Google Pixel 2 & XL Compatibility

[JakeDubbs]

Why, why on God's green earth is this fitbit ionic not compatible with one of the top flagship phones for this year. I've seen some half **ahem** answers to this question but none that actually fully explain why fitbit has dropped the ball on the compatibility. There has to be plenty of other people out there that agree how stupid this is on fitbits part that still hasn't found a solution to this after 2 months of this phones release.  

[SunsetRunner]

Hmm, and last thing, on the watch itself, when you are on the home screen, if you swipe to the right to get the additional settings screen, presumably Notifications is set to 'receive from phone' ?

[leanne86]

I don't have a screen to access any setting on the watch. The flex 2 it ls
only a wrist band and no face

[Ashschreck]

It turns out I had to restart my phone and just like that it works.

[leanne86]

Hi I have tried that 😣 and didn't work. Do you have the Google pixel 2xl??
I'm starting to wonder if I have a faulty flex 2. My Google pixel connects
just fine to two cars a smart TV and a fossil smart watch without any
problem

[CoopKill]

Do you have an Ionic, or is this with the flex?

My Ionic works well with a Pixel 2 XL

[CoopKill]

Also delete the  fitbit bluetooth profile from your phones bluetooth menu, and reconnect. If there is a way to reset/restart your fitbit, do that before reconnecting. (I have a different fitbit, so unsure)

You may want to post this in the flex2 section for better answers.

[leanne86]

Morning finally got the lights to flash but now the vibrate won't work. To
do this I had to delete/unpair all other Bluetooth devices (cars/tv etc).
I have tried the restart a few times and nothing, another post says to
contact support so I will do that. Thank you for your help

[RM82326]

Leanne86

I hope you get a good support person.  

My Pixel 2 and Charge 2 sync off and on.  My steps and other functions work perfect, but my notification (phone - messages) are hit or miss.

Good Luck

[leanne86]

Hi the one I spoke to 1st told me to try the reset that I had already done,
done it again anyway just in case but still no change emailed them back and
they asked for details of when I bought it etc and I have a replacement
pebble on it's way in the post. My pebble doesn't even vibrate when I put
it in the charging dock so think it's faulty

[MaginB]

Hi everyone! Thanks for taking the time to share all the troubleshooting that have worked or you so far, let me help you out. 

Regarding the Pixel 2 compatibility as of right now, we still don't have any news on making the Pixel 2 compatible with Fitbit. I'd recommend keeping an eye on the list of compatible devices for any update, in the meantime we can not guarantee that all the features will work flawless because the device is not totally compatible.

About the Pixel XL I can see that you've tried different troubleshoots and some of you already contacted the Support Team, my best advise is to make sure that you have exhausted all the troubleshoots listed on the Why won't my Fitbit device sync? article and for notifications: My Fitbit device isn't receiving notifications from my phone. 

I appreciate your patience to this matter, Fitbit is constantly working to improve to add more devices to the list. If you haven't contacted Support  already, please let me know so I can further assist you.

[SunsetRunner]

Is there work happening on the compatibility with the Pixel 2? I can say that the issue is not with the phone itself but rather a stability issue with Android 8.1 and now more users outside of Google will be on 8.1 very soon. Android 9  is just around the corner and Fitbit can't even get the bugs worked out in 8.1? I say this because my blaze dies not connect to my Pixel when on 8.1 but if I roll back to Android 7 the issues go away so it's not that the phone isn't compatible it's more that Fitbit is not migrating to new systems . What will be the excuse when 80% of the listed compatible phones upgrade to 8.1 and fail to work? Will Fitbit delete the phones from the list or actually admit they dropped the ball? Sorry to rant but I am very disappointed in the way Fitbit has handled their products in the past and it just continues to go down hill.  It's probably about time to get a new tracker anyway so rather than try to fix this one I shall just investigate which new ones are best for me. 

[waiting2fli]

Just got off a chat.  I've continuously had problems with my Ionic syncing with my Android phones (Nexus5X and now a Pixel2).  Syncing/notifications will work fine for a while, and then suddenly will stop until I follow all the steps under the help article: https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1610.

