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.

[rshim]

After a day with my Flex, I have decided I will keep it. However, it will not be a long term relationship. I will be keeping my eyes out for products that perform as well, perhaps add new sensors (like HR, galvanic skin response, ambient and surface tempurature, etc) and that integrate with Healthkit. I won't be staying with Fitbit once I find anything else that I like.

It's too bad. I actually really like the Flex and your iPhone app is great. But it's just an app. I now have an OS that will consolidate and centralize all of my health and fitness info into one place. Perhaps Fitbit wants to be that instead. But Fitbit can only even be an app on a platform, not the platform itself. And if I have to choose between a platform that integrates with many vs an app that integrates only with a few, then I will choose the platform.

Please don't try to be more than a great app and dash board for your devices. Or rather, be those, but don't also restrict how useful your devices can be as part of a much larger platform. You may see this as "protecting that castle" in that by controling the data you feel you can protect your app's place as the dashboard. But you are going to find that you are instead buring down the castle. People will opt for other devices that integrate with their platforms. This is true of Google Android users as well, with their Fit API.

[StripedCat]

Please integrate. Your decision on this will be a determining factor for whether or not I keep using FitBit.

[jhstroebel]

Now that this has been picked up by the gadget blogs and places people look for advice and reviews on technology I think it could be the downfall of Fitbit's dominance.  This is a PR nightmare that goes from your CEO to the Support team.  While everyone around you is adopting HeathKit, you have decided to ignore it and have the worst customer communication possible (at least you're talking now, just saying all the wrong things... "we care, but we don't care").

Its not that hard to figure out what you should have done... integrate and deliver any information you record (steps, distance, fights climbed, calories [to start, more nutritional data later on individual nutrients, etc], sleep analysis, weight, body fat percentage, lean body mass).  Each is controlled with an individual switch to write or read from healthkit (depending on if fitbit is the source of the data or you just want to bring other data to your fitbit account).

Good luck as your champions and early adopters leave you for any other platform that "gets it" and integrates.  Withings has tempted me before, but my loyalty kept me here... This is the straw that will break the donkey's back... Time to replace my Aria, fitbit, and the rest of my families fitbits I guess.  

Congrats on alienating your customers!

[Bluejay]

Dear mods,

What do you expect us to say and do? You ignored us for over 500 posts. With each post a little more hope was crushed, trust broken,faith desovled.

You still are not engaging with your users, not significantly, and considering the poor performance before you need to be making a real effort now.

[Bluejay]

Fitbit,

You have asked us what we want. We have told you. Some of us have even given details.

Now it is time to engage and interact. Read what we have said and ask follow up questions. I'm not convinced yet that you are really looking into this.

Prove me wrong.

[jhtatroe]

I'd like to see FitBit integrate with HealthKit. I love the size and form factor of my One, but I'll be exploring alternative companies if this integration doesn't happen, and Fitbit doesn't keep up with the advancing technology.

[PineappleDevil]

If you don't integrate with Healthkit, I'll be junk drawer'ing my Flex. I won't sell it and give someone else the possibility of using it, since I paid <$40 through a work program, I'll basically trash it. Then, I'll buy a product that is more integrated into my electronic usage. 

[s1277]

really disappointed fitbit is not going to be compatable with OS8 and health  I suspect I will no longer use fitbit once my bands breaks again because of this  why continue to spend $ on a dead technology is how I see it if no OS8 health integration is planned

[NYChiver]

Wow this is super disappointing.  While I appreciate the functionality that FitBit offers, I still use other apps for other activities, ex biking, sleep tracking (I dont like wearing the band for my FitBit One).  The Health app would make it easy for me to aggregate all the information from those apps for summarization.  And though my health care provider doesn't yet support it, I imagine that they will update their systems to communicate with HealthKit in the future allowing for potentially better health care.  Considering Jawbone (one of your competitors) is supporting this, it makes me reconsider them.  I enjoy the flexibility of the FitBit One, and enjoy the competition that has started since my co-workers convinced me to get one.  I even have the Aria scale.  If my health care provider has access to my daily weighings, that would like help give them a better picture of my overall health as opposed to the annual in-office weighings.

After seeing Apple name you as a partner and then not following through with integrating with their functionality, it is really disappointing and confusing why you would not want to support your customers with the full-suite of technology available to them

[exuser]

After reading 45 pages and at first being angry, then puzzled, and finally amused at the PR disaster this has generated, I *finally* see what the official response was all about.

Zax made it clear, "FitBit wants to know how you envision HealthKit so they can create something even better."

That makes total sense. They aren't asking us to give them reasons to integrate with healthkit, they're asking us how we would use Healthkit so they can create a better competitor to it. And therein lies the problem. There is no way to compete with Apple's health. Apple controls the platform and people want the platform. As someone said above, Fitbit can only ever be an app in that platform. I won't belabor any of the excellent points given above, since they are irrelevant. You are giving them reasons to integrate with Healthkit, but they want to hear "What do you want to do with it... that we can do instead?" It's a non-starter. 

