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.

[peetah608]

I vote yes for Healthkit integration and I hope you change your mind on the integration.

What's most puzzling to me is how the flex appeared in the keynote for iOS 8 and HealthKit.

Fitbit & Apple must have had some type of conversation before that led to the graphic showing the Flex while talking about HealthKit.  If Fitbit's stance is related to Apple coming out with the Apple Watch which is competitor to Fitbit, then why have the Flex in the keynote and have everyone assume that Fitbit would work with HealthKit.  Everyone knew the Apple Watch was coming, it couldn't have been a surprise to Fitbit, so why not elminate the Flex from the keynote all together.

[pohlcat01]

No one app is going to do it all perfect. Consolidating with HealthKit would be nice instead of trying to sync 5 diff apps and have to figure out where to go for what or having to delete duplicate data, etc...

[Mystigrrl]

I have been a premium user for almost 2 years, and I'm disappointed that premium features are still not supported on iOS. The premium areas on the website use Flash, which is useless on mobile devices. Integrating with HealthKit seems like a good way to extend the usefulness of Fitbit to users with iOS devices, and it would help offset the lack of premium features on mobile devices. I rarely use my computer to access my Fitbit data anymore, and Premium is no longer that useful to me.

It seems to me that Fitbit would want to support HealthKit, since it would demonstrate a commitment to offering the best overall health and fitness information to its users. Remaining an isolated, standalone app (and one that doesn't fully support Premium users) doesn't seem that smart to me.

[TeRRyZx]

Yea....what is wrong with the FitBit management???

Just about every OTHER app can't wait to be on Healthkit and FitBit just sits there saying they are watching and thinking about it. Now just how STUPID is THAT???

They make a GREAT product but because they are wanting to push their premium subscription, they are cutting their own throats.

Just where will the new development come from when a LOT of people jump ship and move to other trackers that DO sync with Healthkit.The money is going to just dry up and FitBit will be WAY down on the list for people who WANT a DECENT TRACKER that will work will with their phone.

http://www.macworld.com/article/2834412/report-apple-will-stop-carrying-fitbits-in-its-retail-stores...

[TheMountain]

Well, really, it looks to me like this is all the reason I need to ditch my FitBit. I've been a huge fan of the service for a long time, and was really looking forward to seeing it integrated into HealthKit. However, the fact that the company is burying its head in the sand and refusing to cooperate with what will likely be one of, if not the biggest and most comprehensive health and fitness monitoring applications with the most exhaustive data flow and connectivity makes me rethink my choice of fitness monitoring device. I'm not sure why FitBit thinks that detaching itself from other applications is what its consumers want, and I'm really relatively annoyed by that. I'd be really interested to hear their reasoning behind why they have no plans to integrate, aside from working on future products and continuing to look at the app in the future. Honestly, FitBit... if you want continued relevancy, make the iOS app compatable with HealthKit. 

[TeRRyZx]

Just what is wrong with the fitbit management?

Just about every other app can't wait to be on healthkit and fitbit just sits there saying they are watching and thinking about it. Now just how stupid is that?

They make a great product but because they are wanting to push their premium subscription, they are cutting their own throats.

Just where will the new development come from when a lot of people jump ship and move to other trackers that do sync with healthkit.The money is going to just dry up and fitbit will be way down on the list for people who want a decent tracker that will work with their phone.

http://www.macworld.com/article/2834412/report-apple-will-stop-carrying-fitbits-in-its-retail-stores...

*Moderator edited format

[mikeerrand]

 When I heard that fitbit was not integrating I was rather disheartened and stopped using it. Fortunatly Jawbone and I belive Fuel are integrated.  Looks like I have something new on my Christmas list.

[bilbothejust]

At this point it really doesn't matter what new products you might release Mr. FitBit. Your choice in being so arrogant and isolated to your community vis-a-vis HealthKit integration has permanently tainted your products for me. FitBit Charge?? Big deal. You've lost a faithful customer of three years through your hubris.

[Vectrex71]

Forget it ! FitBit is dead ! Apple will clean the AppleStores from FitBit Products. You can read it here: (German site) http://www.apfelpage.de/2014/10/16/retail-stores-apple-trennt-sich-bald-von-fitbit-produkten/

It's a shame but this was clear after such an idiotic managment (No Health integration, WTF)

Bye bye FitBit !  It's to late !

[Travo]

Agree with everything that has been said before me, integration is integral in keeping us as consumers happy.

But all the focus seems to be on wanting to see fitbit data in the health app.

I'm the oppsite, I love the fitbit dashboard and the iOS Health interface is quite bland.

