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.

[TiggsPanther]

Wristband Manager is working, for me, as a short-term solution. Especially since an update allowed it to sync more than steps. It persuaded me to un-retire my FitBit for a wee while.

I can't believe, though, that not only do we have to use a third-party solution to sync our data but that several such solutions have been implemented whilst Fitbit still "continue to evaluate an integration with HealthKit".

"If it can be synced, let us sync it" is the message that we (the users, although who knows for how much longer....) have been stating for several weeks at this point.

People have jumped ship. And at least some of us (well, me anyway) are only sticking around through a combination of a third-party workaround and simply not having the cash to drop on a competitor's device at this time of the year.

Customer goodwill is evaporating. Customer patience has already left the building. FitBit are coming over in a negative light over this. Customers arenot feeling like they are being taken seriously.

This is why HealthKit integration is essential, and as soon as possible, at this point. To not do so just harms your brand at this point.

[SunsetRunner]

@gutsma - I too have taken to doing the majority of my tracking just using the phone, while I wait for the new trackers to come out and have a chance to research them. That actually works pretty well, except for when I'm playing tennis or racquetball. Just too much chance of damaging my iPhone 6 in those situations. I need a tracker, but using the phone buys me a little time to research the best (other than FitBit) option. I'm really loving what I'm reading about that new Withings Activité other than the price (Nevo, might be a less expensive option to the Activité). I have the Withings scale, so if not Jawbone, that might be my next tracker. Real shame that FitBit has chosen this path. I think I would have liked their Charge and Charge HR devices.

[gutsma]

I'm right with you, rryba, except we also have the fitbit scale.  I'm passing that along to our son.  It will meet his needs just fine.  

I'm looking at withings and garmin.  For me, there's something offputting about the jawbone.  The point is, I'll definitely invest in another tracker of some sort.  I do want to see what apple produces with its watch.  I like how seamlessly their products interact.

Thing is, I never would have given any of these alternatives a thought if fitbit hadn't behaved in the manner they've chosen.  

[zapleahy]

@Karell Happy to clear this up for you, and apologies if I missed your questions the first time around. Fitbit is not paid per HealthVault user, and Microsoft HealthVault's PHR data is not released for marketing, advertising, research, reporting, insurance, or additional developer applications. If interested, you can read up on the HealthVault privacy policy here. 

@UCMonkey Thanks for validating the recently released SyncSolver app. Sorry you feel mistreated. Our customers are the lifeblood of the product, and we aim to treat every Fitbit user with the utmost respect and appreciation. If there's anything I can do to improve your experience (short of rollout the much anticipated integration), please don't hesitate to reach out.

@TiggsPanther Glad to hear Wristband Manager is working for you. We are in an entrepreneurial age where gaps in the marketplace simply won't last. In addition to SyncSolver mentioned above, I've also noticed a third (free) entry in RunGap.

@SunsetRunner Nice to see you again. I do hope you consider one of the tools above as a possible interim solution. Best of luck on the courts!

[Gorgon]

This request is currently at position #1 and it has more votes than #2 and #3 combined…

[TiggsPanther]

@zapleahy 

Way to sidestep the issue.

Yes, it works for me. But it shouldn't have to. This should be first-party already-in-the-app funcitonality.

I don't want your company to be "glad to hear" that a lack of functionality that we want from your product is being filled by someone else.

You make it sound as if my comment was saying "Don't bother, I can get it elsewhere". That is not in any way, shape or form what I was implying. I don't want anybodym yourselves or people reading this thread, that I am in any way happy to need a third-party workaround.

It is simply the "best of a bad job" situation as I simply can't afford to jump ship to Withings at the moment.

I'm not glad to have a workaround. I'm angry to need one.

[bbarrera]

@gutsma well said.

@zapleahy FWIW please pass this along to 'management' - Up until recently I've been a Fitbit promoter, proactively encouraging anyone curious about my Flex or Force to purchase. Due to minor skin irritation I returned my Force around the 1st of Sept, and in the interim starting using my iPhone 5s as my tracker. Received the refund quickly and felt good about Fitbit the company. After the iOS8 launch, my attitude toward Fitbit took a turn and by October 8th it was clear that Fitbit management a) didn't care about satisfying a large and vocal customer base, and b) were resolved to allow the HealthKit fiasco to snowball.

