Integrate with iOS Health

[so-rich]

Hi there,

I'm really excited about Apple's announcement of the Health App in iOS 8 to be release this fall.  I'm looking forward to seeing a product announcement by Fitbit for a successor to the recalled Fitbit Force, and I'm really hoping to hear some exciting news about Fitbits intigration with Apple's new Health App to be released alongside iOS 8 this fall.  

This is a huge oportunity to make your devices even smarter and more integrated - Please support these APIs!  Thanks!

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity and labels.

[scatteredthings]

I understand what is motivating the people who are complaining. But I
cannot understand why you would defend FitBit so strongly unless you work
for them?

[drtaxsacto]

We have waited for a couple of years for Fitbit to respond to Apple users and they have not. In the last few weeks a bizarre set of messages has been appearing that seem to be from Fitbit employees either denigrating the position of the Fitbit customers who want Healthkit integration or arguing that the ability to sync with a phone is equivalent to Healtkit integration. Many of us have patiently listed the numerous benefits to Fitbit that would come from integration and they have ignored those requests. I think it is time for those of us who want integration to simply move on. I logged 38 million steps on Fitbit. My daughter is also an active walker. So is my wife. We have one thing in common now - we are all former Fitbit users.

[iwatts]

This thread simply needs shutting down - we have all (nearly) stated very good reasons for wanting health kit integration. There are hundreds of reasons listed on this forum - sharing data with Blood Glucose apps, sharing data with apps like Patient Access - the list goes on and on.

Please moderators - do the decent thing - mark it as not going to happen and shut the thread down. It is now becoming abusive and silly, and a stalemate, where we know it is never going to happen, and you know that we know it is never going to happen, but you have to pretend otherwise.

I'm now unsubscribing from this thread - my charge, less than a year old, now has more bubbles in the strap than I can count. I will probably move to another manufacturer, possibly UA. Goodbye and Good Luck everyone.

[HopefulRunner]

@Rich_Laue is right, many apps that sync to HealthKit sync to Fitbit. Many of them synced to Fitbit before HealthKit existed

How many new apps will bother to invest in linking to multiple fitness trackers, when they can just link to the native phone apps?

Sure @Rich_Laue hates native apps, or anything else we can say we like.

I like HealthKit, not to view my health data, but to act as a conduit to get my apps to work together. My blood glucose meter works with HealthKit meaning I can see how all my health data affects my blood sugar.

There is no connection between Fitbit and my blood sugar meter. Fitbit is useless to me.

Even companies that have small market share like iHealth have HealthKit integration. I love thier body composition scale, blood pressure monitor, and my walk/swim tracker: Wave. I worked great in the ocean this summer.

[SunsetRunner]

Please allow Fitbit's app to communicate and share data with iPhone's Healthkit app.

I just recently purchased our first Fitbit devices, the Charge 2 for my wife and I, and I am seriously thinking about returning the devices for a refund due to the lack of iPhone HealthKit support.  I mistakenly took this to mean full integration with iOS, so the device has lost a lot of appeal for me.  I love having all of my health data in one location, as every other app that I have can communicate with HealthApp with no issues.   

I know you could easily turn this on with a future app update.  Please consider it, as you are definitely losing customers for this compatibility issue.  

Thanks for your consideration,

David

[PKDaba]

Sorry to see you go @iwatts. Good luck with your future fitness device.

Sad that Fitbit and one individual here appear to be suffering from delusions of grandeur. It’s pointless arguing with trolls believing that they are 100% correct even though facts point to the contrary. This one troll feeding stops now (ignore mode ON)… moving on to keep new victims of Fitbit’s deception informed when they land on this thread.

For those of you who switched to the Apple Watch (the original now called Series 1), the new WatchOS 3 is coming on September 13. I’m looking forward to the improved performance promised and the ability to share fitness activities natively. Apple does a pretty good job at keeping customers informed of its plans for products / features releases and meeting the release schedules. Something perhaps Fitbit could model if it wants to become a multi-billion company.

For those of you who are waiting for the new Apple Watch (Series 2), it’ll offer a much better experience with improved dual core processors, built-in GPS, and swim proof to 50m. The user experience (based on my own opinion and experience with the original Apple Watch), will be much much better than what Fitbit has to offer.

And of course, all Apple Watches will seamlessly integrate with HealthKit - no fiddling with third party apps to transfer incomplete bits of data. You get to control where your fitness data goes (hopefully not to some third party that’ll profit from the data that you generate).

[Rich_Laue]

@gutsma no i haven't, as @scatteredthings pointed out a fitbit employee stated at this time there is no intention of integrating. 

FYI you very well know that I'm not a fitbit employee, or just simply click on the link found in my sig. 