FitBit should use the data in the health app and integrate it into their own dashboard. i.e. Blood Pressure and pulse rates and most importantly the flights climbed ability of the iPhone. Seeing as though the Force got recalled, there is now no ability to get any flights climbed data from fitbit, I have a flex and the fact that I can't achieve the flights badges annoys me, when the data is clearly there being captured by my iPhone.

The badges are still there in the fitbit dashboard but can't be achieved??!

[Alacaeriel]

What I find sad is that we are seeing Fitbit pulled from Apple stores, the new Fitbits being Android/Windows only, and nothing about the co-operation between Fitbit and Apple, or lack thereof, is being admitted to by Fitbit. 

If Fitbit wants to move to Android/Windows, that's fine. Just tell us. As it is, Apple users of Fitbit are here, begging to know, and you're not saying a word about it. All you're saying, @zapleahy is that you still want to know what we want. Well, we've told you what we want, from different perspectives and with different stories, all from the Apple side. How about you tell us how your higher-ups are reacting to it? 

[ChrisSeiler]

Hi there!

I'm also looking forward to seeing HealthKit integration in the FitBit App. Should HealthKit not come, I would look into transfering to another service which does have integration.

As posted previously by other users (see below), I find it very miserable that FitBit doesn't have any plans to integrate HealthKit. Even if I only bought my FitBit One in May, I am currently looking into moving to another service.

---

@so-rich wrote:

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!

[WobmlingFree]

@zapleahy My summary for you as a business is as follows:

Remember why you have been successful. You produce great hardware and have great software behind it. You also allowed integration to other apps.

The world has changed - that is business. Evolve or die - that is business

1. Please continue to produce great hardware. I will consider buying your hardware over Apple because it has better battery life, is waterproof, looks better and is cheaper.
2. Please continue to produce great software. 
3. Please use all my data from HealthKit in a fantastic health app. Regardless of what app or device the data comes from, if it ends up in HealthKit you can pull it into your app and give me the best experience in terms of tracking and managing my health. I would pay for that. The only caveat is that you also put your data into Healthkit so I can use other apps and share this data with my healthcare professionals. Why would I want to also use other apps? Quite simply, they may provide specialist functionality you will never incorporate. 

Please don't go down the route of pulling support for Apple and your loyal fanbase on IoS. Please support Healthkit and even if Apple remove your kit from their stores, we know where to come for quality. Remember that Apple buyers want quality which is why they put you and Bose in their stores in the first place. Despite Bose vanishing from Apple stores, I would never buy Dr Dre bling and rubbish against the Bose quality I currently enjoy.

Focus on what you do best, play nicely and the market will decide in your favour. 

[neosix78]

if the fitbit will not work with healtkit and ios 8 i decide ti never buy fitbit...i m very sorry but teh integration is necessary!

[Undeleterious]

I have stopped using by Fitbit Flex due to issues with charging it (I've already replaced the charger once) but still use my Aria scales daily. I was looking forward to a new wearable device, and to see my data appear in the Health app. Now that it appears we won't get HealthKit integration I will have to seriously consider continuing with Fitbit products.

I highly doubt that integrating with HealthKit will harm Fitbit any more than the increased competition is already doing so. I am seriously considering the  watch when it's released, but my Aria scales are one of the best gadgets I've owned, and had no intention of discontinuing using it. Given that Fitbit have been accomodating with making my data available to approved services (such as the awesome TrendWeight), it seems totally unexpected to not continue this with HealthKit.

Please reconsider and you will certainly retain me as a customer and a fan of everything you've done! For now I will continue to use my iPhone 6 motion sensors to log my daily step count in the Health app.

[Carta]

A newbie here...I'm integrating FitBit data with the Apple Health app via the MyFitnessPal app. My newbie perspective is that FitBit integration with Health isn't 100% necessary, more likely a nice-to-have at present.

But, in the future, HealthKit will more and more penetrate the app development community and the health professional communities. Who knows what features and capabilities will be added to the Health app and to other useful apps that read its data. If FitBit develops integration with the Health app sooner rather than later, fewer FitBit users will be disappointed because of the Health app ecosystem's predictable growth. There may be some must-have, HealthKit-based app that takes the world by storm--I'd hate to see FitBit (and its user community) miss out on it.

While I don't mind navigating between FitBit and MyFitnessPal websites, I'd like to stay within the FitBit orbit. I like the visual presentation of data. I also like the more FitBit-focused Community than the wide-open community of MyFitnessPal.

