's soon, but that's not happening now. 

[UnicornJean]

@MatthewFitbit 

If you would, please remind Fitbit management that I also predicted that companies would not be happy with this removal. Companies that were willing to have employees join an open group are not willing to spend employee time to go through and create the "in app" private groups. Since they cannot use emails to create the groups, some poor soul must become friends with the employees so as to create the groups.

Fitbit might not mind losing the stray customer who prefers computers over smart phones. Maybe they can also throw away their "loyal customer" demographic of baby boomers. Can they throw away corporations that bought multiple items for their employees?

Just something more for them to consider as it appears the only rational, popular solution is to bring back the activity groups.

[bobrobert]

Thank you Wendy

[Bosco253]

@MatthewFitbit posted " @Vincenza

@Bosco253

PResumably
you are referring to this outage

last
year. I can confirm that this was a indeed bug that our team resolved, and
not something carried out intentionally. "

Yes, Matthew; that is indeed the outage to which I was referring. Thank you
for setting the record straight on that being an actual bug and not
something intentional. I appreciate that you read the comments and reply.
I am curious, however, as to exactly when, how, and why Fitbit's concern
for the * importance of activity groups to [its] customers *ceased being a
priority for the company. Following is an update posted during last year's
debacle, when the expressed company line at least gave lip-service to
respecting consumer wishes. (Emphasis added)


*Fitbit Update 02/17/2018-- * I understand that patience might be wearing
thin and sincerely sympathize with all of your concerns. I want to let you
know that I've been in contact with the team, letting them know *the
importance of activity groups to our customers. *Rest assured, our engineering
team is continuing to work on getting a fix pushed out as soon as they
can. Thanks
again for your reports and I'll update the thread when I hear something new.

Again, I am curious as to why consumer demands are being ignored. I have
asked this question repeatedly, as have others, and no
satisfactory response has been proffered. What we hear instead is that the
new app will provide a much better experience, even after a segment of your
consumer base is telling you otherwise.

Several of us have posited that ageism is at work here. Quite a few of your
"chronologically experienced" users have stated that they prefer to use the
larger screens of desktops and laptops as opposed to navigating via
smartphones. Perhaps Fitbit feels that being perceived as having a more
aged demographic consumer base creates a branding issue for the company as
it vies with the competition to attract new customers. My theory is that
this indeed is a large part of what is at play here. I'd have a lot more
respect for Fitbit if they'd be more transparent about their seminal
rationale rather than the failed attempts to assuage us with platitudes.

You know, it's not even that we seniors aren't hip enough to use apps on
our smartphones. I still use my Fitbit app to do the same things I was
doing before - checking my stats and accepting and monitoring challenges. I
utilized the web-based groups to monitor progress within groups, to
encourage members of the two groups I actively managed, and to download
spreadsheet data. I have no interest in adding yet another app to my
phone, engaging in power-eating and storage-eating activities.

I am not a programmer or engineer, although some responding here who are
seem to share my query as to why the former web-based community group
system cannot exist concurrently with whatever new doohickey you are
rolling out are. Telling us that there are no plans to reverse the decision
does not address our concerns or our desire for rationale. We ask "Why?"
and you say "Because."

"Because" is not an acceptable answer.

Again, I wish to thank you for addressing my remark asserting that last
year's outage was an intentional effort to jettison groups. While the
motivation may have been to defend the company, I take you at your word and
accept your explanation. I would appreciate the same courtesy of
explanation for the questions that I have posed yet again.