As for defending fitbit for not jumping on to apple? I'm not defending them any more than you guys are defending apple for not jumping onto fitbit. 

Yes i know it has been spelled out why apple won't do this, well take that explanation change every place that you see the word Apple, change it to fitbit. You will have Fitbits policy. You will then see why fitbit won't connect to third parties. Both companies let the third parties connect to them, neither one wants to do the connecting. 

We are looking at two doors*, and unfortunately a door is unable to reach out. 

What i don't understand is that most seem to say fitbit is useless and they haven't used it in a year plus, yet they are afraid to move on. 

*a door is used to control the movement, not to initiate or reach out. 

[Rich_Laue]

Maybe they semlessly link because they are the same company a fact that maybe you might have overlooked? 

The Delhi doomed person is the one who rightly believes that apple will not change its policy for a single company, but then insists on Fitbit changing it's policy for a single company. You guys still don't get it. 

[HopefulRunner]

The mobil OS makers differ from tracker makers in a very simple way.

Apple, Android, Windows are the platforms the tracker apps run on. The tracker apps need them. Without the phones, your tracker is not connecting to anything. Apple, Android, and Windows don't need fitbit or any other tracker.

The trackers do need the phones.

Why is this important? Because @Rich_Laue thinks it is two way street, equal parties at a loggerhead. It is not equal. Phone makers, such as Apple have stronger postistion. It is not a two way street. It is highway. The phones are the highway, and the fitness trackers cars running on it.

So fitbit can continue with its current course, at it own peril. They are not not linking to native fitness apps on Apple, Andriod, and Windows. We are not ditching our phones, and there are no phone has an advantage over the others now.

I don't expect anyone of the phone makers to cave. Cave to fitbit and give them an advantage over Withing and Garmin? Not going to happen.

Lets call linking to HealthKit, HealthVault, GoogleFit is like riding in the HOV lane, all those other companies are going to leave fitbit in the dust.

This is my last post to the troll. I don't care if fitbit changes, as I've moved on. I just don't want fitbit to dupe it's users.

[Rich_Laue]

You still don't get it @HopefulRunner you're confusing syncing the fitbit data to fitbit through a phone or computer, which is yes a one way thing, with syncing a third party app such as healthkit and it having access to your data on the fitbit serve, the trackat this point is not in the picture. Thi is Something I've been told through this thread that apple won't do. Of course fitbit could access your health kit data as a third party app, but this too is something fitbit does not do

[PKDaba]

Well said @HopefulRunner.

Your repeated explanations have been clear, factual, and obvious to most people with a good sense of reality. There'll always be those with closed minds who strongly believe what they choose to believe. No amount of explaining will change their tunnel vision and delusions. Best to ignore and move on.

Yes, lets continue our focus on helping and informing those who have been duped by Fitbit.

[Rich_Laue]

Whnderstand that you feel that fitbit should embrace the whole apple iOS plateform, in what way where you duped. Fitbit never advertised that they sync with the apple healthkit, fitbit.com/devices

[gutsma]

@Rich_Laue, so you're a troll. As mentioned, it makes no difference. This thread is titled "Integrate with iOS 8 Health App". FitBit sends iOS users to this specific thread. It seems you are not interested in that discussion and choose to pontificate your opinions that are OFF TOPIC. That is the epitome of a troll. Since you claim not to be a fitbit employee, you seem to self identify as the other option.

Fitbit ASKED for our thoughts. This thread is filled with years of those feelings as well as how we use HealthKit or would use it. 

FitBit has been disingenuous with iOS users.  

Just watched the Series 2 video and it does look very nice. Our family has been very pleased with our apple watches. For those waiting for the 2nd generation, I'm sure you'll be more than satisfied.

[HopefulRunner]

@Rich_Laue

Here is how I feel Fitbit is being duplicitous. Fitbit lets people assume they FULLY integrate with Apple. When you buy a fitbit contact them for tech help when you can't figure out how to sync with HealthKit, they don't tell you that they will not ever sync. They link you to this discussion thread. Some people might have the false hope it will eventually sync with HealthKit. It is after all "UNDER CONSIDERATION". But that is all a deception, to get you to hang onto your device until you can't return it for a refund.

It is not Fitbit's fault people assume that they are buying a device that would support HealthKit, but they do nothing to prevent it. If they were honest they would make it clear in their packaging and website. They really don't mind in the least that people buy a device and then find out it doesn't support HealthKit. They don't immediately offer to refund it and take it back. They send them here, hoping they will wait until it is to late to return it.

So if you just got a fitbit, found out it does not sync with HealthKit, return it while you still can. Don't wait.

In the time that this topic has been up, I have tried the following trackers, iHealth Labs' Edge, Misfit's Flash, Jawbone's MOVE UP, and iHealth Labs' Wave.