Fitbit management, even your own reps have no idea behind your decision. We are all early adopters and evangelizers. Our influence is far larger than our seemingly small number. If I were your VC funders, I would be furious.

Personally, I bought a withings Pulse ox. I never had reason to look beyond fitbit, but now that I have, I see a world of wonderful devices. Aria scale will be sold soon, and replaced with iHealth or Withings. Another app, Sleep Cycle, has their number one question, "Will you support Apple Health", here is their COMPLETE answer, "Yes, sleep cycle will have full support for Apple Health." 

What should worry you is not "how can we compete with Apple Health", it's "How can we restore the broken trust with our current users."

[Splatky]

I'd like to add to the growing pile of disappointed posts. I'm a new user, I got the fitbit and aria all last week... Largely because I believed that of course this company would sync with HealthKit, it frankly didn't occur to me that it wouldn't.  I would like to collect various app data in one place, what is the harm in that? My phone also counts steps now but as many have said already I don't carry my phone all the time.

In response to your question...."what you'd like to see in a HealthKit and Fitbit integration"

I'd just like to see you integrate... Share my information so that HealtKit can read it and I get a better overall picture of my health. 

[Bluejay]

Dear Mods, I don't apreciate condescending tone of you emails to me. Prior to today I have included information that I would like to see. I took the time and effort to type up all of the data fields house kit uses to which no one from the bit moderation stuff has responded. Quite frankly you're barely getting involved in the conversation after many of us have already lost all patience with you. Pleasevget involved in the conversation in some way other than to ask us not the discuss others companies. we given you plenty of opportunity to talk to us. I typedvevery single Health data point. I took the time to type it out, now you do your part.

[Mikiesox]

Put me down for wanting to see Fitbit and the iOS health app work together! Let's go Fitbit!!

[Bluejay]

Once more for the Mods,

So here is a list of the data types in Health Kit: (I'm going to * the ones I can see how they can be used right away)

Active Calories*

Biologial Sex*

Biotin

Blood Alcohol Content

Blood Glucose*

Blood Presure*

Blood Type

Body Fat Percentage*

Body Temperature

Caffeine

Calcium

Carbohydrates

Choride

Chromium

Copper

Cycling Distance

Date of Birth*

Dietary Calories*

Dietary cholesterol

Electrodermal Activity

Fiber

Flights Climbed*

Folate

Forced Expiratory Volume, 1 sec

Forced Vital Capacity

Heart Rate*

Height*

Inhaler Usage

Iodine

Iron

Lean Body Mass

Magnesium

Manganese

Molybdenum

Monounsaturated Fat

Niacin

NikeFuel

Number of Times Fallen

Oxygen Saturation

Pantothenic Acid

Peak Expiratory Flow Rate

Peripheral Perfusion Index

Phosphorus

Polyunsaturated Fat

Potassium

Protein

Respiratory Rate

Resting Calories*

Riboflavin

Saturated fat

Selenium

Sleep Analysis*

Sodium

Steps*

Sugar

Thiamin

Total Fat

Vitamin A

Vitamin B12

Vitamin B6

Vitamin C

Vitamin D

Vitamin E

Vitamin K

Walking + Running Distance*

Weight*

Zinc

[Bluejay]

Come one. It's been almost an hour since I reposted the data fields. Does anyone have any thoughts on these fields.

[vinous]

Guys, I am extremely disappointed with Fitbit for not integrating with Health app. However, to Fitbit credit, Nike hasn't integrated its Nike + Move app yet, which is quite strange since there is a display for Nike fuel on Health app. Therefore I'll give some credit to fitbit until Nike integrates. After that, bye bye FORCE, ONE and ARIA.

[zapleahy]

Thanks for reposting this comprehensive list, @Bluejay. It's good to see these key data points listed out. In addition to the metrics you've mapped above, we've been busy collecting all the best and most prevalent feedback across the forums.

This may not come as a surprise, but most members of the community are eager to see all their data in one place--not only to maintain a comprehensive personal health record, but also to be able to share this with medical professionals and even their friends. @splat has some great commentary on this, @Alli4him, @Dtaylor2, @CassieLady, and many others cite this as a top reason for their vote.Others, like @iamasmith, see varying degrees of utility in HealthKit but want Fitbit to join the conversation now so that we have stakes in the roadmap. And many consider this integration a key feature and deciding factor in choosing a fitness tracker.

I understand you'd like to hear more from us, and we will certainly jump into the conversation when we have more to contribute, but our job right now is to work in the background and make sure your feedback gets in front of the right people. Thanks for your patience and participation.

