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.

[nickvree]

I just set up my brand new iPhone 6 (upgraded from a 4) and was super psyched about being able to track all of my fitness data in one place - HealthKit.  I work for a large Healthcare Software company (that integrates with FitBit for our personal health portal), and in my view, FitBit integration was a no-brainer and I just assumed it was going to be available.  I am simply STUNNED that it is not.

While I am not going to ditch my current FitBit, if something happens to it (it breaks, I lose it, etc.) I will replace it with a competitor's product unless this integration is in place.

And I have completely forgotten about buying the Aria at this point as a scale that doesn't track my weight in HealthKit is not of use to me.

[stillman37]

The specs for the upcoming Fitbit Surge were leaked today on the Verge, and if they are true I would seriously consider buying this over an Apple Watch as an upgrade to my Force. However, without HealthKit integration, I will not be buying any further Fitbit products - even if I decide an Apple Watch is not for me, I will wait until a competitor who does integrate with HealthKit releases something similar to the Surge.

[MasterCMB]

Hi,

I too would like an HealthKit link with my Fitbit devices. I heard about your soon to be announced "Surge" product which interests me a lot but my priority is HealthKit integration. Should you fail to announce that you reconsider your position in the coming weeks,  I will have no choice but to change my mind and buy an Apple Watch.

Please reconsider this.

[clutz]

Please link the fitbit with Apple health kit and app

[stickline]

Fitbit, please provide HealthKit integration! I am a big fan of your products, but I have been an iPhone user since 2008. If I am forced to choose, I will choose my iPhone and find another fitness/sleep tracker that works with iOS 8. Please don't make me have to choose!!

[Billberryjuice]

Some interesting new articles relating to this:

http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/20/fitbit-wont-work-with-healthkit-because-its-building-an-apple-watch...

http://betaboston.com/news/2014/10/21/virgin-pulse-links-with-apples-healthkit-could-serve-as-hub-fo...

[Rudiguer]

Sadly when I inquired I got this response with typos from FitBit.

"Unfortunatelly we apologize foer the inconvenience don't have immediate plans to integrate with HealthKit. We'll watch HealthKit closely as it matures and look for opportunities to improve the Fitbit experience."

It is not looking good.

[Karell]

@stillman37:
"The specs for the upcoming Fitbit Surge were leaked today on Gizmodo, and if they are true I would seriously consider buying this over an Apple Watch as an upgrade to my Force. However, without HealthKit integration, I will not be buying any further Fitbit products - even if I decide an Apple Watch is not for me, I will wait until a competitor who does integrate with HealthKit releases something similar to the Surge."

Those 'leaks' are Fitbit trying to keep us curious & enticed … attempts at emotional manipulation that I find offensive.

Surge or no Surge, Fitbit can't compete with the Apple Watch. Period. They can't compete with Apple at all -- without Apple they wouldn't be doing as well as they were (up until a few weeks ago). They shouldn't bite the hand that carries the coattails they're riding on.

That being said, I will NOT buy an Apple Watch. I have absolutely no interest in a wrist-worn tracker. I dearly love my Fitbit One, it clips onto my shoe nicely, I've never lost it, and it's even survived a trip through the washer (for 5 floors & 500 steps #TheMoreYouKnow). It's still going strong and fit a perfect niche in my life … until they decided to compete with Apple.

Apple has *nothing* that will fill the integrated-Fitbit-One-shaped hole in my life. I dread the thought of comparing trackers after being spoiled by Fitbit for almost five years, but that's my next project.

My reasons are that Fitbit:
- chose to abandon a fiercely loyal fanbase;
- chose to compete instead of cooperate;
- pretends to consider the option just to string us along;
- and *possibly* allowing Micro$oft to bully them into pulling away from Apple (purely speculation on my part, but that's how M$ generally works); and
- generally not being the same company I've loved & supported.

Fitbit has gone from being helpful & supportive to being competitive & divisive, also being offensive & condescending to us with their spin, doublespeak, & lack of honest communication.

Not the attitude I choose to support, financially or otherwise. This new corporate culture is spreading like a virus in the US, destroying honest & ethical companies in its wake. It's the same attitude politicians have long practiced here: incredibly damaging to all, regardless of how one votes. In business it ultimately hurts customers & employees, only benefitting VP-level officers and above … if the company doesn't go down in flames.

Good luck to all of you.

[annaloub]

Please integrate with Apple.

[Bluejay]

One of the most resistant to open data industries is glucoometer. 

