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.

[Darss]

Buying an apple watch instead of surge. Bye fitbit.

[drtaxsacto]

I would add my request to the lists above - please integrate with iOS and the healthkit.

[swat671]

When are us Apple folks going to finnally get HealthKit integration? With the new Apple ResearchKit, actuall HK integration could go a long way to help a lot of people out. Honisly, what could be taking so long?

[Opivali]

All of these and more. The tie in and data sharing are just the beginning
to seeing the bigger picture. These all need to be added.

Michael D. Kester (U.S.N. Ret.)

[TheRealKevin]

I've been waiting patiently for the Apple Watch, but I just now realized that it is not a continuous heart rate monitor. Now I'm looking at a Fitbit, but without HealthKit integration, I'm not interested. Please reconsider.

[Drew1689]

iOS just updated to fix several Health app issues and extend features. Is FitBit giong to finally address the issues there?

[Mountaineerfan]

Please add Healthkit integration.  This will definitely NOT stop me from using the Fitbit app, as I love the app and the challenges.  I would like to be able to sync my steps with Researchkit apps, though.  Come on, Fitbit!  Get with it!

[DanSim89]

Hello,

I've just recently got the iPhone 5s which comes with an Apple Gealth App which gives you daily graphs for weigh, activity and fat percentage.

I LOVE my fitbit and was wondering if there's anyway of linking the apps to my data from fitbit could be shared with apple health?

Thanks,

Danielle

[GotRottys]

Try "SyncSolver" app for the iPhone.  It is a low cost app, but it syncs just about every stat you'd want except Heart rate which the FitBit API does not yet allow to be exported. (hopefully soon??)

From what I hear, Apple and FitBit are havign a little cry-baby contest and don't want to play together any more.  So it is unlikely that you will see any further explicit support from FitBit for Apple's Healthkit.

[daviesgeek]

I would really love to see HealthKit integration. I am looking at buying my first Fitbit, but HealthKit integration is pretty important to me. The Fitbit devices are some of the best fitness trackers, so I don't want to see them losing traction due to the lack of platform support.
HealthKit is the only thing that's still in me from buying a Fitbit at this point.

[CraigD]

This is already a hot topic request - if you sort the idea forum by votes, the top hit is integrate with Apple Health.  Please be sure to upvote there as well but as @GotRottys posted earlier, it's not likely to happen in the near future until Apple and FitBit learn how to play in each other's sandboxes.

-Craig

[Fangirlmom]

PLEASE make this happen soon!!

[Wes27]

I would say with impending arrival of Apple Watch they will have to do
something about linking with Health App or they'll loose potential
customers to Apple - even with the cost of the watch!!!!

--
Wendy Sanders

[ASHNEWLAND]

I love my Fitbit, it is very motivating in helping me reach my health goals.  I wish it would integrate with more apps, such as Endomondo, iso Health, and better integration with My Fitness Pal.  I use ios, so I would love to see it integrate with the ios Health app, specifically in the exercise portion, including steps.  As I already have Fitbit set up to integrate with My Fitness Pal for nutrition- which is awesome - I do wish that it integrated my activites when bringing them from Fitibit into My Fitness Pal.  Instead of just an increased calorie adjustment in My Fitness Pal, I would like to see Fitbit send the actual activity to My Fitness Pal and register under exercise with the individual calorie count for that activity just as you see it in the Fitbit app, then logged on the home blog in My Fitness Pal.  The integreation between My Fitness Pal and Endomondo are already doing this, but I'm not sure why Fitbit does not yet have this capeability.  This activity should also be not included in the general calorie adjustment from walking ect.  As it is now, If i do an activity or excercise using the apps Endomondo or My Fitness Pal, these apps post the activity on the blog page and under excercise.  When my calories are then brought over from Fitbit, it then double posts the calories burned.  My Fitness Pal can't currently distinguish Fitbit calories from excercise and Fitbit calories from daily activities.

[SunsetRunner]

as a new adopter of fitbit, i already have other devices to track my health status on my iPhone. I like the possiblilty to simplify sharing that data with fitbit, if fitbit both wrote and read from health kit it would leverage using data contributed by other devices and further improve data in my own dashboards about my health!

