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.

[Twriter]

How many hundreds of customer requests does the FitBit management/development team need before this functionality moves from "Under Consideration" to "Critical?" If FitBit claims to be a company driven by user needs, they have failed miserably here.

I wear both a Withings Activite Pop and a FirBit Charge HR. The former doubles as my watch, but falls down with its alarm functionality, while the latter tracks more health information and is my go-to for getting up in the morning, even though its actual "step" tracking diverges wildly from the former and is tough to believe is actually accurate. (According to a couple of knowledgebase articles, "aggressive" shifting of a manual transmission will add to the step count, as will movement while sleeping--even though the device recognizes that I am sleeping (and no, I don't sleepwalk), a couple of really embarrasing engineering failures.)

Having tried on an Apple Watch Sport, I'm seriously considering replacing the Withings, sacrificing the awesome battery life for what has been described (for one feature) the "most accurate" activity tracker there is. It looks like I will be able to protect it adequately when I am playing real sports, so it's largely a matter of finding a good price.

Of course, I'd like to consolodate my health data into one app. FitBit's iOS app has some significnt usability issues, and I'd really like, for example, to enter my weight weekly in one place.

Because the Apple Watch doesn't track sleep and (AFAIK) doesn't have a silent/vibrate alarm like the FitBit does (and it's one of the best I've ever used, to boot), I'd continue to wear both. But data integration within the platform is such a no-brainer that it boggles the mind that FitBit hasn't done it yet--unlss their staff is chock full of anti-Apple, Andriod-hugging zealots. I mean, just because Mountain View is ever so slightly closer to the FitBit SF HQ than Cupertino......

C'mon FitBit, get 'er done!

[humanista]

@Twriter I would recommend to go with a simple Jawbone Up Move or Up2. The Jawbone app is better from a predictive analytics perspective - their Smart Coach is excellent and it integrates with Apple Health. I use my Apple Watch durng the day and my Up2 while sleping and have been quite happy.

[WBillM]

Now with iOS9, Sync Solver has stopped working on my phone. What do you suggest now?

[arcterex]

Another vote for HealthKit integration.  After this long it's either not going to happen or it is.  I'm sure everyone knows that FitBit is trying to keep their data from just becoming a commodity in the apple ecosystem, and instead forcing users to come and use their app, their usernames, their friends integration, etc. 

I may be just a cynic but maybe Fitbit will decide to do this if enough people encourage them to.

[xtremetoonz]

Hopefully a comment on this thread is a vote for iOS Health Kit integration. I'd love to think the extended delay in leveraging the Health Kit is just a technical hurdle, but given so many companies are doing it, I'm sure it's political and Fitbit greed. Guess I'll stick with my Jawbone UP.

[iwatts]

A comment on this thread is largely ignored.

[gutsma]

It seems many, if not most, of the people who posted here early on have transitioned to other products.  FitBit doesn't care about losing the business because they are aggressively marketing their products.  Good for them.  Unfortunately, it will likely be a short term gain, because the word is spreading that 1) they are not compatible with Apple HealthKit and 2) they obviously don't give a fig about the thoughts/feelings/desires of their loyal customers.  

Customer loyalty is a wonderful thing.  It can't be bought or traded.  It is earned over time.  It can, however, be lost in the blink of an eye.  FitBit is alienating their base by their refusal to address concerns in an honest manner.

Very sad.  Very disappointing.  BUT, the good news is there are quality products out there that DO meet their former customers' needs.  Various companies should probably send them thank you notes.

[xtremetoonz]

Take this with a grain of salt, but here's a recent email back from Fitbit support when I pushed and said these forums are pointless to make a recommendation when there is 108 pages of replies asking for the Health Kit integration:

Hi Dylan,

We'll be happy to assist you with your feature request and suggestion. 

As of now we are communicating with our engineers so that we can full fill the suggestion that most of our customer are requesting. We just want to ask more time to further improve our app.

If you have other inquiries please let us know.
 
Sincerely,

the Fitbit Team

[iwatts]

Did I just see a pig fly? I'll be the first to celebrate if they do. I haven't ditched Fitbit as nothing else seems to quite meet my needs. But as I use HealthKit for other things then I have been on the verge of a Jawbone Up or one of the Moov Now that looks interesting. If pigs are flying then they'd better get a move on before others jump the Fitbit ship.

[RickyFitbit]

Hi everyone! 

@xtremetoonz I'm sorry for the miscommunication. We still haven't made a decision on integration with HealthKit. We're sorry for the time it's taking and I understand everyone's frustration on this topic.

@iwatts As always, thanks a lot for your feedback.  We appreciate it and are forwarding a lot of your feedback. 