If the glucometer industry was going to play ball with anyone it is going to be a heavy hitter like Apple. They will not line up to use fit its bloody APIs or give any fitness tracking device maker access to their proprietary data.

Since the only reason I want integrated data is to deal with my diabetes, I will be going to devices that integrate. 

@zapleahy and @RickyFitbit I am guessing you were tasked to gather your Intel. At some point in the future you will present your report, and after that a decision will be rendered. 

So so has you presentation even been scheduled yet? We are growing tired of being strung along. 

What at is the next step and will it happen?

[SunsetRunner]

For me this is a much needed feature. I had ordered my fitbit (Flex and Aria) just before this announcement and was unimpressed by it.

The ability to pull together various health items into a single container that is not linked to yet another cloud is essential. This is what HealthKit offers all iPhone users so of course we would prefer that because we have already comitted to trusting Apple and Fitbit with our fitness data.

I expect that many people (myself included) don't want to have also give this data to yet another provider (i.e. My Fitness Pal) in order to get that single view of our progress.

[RickyFitbit]

@Rudiguer I'm sorry to hear about your experience with our Support Team. I'll forward your case to a supervisor who will provide feedback to the agent you are working with. 

@Karell Thanks for your concern. If you'd like to talk more in depth about new corporate culture, I'm a private message away! However, let's keep this thread about Healthkit integration. 

Thanks everyone! 

[Jot_and_Tittle]

@Karell I had to jump into say this is one of the best lines I've read in this whole dismal thread:

"They shouldn't bite the hand that carries the coattails they're riding on."

Made me LOL.  Literally....which is actually pretty rare.  

Thanks!

[Karell]

@Ricky:
"Thanks for your concern. If you'd like to talk more in depth about new corporate culture, I'm a private message away. However, let's keep this thread about Healthkit integration.?

I see the lack of HealthKit integration as a direct result of this unfortunate new corporate culture; the two are inextricably linked ? but I would welcome any communication regarding the matter. I?ve expressed my views, if you?d like to reply privately that would be fine.

[Karell]

Thanks @Jot_and_Tittle!

I have to admit I?m kinda proud of that one ? I?m glad to hear that it made you smile!

[hbg]

Please link to iOS8 Health--I want to allow Health to include my Fitbit and Aria data so that I can have a single place for all my health info. It is likely "the" coming app for integrating everything "healthwise" on the iPhone.  I don't see any downside--why delay?

[Appleman]

Please don't put your customers in the middle of a childish battle between you (Fitbit) and Apple. It's petty decisions like this that make customers leave your ecosystem of products and jump into those who know that a little competition drives innovation. If you fear innovation then you've already lost the war. Please finish your tantrum and integrate your products with Apple Health Kit.

[Paul_Hanaki]

This is BS. I had to install My Fitness Pal so my Aria scale that you make can update the Apple Health app. So every day I have to open that other app because you don't want to do something as simple as sending the data to the heath app. That makes me regret my purchase as it seems you are not wanting to keep up with technology.

[SunsetRunner]

I am glad I found this information. Now I do not have to wait for the next line of fitbit devices to come out. Garmin and WiThings will support HeathKit and I do like the new Garmin device. I may wait awhile longer to see what other devices show up near the holidays, but will most likely be getting away from fitbit.

[gutsma]

From Fitbit's response:  "Fitbit remains committed to supporting all of our users, whether they sync their Fitbit products with iOS, Android or Windows Phone devices, Macs or PCs. While HealthKit works only on the iOS platform, we also plan to maintain direct integrations with our partners so that Android, Windows Phone and PC and Mac users in addition to our iOS users can benefit from our partnerships."

Sorry, corporate responder, but this is inaccurate.  Your behavior in this debacle indicates you are NOT committed to supporting ALL your users.  You are UNWILLING to support iOS users who have been asking (begging in some cases) for fitbit's inclusion in HealthKit.  The fact that it is not available to Android, Windows Phone, PC and Mac users has nothing to do with the issue.  It is taking NOTHING away from any users other than iOS usrs.

If similar platforms become available for other markets, I would hope fitbit would facilitate those users as well.  As an iOS user, it would not hurt me.  It does not any other users for fitbit to integrate with HealthKit.

It appears FitBit continues dangling a carrot in front of apple users, hoping to string us along until the furor dies down and / or FitBit launches its own answer.  Unfortunately, your corporate mishandling has done a lot to turn off what had been a loyal customer base.  

Many of us clearly see the game you are playing.  As my products need replacement, I will move elsewhere.  Quite likely I'll end up with an apple watch, something I had not anticipated doing.  I wonder how many of us will ultimately leave because the allure and benefits of HealthKit are stronger than FitBit.