Thanks!

[kev585]

Goodness, yes. It's not just about giving Apple something, it's about what you can collect for fitbit users. Like any connection with an app or device that fitbit can currently make, HealthKit can help devices or services talk to each  other in different 'rooms.'

Hell, fitbit could leverate the new Researchkit to gain even more information about users.

[PeacockRose]

I'd VERY MUCH like to see my FitBit data integrated into the iOs8 HealthKit App. My Doctor gets access to that data through a linked app at her office. Unfortunately, I dont ALWAYS have my phone on me, so there can be major differences in my activity between my FitBit Surge and the activity my phone collects, not mention my phone doesn't monitor my heart rate throughout the day. Integration would allow for more accurate data available to my physician.

[roguesfive]

I posted this elsewhere and basically it give more details on what @GotRottys said:

Sorry this doesn't really answer your question.  But I feel obligated to point this out.  Fitbit has been very quiet about this.  If you do a search on the web basically Fitbit and Apple had a falling out right around when the HealthKit was being released on iOS. There's debate as to who "started" it   Regardless the outcome was that Fitbit does not plan to every integrate with Apple's Healthkit and Apple doesn't sell Fitbits in their stores anymore.  This all happened in 2014.  Some speculation that Apple was going to launch their Apple Watch so Ftibit was competition.  In the end other devices and apps integrate with HealthKit.  Apple is NOT preventing Fitbit.  Fitbit at this point is choosing not to.  What is frustrating about this is if you do a search about this in the forums.  The official reply by Fitbit "If this is something in which you're interested, please visit this feature suggestion and contribute your vote and comments. This is a great way to let our developers know what you'd like to see in the future!"  Check it out.  It's comedical at this point.  It was requested summer 2014.  Over 1000+ votes. 93 pages of comments.  The most recent was today! 

I've noticed in these forums that Ftibit isn't very transparent.  I don't want to use any harsher words than that but I think I'm being nice.  Not just about this issue but others as well and  it is disturbing.  Basically this is something they can easily do but choose not to at the expense of their consumers.  If you read the web searches about this, back in Oct 2014 I think they cited that this would be an issue with Android.  This is iOS.  Even the articles pointed out how flimsy that excuse was. 

I would love for Fitbit to come out and own up to this (whatever the reason is).  However no one seems to really be calling them out.  People seem happy enough to add to the feature request page.  It's been about 9 months since that was started.

[roguesfive]

I posted this elsewhere and basically it give more details on what @GotRottys said:

Sorry this doesn't really answer your question.  But I feel obligated to point this out.  Fitbit has been very quiet about this.  If you do a search on the web basically Fitbit and Apple had a falling out right around when the HealthKit was being released on iOS. There's debate as to who "started" it   Regardless the outcome was that Fitbit does not plan to every integrate with Apple's Healthkit and Apple doesn't sell Fitbits in their stores anymore.  This all happened in 2014.  Some speculation that Apple was going to launch their Apple Watch so Ftibit was competition.  In the end other devices and apps integrate with HealthKit.  Apple is NOT preventing Fitbit.  Fitbit at this point is choosing not to.  What is frustrating about this is if you do a search about this in the forums.  The official reply by Fitbit "If this is something in which you're interested, please visit this feature suggestion and contribute your vote and comments. This is a great way to let our developers know what you'd like to see in the future!"  Check it out.  It's comedical at this point.  It was requested summer 2014.  Over 1000+ votes. 93 pages of comments.  The most recent was today! 

I've noticed in these forums that Ftibit isn't very transparent.  I don't want to use any harsher words than that but I think I'm being nice.  Not just about this issue but others as well and  it is disturbing.  Basically this is something they can easily do but choose not to at the expense of their consumers.  If you read the web searches about this, back in Oct 2014 I think they cited that this would be an issue with Android.  This is iOS.  Even the articles pointed out how flimsy that excuse was. 

I would love for Fitbit to come out and own up to this (whatever the reason is).  However no one seems to really be calling them out.  People seem happy enough to add to the feature request page.  It's been about 9 months since that was started.

