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.

[prwood]

Please open up FitBit's data to the Apple Health ecosystem! The series of paid apps I currently have to use to get any data in or out is incredibly cumbersome.

[Rich_Laue]

@prwoodif you go to this page with info on integrating with fitbit, you will see that Fitbit has an open API.. This means that any third party, including Apple may have access to your Fitbit Data, all apple has to do is ask. 

I'm not sure why everyone feels this is the responsability of fitbit, and are afraid to ask apple, when in reality Apple could right now set it up and have it working tomorrow. Fitbit has all ready provided all the tools apple would need. 

There is a reason Fitbit calls this a partnership, and invites anyone that wants to to partner with them. Is this something Apple would want to do? 

Spoiler

Spoiler

No the illogical cleaners will start

[Nisse]

It's Fitbit that are in Apples systems not the other way around.
Fitbit are still the ones that do not care about their users needs. (In this case)

[prwood]

@Rich_Laue From a big picture perspective, there are more companies making health+fitness devices and apps than there are companies making operating systems for those devices to connect to. It's also much more likely for new health+fitness devices and apps to be introduced than it is for new operating systems to be introduced. Because of that, it makes more sense to me for each of the health+fitness companies to implement connectivity to the relatively few OS health APIs (HealthKit, Google Fit, Microsoft Health Cloud), than it does for each of the OS companies to implement connectivity to each health device and app's own API, as well as any new ones that come along down the road.

I realize that these OS health APIs weren't around when Fitbit first started doing their thing independently, so they likely have plenty of legacy code that would need to be overhauled in order to integrate with the OS-specific backends. But I feel it would be worth it for Fitbit to implement. Otherwise, they may, if they haven't already, see their customers leaving to purchase one of their OS manufacturers' own blessed devices:

http://www.apple.com/watch/

https://store.google.com/category/android_wear

https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-band/en-us

[LAXMIM]

I just received notification that my post was taken down. That's fine. I plane to go to a big name retailer's online store and purchase an unnamed "fruit" watch at their clearance out of box price. I'm done FitBit.
Sent from my iPhone

[Rich_Laue]

The fitbit experience is in Fitbit, not in apple, apple like any other company has been invited to join in the fitbit experiance. 

The apple phone, like the android, windows, or a computer is used as a doorway to move the tracker a data to the fitbit server. Fitbit is not in apple systems, they have it set up for your convenience to be able to use an apple device to sync your data.. The fitbit app on the phone is also a part of the fitbit experiance in that it retrieved all data to be displayed from fitbit, not apple. 

[PKDaba]

@Nisse and @prwood, don't feed the troll. He's been spreading and repeating his misguided and delusional opinions on this thread for some time now. Our 3000+ voices in the iOS community seem to scare him and invalidate his strong vested interest in Fitbit.

[Aabdel]

I am giving up as well. I encourage you all to do the same. I bought my Fitbit two days ago, only to realise I had to pay to see my stats and it does not sync with iOS health. When I tweeted Fitbit, they asked me to join this thread which is full of complaints and disappointment.

I certainly would not be recommending it to anyone and will go back to what I had before. The grass is never greener.

Sent from my iPhone

[Rich_Laue]

Sorry you don't scare me, but your unwillingnous to see any view outside of the apple philosophy does scare me. Your simply afraid to accept that both apple and fitbit have the same philosophy, that is "we won't link to others, we will let others link to us". Knowing this your afraid to ask apple to break its policy and upset that fitbit does not break their policy. 

I've noticed you guys have been very clear in that Apple will not be doing the connecting to a third party app, and have given very valid reasons as to why they dont. Yet their is a failure to accept that fitbit will also not do the connecting to a third party app, even though they to have the very same very valid reason that Apple uses for not doing this. 

I'll just say that i do realize that it can be proven that it is imposable for anyone party to win an online argument.

I'm very aware that it is really very easy to incorporate a manufacturers device into its own experiance, this is exactly what fitbit has done. They manufacture devices to be a part of the fitbit experiance. 

[PKDaba]

@prwood, yes, the day that Fitbit develops its own OS, releases full featured API frameworks, backed by superb customer/developer service, and produces top notch quality devices that just work, that'll be the day when one can do an apples vs apples comparison.