They basically have no ETA on  a fix for these Android 8.1 problems - although he did share that as of the last update the Nexus5X was now fully compatible (great, three years after it came out and now that the phone is basically a brick).

So I am fully expecting them to finally fix these problems 3 years down the road... 

[Hebrews12-1]

Just an update to my previous post.

12 days after swiping right and setting my notifications to "receive from phone" I have continued to receive notifications from my Pixel 2 XL.  I did notice that there were some inconsistencies with it but I think I have that narrowed down to Do Not Disturb being activated on my phone (which others have mentioned) but I also noticed that when my Ionic is locked it will receive the message but it doesn't vibrate.  

Anytime the Ionic detects it is off the wrist it will auto lock and I will stop getting alerts for notifications until I unlock it.  Not only does this happen when I take the Ionic off, like when I shower, but it sometimes locks while on my wrist.  I'm guessing it  occasionally doesn't sense that it is on my arm and therefore locks.

[stuartma]

I just wanted to add my experiences with the Pixel 2XL and my Ionic. I find syncing works fine for a couple of days then, just like others, it stops syncing for no apparent reason. After a phone reboot everything starts working again.

I am reluctant to blaim Fitbit for this though, since every time the Ionic stops syncing the phone can't find my Google Chromecast devices ether. So my initial reaction is this is and Android 8.1 problem more than a Fitbit one.

[Livingincr]

I received my Ionic yesterday (3/16/18), syncs fine, but does NOT receive notifications(calendar, email, SMS or custom apps selected) on the Pixel 2XL. Total deal breaker for me, I've never had a watch not receive notifications. The Fitbit team needs to make sure their products work with the major flagship phones. If the new Versa has this same problem, their stock is going to crater.

Going back to Garmin or maybe Polar I guess now. Very disappointed.

[CoopKill]

Have you swiped right, and made sure it says notifications received from phone?

Mine is getting them fine now. At time it may delay, but mostly all is well.

Also note that this is not entirely a Fitbit issue. The new update for Android has reeked havok with more than just Fitbit. It has issue with the pixel2 xl as well. It is documented out there.

[SunsetRunner]

Yes i have tried and it still works erratically. If i toggle from Android 8.1 to 7 i can get it to work fine with zero issues. As soon as i put 8.1 back it all goes downhill. Personally i like the features in 8.1 better than the fitbit so i will probably dump the fitbit since they are very slow to correct and just say it is not on the list. Soon all flagship phones will be running 8.1 and many more people will have issues. Instead of holding my breath fir a fix i will probably just upgrade to a Garmin or Polar. Glad to see its working for you though.  

[Nap12]

My Google pixel 2 syncing stopped working last week when I applied the last update. Why?

[BlackLablunatic]

While I agree Rob71 that it works fine with the Fitbit app - by deleting the Ionic from the Bluetooth connection list, you lose out on features, like having the Ionic as a trusted device to keep my Pixel 2 XL unlocked when my watch is in proximity. That is a feature I'd really like to use.

[nanaroo]

There are definitely compatibility issues with the Ionic and the Pixel 2 XL, and likely the Pixel 2. I understand that not everyone has experienced the issues, but enough people are reporting them, so dismissing their issues is not productive. Consider yourself lucky if you haven't run into them.

Personally the issues I've seen:

1. Notifications are hit or miss. I've meticulously verified my settings and notifications work for a while and then just randomly stop.
2. Syncing stops working after some amount of time. That time varies greatly. It can be after a few hours or a few days.
3. Most recent issue, received firmware update to 2.0, which I had hopes of resolving the above issues. However, the update does not complete. The Fitbit app on my Pixel 2 XL claims the update is complete, but the Fitbit is stuck at a Fitbit logo and the progress background (blue bar that goes fully across to indicate update progress) at ~90%. Leaving the watch for over an hour, the progress bar never moves forward. Ionic has been plugged in for the entire process and the phone has been within 6 inches of it the entire time.

Contacting Fitbit, their answer is the Pixel 2 phones are unsupported. They do their best to "troubleshoot" the issue, which is basically, remove the Ionic from your bluetooth devices, restart Ionic and phone, try again.