[Silvesterick]

Unfortunately who's are we users of Apple's gadgets and OS, definitely need this upgrade, is not just a issue to resolve but a feature that will complete our fitness program, please hurry! To make it real

[Meph88]

I like fitbit, I've used it for about 1.5 years now, I use the Flex and so does my wife.

My primary uses are steps tracking, other workout tracking by manual input, sleep tracking and water intake tracking. I also use a withings smart body analyzer scale and I integrate the weight readings into my fitbit account (would be great if fitbit also pulled heart rate data from the analyzer).

I used to use it for tracking caloric intake and making sure my daily input was under the app recommended amount to achieve my weight loss goal.

I stopped using this because I was dissatisfied with the food database, I found that about 90% of the time I had to add the foods I was eating as custom foods and this involved a considerable amount of time and effort that after a point I was not willing to spend.

I would go back to this if the database were improved and I was only occasionally having to add foods manually.

The way I see a fitbit/healthkit intergration working is like this:

My view of healthkit is that it is a central repository for collected data from many sources be it apps, pysical trackers, wearable tech and so on. Fitbit gives you access to a significant amount of readings and data from your tracker and from manual input into the accompanying app and webapp. That being said there is far more data out there to be collected; for example blood pressure, body temperature, lung capacity, it goes on.

While the fitbit trackers are great and the app is great I have access to more data than fitbit at this time empower me to track.

This is where healthkit and the health app on ios (and hopefully something equivalent for users on other platforms soon.) comes in. I would like to go to one app on my devices and be able to see the step data, sleep data, water intake data and so on from my fitbit tracker alongside my weight data and heartrate data from my withings smart body analyzer scale, my blood pressure readings from another device, my body temperature data from another device, and so on it goes.

I really think that technology like this can make a huge difference to someones life, I've used it to achive some modest weight loss and plan to continue but I want it to be easier.

I want to look at one app and have an overview of my health not 3 or 4 apps and if fitbit came to the party here it would be a really great step in the right direction and would make it a lot easier for users like me to integrate your tech into my life and goals.

[ASHNEWLAND]

As far as the food database, I recommend integrating MyFitnessPal with
Fitbit. The food database is amazing and the calories entered and
steps/caloric output are shared between the 2 aps. It's much more user
friendly than the Fitbit food journal.

[drtaxsacto]

Thanks for a thoughtful and thorough reply!
Sent from my iPad Air

[Sherri0]

Integration with HealthKit would be a huge plus for Fitbit. I really don’t understand why they refuse to pay attention to their users requests. The one-size-fits-all dietary recommendation and calorie allowance is not at all satisfactory, and the food base in Fitbit is really sadly lacking. As was said in the above post by meph88, one has to constantly add custom foods from one’s own diet. It is also not possible to personalize to one’s particular diet, which is of utmost importance to me. I use FatSecret, which allows infinite personalization among many different diets to achieve the desired goal.

I use Fitbit solely to track steps/activity and sleep, which it is remarkably good at, but I will choose another brand when my Fitbit One wears out because of management’s recalcitrance and lack of interest in keeping up with its owners.

[TWOstermann]

I would like to buy a couple of Fitbit bands and scale for my family, howerver, I would also like to use my iphone (IOS) devices and the Apple Health Application. I do not want to be limited to using the fitbit hardware not communicating to the Health Application, as I may be using the Health App for MORE than what Fitbit or anyone is doing so far. I hope Fitbit makes an announcemnet about this soon, I am on standby for now, thank you

[pmb585]

I'd really like to see this. I recently purchased a Fitbit Charge HR to track my day to day activity and I'd like to see the data shared with the HealthKit. Although Fitbit is great at tracking the daily stats, I do, for example have different apps that can track my sleep and eating habits. I'd personally have those app push my data to HealthKit and have Fitbit push in my steps/heartbeat etc. I don't want to have to manage my health through several different apps, and I think that's the point of HealthKit. I was disappointed when I realised Fitbit wouldn't integrate but it was too late to take it back for a refund. I'd have definitely gone for the Jawbone UP if I'd have done my research beforehand as this does integrate. Hoping this feature comes along fast or I'll be changing pretty quickly.