As soon as we have more information, we'll let you all know here. Thank you.  

[iwatts]

So what your saying @RickyFitbit is pigs aren't going to be flying soon, and the email above is wrong, and maybe when we're still on 216 pages of comments Fitbit still won't have made a decision. Because it's such a hard decision that you've already made it for Microsoft Health Vault. You still haven't explained why that is such an easy decision to make yet HealthKit isn't.

[SunsetRunner]

I don't see what the problem is. People want it, Fitbit has the code written for HealthKit as it was demonstrated at the iOS 8 unveiling with HealthKit and worked great. Then it was removed. What ever the issue is that Fitbit has with Apple, you need to get over it and move on. I love my ChargeHR, but an Apple Watch does look pretty good to me. When I get the chance I'll be ditching Fitbit. It doesn't care what it customers want, so why should w care?

[armgee]

Someone near the top of the Fitbit food chain needs to get over themselves.  This is a fact. A lot of people want intergration with Healthkit. If they don't get it then they will move on.

I certainly won't replace my HR Charge once it is done if there is no intergration. I'll say it again, if I knew that my HR Charge didn't intergrate with HealthKit I would not have bought it. I suspect a lot of people stay away from it because of that fact. It's kind of short sighted that it's not integrated considering the numbers of people who have iPhones. 

[iwatts]

On the flip side if they integrated I'd by a surge tomorrow. I don't want an Apple Watch. People I know who've got them don't like them. I like the Fitbit device and app but they won't get anymore of my money if they don't integrate. I suspect if Under Armour developed their own tracker they'd wipe the floor with everyone. They already own Myfitnesspal, Endomondo, Map my fitness etc. Bring out their own tracker and they'd sit right at the top of the pile.

[xtremetoonz]

I think I see what just happened there. Fitbit is fine intentionally decieving in private email communication to disgruntled prospects/customers but when that communication is shared in a public forum, there needs to be an official correction made. I'd rather you have told me to go fly a kite vs feed me a line of _____.

There's no question the decision to NOT integrate with the Apple HealthKit is political. It's either because of a beef with Apple at the C-suite, or Fitbit isn't confident enough with their product vs the competition and they see the integration and sharing of data a mechanism for people to more easily move between competing products while maintaining their historical health data. Either way, poor business practice in my opinion. I'd love to hear a compellign reason I should choose Fitbit over any of the competition that would overshadow this ignorance of Fitbit's.

[iwatts]

I think you hit the proverbial nail on the proverbial head. At least it shows the moderators do read this forum. I think we keep them in a job. I have asked so many times why Microsoft health vault is something they will integrate with when it is just Microsofts version of HealthKit. @RickyFitbit and the other moderators refuse to answer this. You just see. There will be no answer. I'll be ignored on this question as I always have been. I've tried asking on Twitter support and email too. Still no answer.

[WebeeLLC]

Not sure that's true everyone I have talked to which is now in the 1,000s
who
have an Apple Watch love it. And I quote best fitness tracker ever. If it
did
sleep tracking native I would have never bought Fitbit HR. I would gladly
pay
more to get what I want.
The Fitbit HR is the compromise it's does everything I need it to do but
doesn't
connect to what I want it to.

Moderator Edit: Removed personal information

[Zamboniman]

The biggest benefit to integrating with health kit is a central location to review details with your doctors.  It is unmanageable to open several apps to present all the information.

I appreciate the Jiff integration but it doesn't address the problem above with having all your data spread across multiple apps.

The more centralized everything is, the more likely people are to take the time to record information.  The food tracking in Fitbit is really good.  Jawbone asks you to create items that are missing from its database as well but if you don't re-use that item, two weeks later all your work is thrown away and where is the incentive to take the effort to enter the information again if it isn't going to be kept.

I was disheartened to see that the custom trackers were removed when I gave up on Jawbone and Misfit and decided to come back to Fitbit.  But as long as Fitbit concentrates on the core tracking for steps, sleep, and food, I'm fine with that.  The biggest problem I've had with sleep tracking from other companies is the lack of accuracy and the inability to modify mistakes.  Misfit is currently so broken on iOS 9 that it thinks you slept three months in the future and won't let you correct it.  Jawbone has been promising a fix in a couple of days for the past several weeks and they still refuse to announce to all their customers that they have a known problem with iOS 9.  If you can't trust the company to be transparent there is no use wasting time on them.  My only real complaint when I stopped using Fitbit was the horrible strap design for the Fitbit Flex and after four lost Fitbits and having to charge every night because the flex wouldn't hold a charge, I was sick of throwing money away.