In the now, the reality is that Fitbit needs to develop apps for each mobile OS in order for it to function (i.e. grab the data that you generate, lock it into Fitbit's ecosystem, for its own profit). Think of it this way, where would Fitbit be if Apple and Google decided to exclude Fitbit apps from its app stores. Apple was gracious enough to continue distributing Fitbit's app even after Fitbit refused to integrate with HealthKit. That was over 2 years ago. It was a poor business decision on Fitbit's part, in my opinion.

Other companies like Garmin, Withings, Misfit, Jawbone, Under Armour, Nike, to name a few, had no difficulties integrating from the start. Technically it's not a difficult feature to implement.

[Thespone]

Fitbit is partially relying on Apple and iOS. Apple is not relying on Fitbit. Fitbit wrote an app to be used on Apple devices. Apple did not write something to be used on Fitbit devices. So, yep, I think the ball is in Fitbit's court.

[aherstein]

Apple Health has been a feature for two years now, why does Fitbit *still* not integrate with Health? I am struggling to find a valid excuse for this lack of compatibility. Literally every other health-related app I use has this integration, so what's Fitbit's hang up?

[goherd15]

Of note, Garmin Connect can now sync with Health as of today.

This was not working at all until the ios update so i have no idea if it was garmin that updated their app or of health updated theirs.

Sent from my iPhone

[dtherio]

Hey folks,

Something many of you (including the troll) seem to forget is that Fitbit DID support Heakthkit for a couple weeks. I had that version of the Fitbit app and when it was REMOVED from the Fitbit app I emailed support and was told that they were making changes to their support.

So for those claiming that it is Apple's responsibility to integrate with Fitbit, Wrong! Fitbit has done the little bit of work (it isn't rocket science) it takes to support HealthKit.

Everything else from them (and their trolls) is simply lies.

[Aabdel]

If that's the case then why are they not supporting it now? Instead, they put us all in a forum for two years and set us against each other! And this is what you support?

Sent from my iPhone

[humanista]

From what I've read, Fitbit wants to be the place you go for your health data. They want everything to link into Fitbit and essentially be a competitor of a sorts to Apple Health Kit when it comes to aggregating data. I don't like/endorse this vision which is why I left Fitbit as soon as I got my Apple Watch and Withings scale. I hang around the forum to hopefully help people with new Fitbits who are shocked Health Kit isn't supported and to offer feasible alternatives.

[PKDaba]

@dtherio, that inadvertent release was apparently due to poor quality and versioning control on Fitbit's part. Instead of keeping its development of changes to the iOS app under an internal testing environment, Fitbit somehow released it to the general public. It was not only the iOS app that was affected. Folks were also complaining about changes to Fitbit's web UI which was well received and then had the well liked features suddenly taken away to the disappointment of many.

We all know that integration is technically feasible as Apple's HealthKit framework and its health database is fully open to developers (whether one likes it or not, Fitbit is an Apple iOS developer). Aspiring to compete with Apple, do you think that Fitbit would have the fortitude NOT to explore HealthKit's capabilities? It comes down to possibly delusional reasoning and bad business decision making at the top of the coorporate foodchain to not go forward with integration. We won't ever know the reasoning until someone from Fitbit speaks up. But, in the meantime, this is the reality the iOS community is faced with.

@Aabdel, for the most part, most if not all of iOS users who have posted here are in agreement that integragion with HealthKit is needed. Anything short of it would be deceptive on Fitbit's part to claim that its products sync with iPhones. It's only the one troll who posts from his Samsung SM-G900P who's going against the 3000+ voices here.

@humanista, all well and good if Fitbit wants to compete with Apple. Whether a company survives depends a lot on its customers' satisfaction. Right now Apple is winning the satisfaction race. Witness many of the 3000+ posts here who have commented on how they felt being duped by Fitbit for the last 2 years. Thanks for hanging around and illuminating on facts and truth for those who have been newly duped by Fitbit and sent here for false hope.

[Rich_Laue]

And in what way is it misquided, since no one has actually tried to explain anything other than "Apple won't do the connecting to a third try app", since there is no defense i don't expect an answer.