Keeping its community glued to its website and app, FitBit might experience something of a halo effect. More time on their website at least means greater exposure to their other products. I'm more likely to buy the Aria scale because I've spent more time in the FitBit realm than interacting with other communities or companies.

[Mikey1234]

@Carta "I'm integrating Fitbit data with Apple Health app via MyFitnessPal" Now that's quite an accomplishment since Myfitnesspal doesn't send Fitbit data to Apple Health.

[Carta]

Mikey...you're right. My bad! What I meant, but said poorly, was that I'm integrating my usage of the apps. I record my food intake in MyFitnessPal and its calorie and nutrition data populates the appropriate fields in Apple Health. MyFitnessPal also sends calories consumed data to FitBit's app. So, for me so far, I pretty much get all the info I need in the FitBit app (calories consumed, steps, etc.) while the Apple Health app gets the nutrition info (although nutrition reports are available from MyFitnessPal so I'm not sure of the benefits of Apple Health just for tracking nutrition right now). Hope that clarifies what I cloudied up in my post.

[ThatGirlAM]

I just found this and I'm so disappointed. I'm finally trying to get everything feeding together and find this article and realize I can't even use this device with HealthKit so everything is in one place? I can't believe this. I really love my FitBit, but my phone isn't going anywhere and I love the idea of all my pieces working together. If you don't reconsider, guess I may be getting something that does - even if that means the Apple Watch.

Very poor decision.

Maybe we can get around this by having MyFitnessPal change up so it sends the FitBit data direct to HealthKit? 🙂

[Bluejay]

I read a review comparing multiple fitness trackers.

Here is something that is important to not on why one won the race over the others. I have removed the name of the tracker.

"No, what sees the **** grace our wrist is its integration with other apps and gadgets. We managed to feed in data from some Withings Wi-Fi scales and link it to (a growing list of) apps like Sleepio, RunKeeper and even If This Then That (IFTTT) to get involved with the rest of the household gadgets.

It's a small start, but it points the way for the future of wearables.

It's this open-platform idea that we think is crucial to the success of these 'self quantifiers' going forward because as more and more movement and other data is collected, it needs to go into one single app. Having two fitness apps to check, in our experience, invariably means that you'll forget about one of them.

By importing data from other services and letting those services access the data from the **** bracelet, **** is onto something – let's hope we see more of this from wearable devices in the months to come."

[naturemind]

After buying my FitBit One earlier this year, and having much hope for it, today I left for work without it. FitBit has lost all respect (and future monies) from me because of their stubbornness. If you can convince me otherwise in the future, perhaps that will change. This debacle, however, has left me with no confidence in management and I've decided to end my relationship with FitBit. I will just use my Jawbone on my Pebble Steel watch to track steps for now, and enter activity and calories directly into Health until I find my next device. Goodbye.

[Kellen]

At the very least it would be nice to get baisc integration for the Aria scale so that my weight can be tracked with the other metrics from various workout programs.

[Bluejay]

Fitbit,

I've been with you since before my preordered Fitbit arrived in the mail. You were new and innovating. I got my husband a fitbit. He is still using his classic.

It is heart breaking to see you take these steps. To be so tight lipped with news. That you are pushing us away. 

I read about the leaked Charge and Charge HR. I told my husband, and he said you most likely leaked it yourselves, in vain attempt to stop the hemorrhaging. So far all you are doing is trying to put bandaides on a self-inflicted stab wound. It is not enough. You have to make a real effort to show us that you are listening. 

Open data is the way the industry is going. You can either go that way or go the way or go exicnt. Because right now you are not integrating with Apple, what happens when Android comes out with something you won't integrate with?

[ateam043]

I'm done with Fitbit. Personally it's next to useless considering I have my phone with me 95% of time.

Just this Saturday I went on a run and tracked it with my iphone 6 and Nike app and got 10 miles, yet the Flex tracked me around 8.6 miles.

I agree with Bluejay, the Charge HR leaked had to me done on purpose. $230?...pass since it doesnt integrate with Healthkit. At that price, I might as well shell out another $100 and get the AppleWatch and get the calls routed to me instead of just the caller ID information.

While the Flex is currently on eBay, im looking into the Up 24 to last me from here until I get a chance to personally view the Apple Watch.

[franciscojosehu]

I think you should integrate as soon as possible Fitbit with iOS 8 and Health... I'm just one user, satisfied until now with Fitbit (I've got a Force, my partner is got a Flex and my father and mother have both zips)... But be sure that If you don't integrate in the Health platform... We will have to change to another fitness band that is compatible 100% with iOS 8...