[TeRRyZx]

I think that Fitbit just ignores the fact that for a very ong time the majority of products were only made for PCs & Andriods etc, and Mac and iOS was completely ignored. Now that the market base is turning in Apple's favor, I would think that a reasonably company who cared about their users would code Fitbit for Apple's HealthKit and then work to bring it to others platforms such as Microsoft Health Vault which is already been done. To ignore all you loyal Apple product users would and will be a huge mistake that will serve rely stunt you're corporate growth. It's sad that you are choosing to ignore your iOS users as they are growing stronger everyday.

[TeRRyZx]

Personally I'd love to see HealthKit using and syncing with Fitbit. I really don't see what they are afraid of as I personallly love the way Fitbit inputs the data and even if they did make use of HealthKit, I know that I would spend far more time on the Fitbit site while using HealthKit only as a useful comparison tool at times. Likewise I also have bought the new Withings O2 Pulse an while I do find it useful and HealthKit friendly, I go to their web interface more often to read my stats. It does work well with HealthKit, but that is no replacement for their fine site. I fell that Fitbit should also think that way. I believe that if they cooperated and utilized HealthKit, such data would only add to a list of stats that would no way be as good as the Fitbit website. Got that reason, there is just no reason to ignore HealthKit users as we are not going to abandon this web site and HealthKit would only add to all you other features. While most every other Heath app has already connected with HealthKit, I just am unable to see Fitbit's resistance to just add another useful feature that will only increase their brand name and fine products. Please do this.

[jbone311]

It would be great if Fitbit would contact each and every one of us directly, as well as the thousands of other (former) users who are requesting HealthKit integration and just say, "you don't matter." I am disgusted by their stonewalling and beating around the bush on this matter. Your customers want HealthKit integration. You refuse to do it. Just mark this idea/thread as rejected so we can all go buy other fitness trackers. Just because you were once the best doesn't mean you shouldn't evolve when the industry and culture change, too. If you want to stay the best, you need to improve the way you communicate with your once fiercely loyal customers. How much more possible evaluation could you people need to do? How many thousands of people must make a request to you before you take it seriously? I can assure you that once everyone has detracted from Fitbit and you later decide to integrate with HealthKit it will be too late. This is bad business on every level.

I called Fitbit customer disservice yesterday and it didn't go well... From the series of phone calls, emails, and tweets, I am even more disgusted by Fitbit's stance on this issue. I am greatly losing faith in this company, not just because they're ignoring their customers' requests, but becasue of the quality of the customer service they now offer. I've had a Fitbit One for a few years and an Aria, too. Customer service used to be amazing, employees would reply to emails, answer phone calls, tweets, were respectful, and demonstrated a level of intelligence and humanity. 

It's quite clear that Fitbit will never integrate with HealthKit. It's also blatantly obvious that Fitbit's days are numbered.

What Fitbit has become is atrocious and disgusting. This is essentially their stance now, "Our customers are irrelevant. We do not care at all what they want. We've already taken their money."

I look forward to following the demise of Fitbit.

[Afc]

Sent: 10/21/2014 10:15 AM To: fitbit-support@fitbit.com Cc:

Subject: Flex - IOS Health Source

Hi, I have an iPhone 5S running IOS 8.1. I am unable to add my flex bit app info into the apple heath dashboard app source ….

Response:

Thanks for your question.

We don't have immediate plans to integrate with HealthKit. We'll watch HealthKit closely as it matures and look for opportunities to improve the Fitbit experience. In the meantime we'd like to hear more from you about what you'd like to see in a HealthKit and Fitbit integration. Please share your ideas in our community at https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Requests/Integrate-with-iOS-8-Health-App/idi-p/319432.  We appreciate your feedback. Sincerely, Otto B and the Fitbit Team

My Response to Fitbit

Well Otto B and Team,

What you are telling me and other thousands out there that have an iPhone & Flex Fitbit is to dump Fitbit and look for more progressive companies that are forward looking and are making every effort to keep with the trends. And set the trends as well…

Thus, it should then not surprise that Apple is withdrawing all Flex Fitbit products from there stores…

You should put it out to your management that they need to do a rethink…

[Bluejay]

Dear Fitbit,

The only reason there are so many comments is because we have loved our fitbits. 

Anyone in marketing will tell you how hard it is to gain new customers. The poor communication from fitbit is doing nothing more than throwing good customers away.

It might be hard to win new customers, it is even harder to win back old customers once they have felt they were not respected.