For now, I'm going to pick up a Fitbit One today and sincerely hope that Fitbit considers pushing their data to Apple Health in the very near future because if they don't, as soon as a better solution comes along, Fitbit is out of the picture.

[Zamboniman]

Wow, didn't bother to check the end of the thread of comments earlier.  Sounds like Fitbit is not the way to go afterall since they're giving mixed messages.  I'll start looking for another alternative that is supported by Jiff.  It's a shame companies don't seem to care about word of mouth any more, piss of a customer enough and you poison hundreds of potential customers as they tell everyone they know why they are dropping Fitbit.

[netdog]

I’ve moved on to the Apple Watch and I am about to return it. Thoroughly unimpressed. Maybe generation 2 will be better.

In any case, I am never going back to FitBit. What a waste of money the HR was given the lack of true iOS integration.

[Zamboniman]

I had considered the Apple Watch initially but I try to avoid 1st generation Apple products because they usually have a lot of problems.  If the next generation Apple Watch becomes thinner and has a week long battery life, then it would be worth considering to be able to track steps and sleeping.

The only downside to owning an iPhone 6S Plus is the size makes it a little too large to keep on you when you're exercising.  Otherwise, I'd just skip all the third party trackers until something 100% waterproof that runs on CR2032 and has software that reliably tracks motion comes along.  There's always a possibility that Misfit will fix their flaky app at some point.

The fastest company to provide a stable solution usually gains the most loyal customers in the long run until they decide to sit back and assume that once you're a customer, you'll always be a customer.

[WebeeLLC]

Nonsense sorry to be blunt. I have had my 6plus since release and just put
it in
my packet when I am running or on the floor when I am lifting. It has BT
and you
don't even need a wire you could put it in a camel back as I have and
forget you
even had a phone. Those are invalid claims.
Second the Apple Watch will never have a week long battery, this
impractical for
the tech that's like saying I would own a hummer if I could get 50mpg.
The Apple Watch lasts all day that's pretty Good and actually can track all
night with a third party app. But it's not
native. I want native ability. I haven't yet had a version one Apple
Product
that "had issues" I have a lot of Apple products. I don't care about
battery
life it's not a big deal as long as it lasts all day. Integration into a
evolving ecosystem is what I want. I want to look in one spot for
everything not
jump through app hoops to see my daily workout. Fitbit comes real close to
that
option if you stay in the app.
The ChargeHR is by far the best all around fitness tracker I have had.
Misfit flash -very good product now HR Misfit Shine - even better then the
flash no HR Jawbone up 25 - stopped working after three months RMAed 4 same
issues just
gave up Jawbone move - issues with sync at times but solid.

Moderator Edit: Removed personal information

[iwatts]

That's twice now @WeeBeeLLC you have got defensive over apple products. You can't tell people they are wrong for not liking them. I'm a Mac user with an iPhone but I don't want an iWatch. I don't, like you, have over a 1000 people telling me how great they are, just a few who are dissapointed, but actually it is irrelevant to this thread. It isn't iWatch vs Fitbit or Apple Fanboy time. It's why are Fitbit ignoring their user base when it is so clearly wanted, and when are they going to give us straight answers.

[WebeeLLC]

I am far from a fanboy I want stuff that works. Simple as that. If it works
I
buy it if it does what I want I buy it. It just so happens that Apple has
provided that for me over the years. I work in the apple community on minis
I
see many many different things. So it's relevant one persons I don't like
it
because is doesn't last for 4 months in a charge is stupid.
I have yet to meet a person with an Apple Watch that wasn't impressed with
it.
Although I have talked to other Apple techs and they have said the number
one
reason people haven't Bought the watch is the exact same reasons I have
given. I
had 5 apples TVs and just sold them and switched over to Amazon Fire TV
mainly
because it has Plex and Amazon prime. I have an Amazon echo because it
hooks to
my Philips Hue I have no light switches. I like automation and I want it to
work
not some of the time but all the time. But in my experiance I have had
issues
and compromises with Apple products but I moved on. I have tested many
different
products and came to my thoughts not because I am a fanboy but because I
know it
works in many different situations. You don't have to like my opinion I
don't
care. But know this it's not because I just said apple is the best and
everyone
should use it. I don't care what you choose. Choose what's best for you but
to
outright make crap up is disrespectful and a lie.
Apple makes great products. That's the truth. The Fitbit is a great product
but
doesn't play in the apple sandbox.

Moderator Edit: Removed personal information

[iwatts]

"To outright make crap up is disrespectful and a lie". Sorry, don't understand this. If I've made stuff up and lied I'd like to know where. I'm just trying to get the thread back on track.