I really like my Wave, for the price I paid ($51.84), I got a waterproof swim/walk/sleep tracker with vibrating move notifications and wake up alarm. It is not a smartwatch, so no notifications. If I was going to get a smartwatch, I'd get an Apple Watch 2 (if I had the money...).

[HopefulRunner]

@Rich_Laue

Apple will not connect to any health data on someone's server. It will not store your health data on a server. It will only access data from apps on your phone and store the info on your phone.

That is part of the design to help keep you private data private, it is not on the internet.

Now my glucose meter, for example, syncs to my phone and to the a web site. But HealthKit reads my blood glucose readings from the app into HealthKit and then numberous apps can access it.

[HopefulRunner]

http://www.wareable.com/fitbit/james-park-interview-3197

[Nisse]

Today I bought my first and last Fitbit, I really thought that Apple Health connection was for granted. 

Really lousy that Fitbit has not done this yet, can't imagine that its that hard either.  

[PKDaba]

@Nisse, so sorry to hear about your negative experience with Fitbit. Hopefully, you were able to get a refund. Unfortunately, you are one of the many thousands in this thread who have been duped by Fitbit into believing that its products sync fully with iOS.

Don’t fall for the false hope that this thread may appear to give. It’s apparent that Fitbit uses it to keep disillusioned new users like yourself from returning its products as it proclaims falsely that this feature request is ‘under consideration’. It’s been over 2 years since this thread was started and Fitbit has ignored the many voices here so far.

[halfpress]

FitBit support encouraged me to come here and "vote" on my desire for them to fully integrate their data with the Apple Health platform. I've been using my FitiBit for 4+ years and am invested to say the least. That said, my Apple Watch is doing a rather great and increasingly more innovative job of covering my needs, so I've begun to finally consider dropping the FitBit entirely. I'd love to see full integration on their part so I can better balance the use of the two devices in various ways while keeping a central repository of my data. Syncing has increasingly gotten wonky (Bluetooth 4) with my FitBit, so the one I've come to rely on the most if my Apple Watch and current model iPhones. Just expressing my hopes for integration... it's not a holy war for me. 🙂

[Rich_Laue]

This is a duplicate request. 

Fitbit will allow health kit or any other company to link up with them, but the company would need to initiate the link, fitbit does not do this.. Apparently apple does not want to link to fitbit. 

Your label oh Charge 2 has nothing to do with your request which is about the fitbit dashboard linking to healthkit. 

[EdBlankenship]

Upgrading to iOS 10, there is a new initiative within iOS to make sure that people are getting good sleep.  In the Alarms app, there is a new bedtime feature that helps remind you to go to bed, set a wake-up alarm (with really great alarm music for waking up), and integrates data about your sleeping patterns to help you visualize how you are doing.  Those visualizations pull data from the Apple Health app and when you click on it to see what data is in there, there isn't anything for Fitbit users.  It also suggests other Apple Partners who do reliably report sleeping data to Apple Health but doesn't include Fitbit in any of those options.

When is Fitbit going to join the other Apple Health partners in reporting steps, weight, sleeping, heart rate, etc. data so that we can take advantage of the integrated platform that Apple is building for our personal health data?

Thanks!

[SunsetRunner]

Sorry about the vague label, as it was my first post and it was not clear as to the use of the labels on the message board (hidden on the right side column, not visibly connected to the message is a strange placement).

I am not surprised this is a duplicate request as I would imagine tens of thousands of Fitbit consumers would want to aggregate their data when the option is available.

As far as your answer, HealthKit is available to be linked up with if the app developers choose to, and since it is not, this lack of a feature falls into hands of the FitBit developer team.

I'm sure their main issue with this is controlling their own data. They are afraid that if Apple gets the data, it would be that much easier for consumers to switch to Apple Watch and never look back.

Since FitBit has ignored the thousands of upvotes on the other thread, their silent answer is fairly clear to me. Honestly, I'd be afraid of Apple too.

I personally think their best option would be to open their data to HealthKit and tailor their devices to the masses and let Apple Watch capture the upper end with their pricey devices. They can both be successful, but this lack of feature is going to make me look closer at Apple devices going forward (Apple household here).

[Rich_Laue]

Currently fitbit has an open API that allows any third party that wants to, gives the ability to connect to your fitbit data. 

The caveat is that fitbit has chosen to allow anybody to connect, and also has chosen not to do or initiate the connecting to third party sites. 

Apple also has an open API and allows anybody to connect, but they also, for the same valid reasons, have chosen not to do or initiate a connection to third party sites. 

So we are at a stalemate, this is also the case with Samsung's S-Health and Google Fit. 

[Thespone]

Please integrate the Fitbit App with Apple Health. It's time!

[Aabdel]

Is this ever going to happen? I see this thread has been going on since iOS 8