In protest I logged out of my Fitbit app on Oct 8 as . My Aria scale is somewhat in limbo, although weight syncs with HealthKit using MFP or the Wristband app. I purchased Wristband and it syncs fine, but I hate the idea of putting a random 3rd party between my data on Fitbit and Health app.

Due to the continued stonewalling by Fitbit management, my Force refund will be spent on a non-Fitbit product. I'm steering people away from Fitbit. Why did it have to come to this?

[Barefootdaze]

Integrate fit bit flex mobile app with iOS 8 health app please ASAP

[Basalt]

As a newbie developer, I don't understand Fitbit's position. I won't be getting a fitbit if I need a 3rd party app to sync my data. Who wants a middle man?

I'm not even going to bother with the fitbit api. Now misfit has an interesting api and sdk. I'm just learning mobile development after having been a network engineer, it looked like fun.

I would one day love to find out why fitbit was so reluctant to integrate. I know a few medical device makers are reluctant, but they have a long history of non-interoperbility.

[Karell]

Thanks for the link @zapleahy but I'm not interested. Based on many years of personal experience and thousands of dollars spent on Microsoft products, their words have lost all credibility with me. They've never delivered on their promises to me as a customer, and I don't trust them to adhere to their own policies. On the other hand, Apple has always delivered above & beyond what they've promised (in my personal experience) and they've never given me cause to doubt their word. It's called *trust and confidence*, M$ had mine but destroyed it … Apple built it consistently over time. I've learned from my prior lapses in judgment and money wasted on poor-quality products & services. So I'll say it again, to offer M$ HealthVault as an 'alternative' to Apple Health is an insult to the intelligence of your users. Also, you've said several times that Fitbit doesn't sell our data, but the page you link to states that our data can be sold with our "consent". There is nowhere in our settings to indicate "Don't sell my data" so I'd like you to explicitly confirm or deny: when a user shares their data with other Fitbit users, does Fitbit count that as consent for their data to be sold? If so, the settings page needs to indicate that explicitly … right now it's misleading to your users. Please stop with the links to mind-numbing legalese and answer us in full, in plain English. We've all paid for Fitbit's products & services, you owe us a straightforward and complete answer.

[ikir]

Any news? I'm a returning customers only if I can use iOS 8 Health.

sold my Flex for this mess, using UP on Pebble now but I want a Fitbit Charge...

[Basalt]

http://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/public_comments/2014/08/00024-92434.pdf

[zapleahy]

@bbarrera It's been a pleasure seeing you around the forums these past few months, and I appreciate you sharing your journey with us in this post. I'm sorry we couldn't turn things around for you. 

@Karell No. Fitbit does not sell user data regardless of whether that user shares their data with other Fitbit users. And for what it's worth, I agree with you that HealthVault isn't an alternative to HealthKit. 

@Basalt Health-data privacy concerns are very real, and Fitbit is invested in doing the right thing and protecting its users. The article you posted was published just a week before this related statement.

This is sliding a bit off topic, though. If you have additional concerns regarding the security and privacy of your data, please reach out to Support directly.

[Basalt]

The Privacy Policy has standard clause in it.

"Because we’re always looking for new and innovative ways to help you achieve your fitness goals, this policy may change over time. If any modifications substantially change your rights under this policy, we will send you an email where possible, and always provide notice on the Site."

So not selling our data now, does not mean that it will not change.

The reason people are thinking about the risk of Fitbit selling our data is because the Apple TOS for apps that sync with Health is that they do not sell user data. We have no idea why Fitbit is not integrating, to not integrate makes no sense to us. So we are searching for any reason Fitbit would think it is a negative.

Your users have listed all the Pros of integrating. I have seen no one list any Cons.

So can you tell us what the Cons might be? We just want to understand Fitbits reasoning.

[3rdCoast]

Sync Solver worked even better than I hoped. All my Fitbit data is synced to Health. Thanks third-party developer!

[boblknow]

Important that activities while carrying Fitbit, but not my iPhone be picked up by Healthkit. I am very disappointed that Fitbit was not integrated with HealthKit on day one. I am appalled that Fitbit has announced no schedule for this. I really like their devices, but their app development is lacking. I'm afraid that my next tracking device will not be a Fitbit. Maybe I'll just try to carry my iPhone all day or buy an Apple Watch next year.