[Bluejay]

For me the one thing that is missing from really using my qualtified health data is that I can't easily look at my diabetes and diet data in one place.

All the Diabetes apps have far inferior food databases to MFP. Prior to Health Kit non of the Diabetes apps linked to any of the diet or activity apps.

What I dream of doing is the following.

1. Take a preprandial glucose test.

2. Set a timer and begin eating.

3. Log my food.

4. Take a 1 hour postprandial glucose test. See how the Carbs/Protien/Fat affected it.

5. Take a 2 hour postprandial glucose test. See the rate it has changed.

6. Repeat it all 5 hours after eating.

Then tweek every meal's macronutrients until my tests have as close to non-diabetic readings.

That is what I do now, but I have to juggle between too many apps, along with also juggling a phone, computer, and glucose tester.

My eventual dream is to have an non-diaabetic hA1c test without taking drugs.

Once all the apps are better linked I want to test my blood sugar before and after excercise with as much info about heart rate and intensity. The more quantified my body is the better I under how I respond to food, sleep, exercise, stress, and etc.

My doctors have always been impressed with my geekiness about it and really back me up, writing my scripts so I can have more test strips than is standard for a type 2 diabetic. Most deal with patients that resent testing.

[applejosh]

Pretty disappointed that FitBit hasn't integrated with HealthKit and this will affect my decision on purchasing any other FitBit hardware. Part of the reason I bought FitBits for the family and got an Aria scale was because FitBit seemed to integrate with other services. Leaving out something like HealthKit, whose sole purpose is to integrate many different aspects of health and fitness into one comprehensive place seems shortsighted at best. Whenever I lose my FitBit One (and heaven knows it will happen - already several close calls), I will not replace it with a FitBit product unless HealthKit integration is there. I already don't use the Aria scale as often as I should, and I have even less reason to do so now. It was pricey, and frankly, I personally haven't benefited from purcahsing it. (Also, it was a pain in the whatsit to set up.) I'm not so deeply ingrained in the FitBit ecosystem that I won't make a change.

[nanopods]

I really liked Fitbit but my data is going into HealthKit with or without them.

[zapleahy]

@Bluejay This is extremely valuable feedback. Really appreciate you sharing these needs with us. Would love to see all that "geekiness" pay off for you, and for Fitbit to be a part of the strategy that helps you better visualize and understand the impact of certain foods on your A1C tests. Thanks again. Best wishes for an enjoyable and active weekend!

[Bluejay]

@zapleahy ,

So far it has been part of my plan. Just right now I need too many apps.

OneTouch Reveal - Blood Glucose (talk about an industry that needs to get into the sharing each brand has propertity data formats).

MFP - to log the food, but it does not break the Macro-Nutrients down by meals, just day.

Fitbit website to see the per meal breakdown of my Macros

UpDown timer to run multiple timers

My kingdom for a central hub to look at the data. I'll still need the individual system to gather the data, but to see it all in one place would be fantastic. And without a lot of tweeking that one place might be the Fitbit website. There are some datasets on the website that are not on the app that would be lovely on the app. 

For the diabetics here, my last hA1c was a 5.5 with only diet, exercise, and 500 mg of Metformin with dinner. If I can get it to ≤5 I'll try to drop the Metformin. I personally don't like taking drugs.

[Bluejay]

acidently tuned in QVC (was trying to punch some scifi tv) and there is commercial for Fitbit Zip. 🙂

[SunsetRunner]

Quote Allison "This may not come as a surprise, but most members of the community are eager to see all their data in one place--not only to maintain a comprehensive personal health record, but also to be able to share this with medical professionals"

Just to clarify, you do realise that your customers want this data in the apple health environment, and not in some new exciting project that FitBit may be working on don't you? Please tell me that you do actually understand this distinction, yes?

[adaromas]

This news is a continuation of disappointment since I bought the FitBit Force.

I specifically choose FitBit over the Nike Fuelband due to Nike's closed model for data and over the Jawbone Up due to the promise of Notifications on the Force's LED screen.

I haven't had a reaction to the surgical metal on the Force so was not keen on going through the hassel of return it, however as a result I have had to accept the fact I won't see any innovation with the Force like iOS notifications. This news that Fitbit now believes it has enough dominance in the market to keep its data out of the Health App is further disappointing.

Smartphones gain more value over time as new software (Apps) create new an wonderful uses of the device. Wearables can equally become create more value for the user due to new integrations and unforseen applications, however this is only acheived through the sharing of data. FitBit has been great to date being an open platform, don't limit innovation at this stage by trying play out of the Apple ecosystem.

I'm propably one of the early adopters that will buy an Apple Watch when it is released, making my Fitbit redundant. I suggest FitBit look for ways be as open as possible to become an open player in wearables in contrast to he closed model tha Nike has taken.