[Basalt]

I have suggestion.

Fitbit has said something to the effect of wanting to be fair to their users, and not offering something to users of one OS that the other OSs don't have.

Make integration with OS specific health systems a reasonable in-app purchase. Heck folks have been giving third parties money to get Health Kit Integration. If you don't have it in your budget to keep the app current with technology, admit it and make it for pay upgrade. 

I personally don't want to have a bunch of middlemen between the system that generates my data (fitness trackers) and the phone that stores the data in agreate manner. 

[zapleahy]

@Basalt Thanks for applying some out of the box thinking. This is a creative approach, and one that is certainly worth reviewing in more depth. 

@boblknow Sorry for your disappointment; we appreciate you stopping by to add your vote and feedback.

[bbarrera]

@zapleahy your professionalism during this fiasco is appreciated. Its not easy being stuck in the middle, you've handled this with aplomb 🙂

[MusikGeek]

I love both my FitBit One and my FitBit weight scale immensly. I can understand your teams concern with the economy of wanting to only have a single software data solution that supports all users on all platforms/all OS, and why your team does not want to support the Apple HealthKit app natively. However I would at leats LOVE to be able to have my FitBit data imported into the Apple HealthKit app. Even if it were for you to provide a data export feature that could be used to export the FitBit data in my account into the HealthKit app on my iPhone (and take care of the potential duplication when the HealthKit app also monitors/counts my steps, stair climbs, etc). Did you know there is a 99 cent third party iOS app called Sync Solver that does this? An article about it can be found here: http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/11/19/sync-solver-bridges-the-gap-between-apples-health-app-and-...

It has some limitations I've mentioned above. I have to believe there are a ton of us FitBit owners and users out here that would love to have the ability to at the very least have the ability for our FitBit data to be imported into the Apple healthKit app.

Please???

Thank you for possibly considering 🙂
Dan

[irinac42]

Integrating fitbit with HealthKit isn't just a great idea for me, IT'S GOOD FOR BUSINESS!

I want to be loyal to fitbit, but it'll be hard. I had a Flex, a Force, then another Flex, now a Charge. I'm as loyal as it gets but... I may end up buying the Apple Watch early next year. And that's sad.  How many other people will abandon fitbit simply because of integration? I'll bet that number is high.

I'm particularly interested in seeing the steps/distance and the sleep data in the HealthKit app. Right now HealthKit gets my steps from the phone itself but women in general don't carry their phones everywhere - we don't have pockets. The fitbit on my wrist would provide more accurate steps.

As for the sleep data, Im inclined to use SleepCycle just to see my weekly average and progress in HealthKit, and that doesn't make any sense.  Too many alarms, too much wasted time, all when the fitbit is already the perfect device!!

[natswalks]

I'm a bit confused.....fitbit "says" they won't integrate with health kit because it wants to include ALL it's users, not just apple users. However, challenges are only available to android and ios users.....not windows etc... Why don't you just tell the truth? It's because Apple is a competitor now with the new iWatch.

[Basalt]

Fitbit's statements about not wanting to develope a feature that only benefits one group and not all fitbit users, is false.

The integrated with Cortana on Windows, but did nothing for iOS and Android.

Such careless tone deaf statements angers people and breeds distrust.

I for one would love to know the real reason fitbit didn't not integrate, which to the posters here pointed out is a no-brainer? What did Fitbit risk to lose if they integrated vs what they have lost with this delay?

[Basalt]

“At Fitbit, our mission is to help people lead healthier, more active lives, so we’re always looking for ways that our users can use their data to support their fitness goals,” Park wrote.

http://mobihealthnews.com/37249/is-fitbits-opt-out-drawing-the-battle-lines-against-healthkit/

“For the past few years, we’ve been the leader in developing direct partnerships through our open API with hundreds of the most popular health apps, wellness programs, incentive systems, and other services that have enabled our users to make the most of their Fitbit products and data. Because of this commitment to connect with other applications, HealthKit is really interesting to us. Since its announcement, we’ve been evaluating integration with HealthKit as more of its features and benefits are revealed.

“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.”

Andriod and Windows are following Apple's lead, this debate will be continued there. The above statements don't ring with much truth.

[bbarrera]

@Basalt - yes the corporate double speak is not only hypocritical, but also an insult to users that clearly see differences between app feature sets on different mobile platforms.