All I've read in this thread is Fitbit needs to, fitbit will be history of they dont, and remove apple from your supported device list because you won't interface with apple health. Never mind that fitbit can not interface directly with any app but fitbit, and must be done through the web and the online database. This hardly needs a phone to do. 

[scatteredthings]

@Rich_Laue I have taken your argument onboard, as have others, that Apple could also link to FitBit, rather than the other way around. We are not saying that that is impossible. However, a number of us have explained why we believe the onus is rather on FitBit and why, since we're on a FitBit customer support forum, we're inclined to put pressure on FitBit rather than Apple here. Moreover, in all honesty, we are also more likely to persuade FitBit than we are to persuade Apple. Though hope of even that is dying on the vine.

You've played devil's advocate (either genuineliny or trollingly - it's hard to tell) and we've rejected your advocacy. I'm therefore not sure what you want out of this continued argument... we've stated our position, you've stated yours, and neither you nor we can persuade the other (and again, I'm still not sure why you want us to change our minds and give FitBit a pass...). Anyhow, why not leave this thread alone and let it return to the quiet mood of depression and disappointment that it has enjoyed for 2+ years now...?

[HopefulRunner]

Let's look at this not from Apples or Fitbits point of view.

Let's look at this from a glucose meters at developers point of view.

Will the glucose meter company work to integrate with half a dozen or more applications such as Fitbit, Garman, withering, jawbone, misfit, and the rest? Or will the integrate with the HealthKit, Google Fit, and Health Vault?

What's more, can you even log blood glucose to Fitbit using Fitbit's API? Maybe a moderato can answer that question.

I track my activity because of my diabetes, so I will be using a system that makes that work with the least amount of human input error.

Right now my glucose meter works with HealthKit. There are numerous apps that I can now use to compare my carbs in, calorie burn, medications, and most importantly blood glucose.

I tested my blood sugar 12 times yesterday, that 12 finger sticks and bleed and blood on test strip. I can't, and won't use Fitbit because it does not work for my needs.

OneTouch did the logical thing, they work with HealthKit. They would waste resources trying to make their app work with fitness trackers, there are too many off them and no standard API that works with all of them.

Unless you choose to view the HealthKit framework as a standard API by which many devices can interact.

[PKDaba]

set troll_ignore_mode = false

@Rich_Laue, I’ll give you the courtesy of a reply since I’m responsible for calling your arguments misguided and also because you didn’t expect an answer (apologies everyone for trolling the troll :))

Your main claim that it is Apple’s responsibility to connect with Fitbit is misguided for the following reasons (do keep in mind that many have already explained this to you in one form or another. But you simply seem to choose to not accept them which in itself is evident to many that you are a troll with a closed mind incapable of accepting what is true and real):

1. Apple created iOS and iPhones which Fitbit NEEDS in order for iOS users to use Fitbit trackers. You can say the same for Google and even Microsoft now with their respective mobile OS and cellular devices. Fitbit is responsible for its needs not Apple. Can Fitbit trackers truly sync with Fitbit’s database without an intermediate device that offers internet connectivity? I must be in an alternate universe where Fitbit trackers don’t have internet connectivity on it’s own. In my universe, a large percentage of iOS users sync their Fitbits using their iPhone and a smaller percentage via their computers. Even Fitbit’s web app recommends that users use their mobile apps to sync and configure their Fitbits.
2. Fitbit chose to enter the iOS market with initial endorsement from Apple. Again Fitbit is responsible for its choices to build and sell iOS compatible devices. Apple regretted its endorsement later after Fitbit decided not to integrate with HealthKit, resulting in banishment of Fitbit products from the Apple Store (online and brick and mortar) over 2 years ago. Fitbit is solely responsible (not Apple) for its own business and technical decisions resulting in today’s dissatisfaction from the iOS user base posting here. Do note that Fitbit continues to claim that its products sync with iPhones in its packaging, continuing to mislead iOS users into thinking that HealthKit, an integral part of iOS, is updated as well. Many users have posted here relating to how they were duped by Fitbit (it’s real, it’s happened, and it’s still happening).
3. Apple does NOT NEED Fitbit for its survival and success. Hence it has no responsibility nor desire to interact with Fitbit (business or software wise). The iPhone does not need Fitbit to connect to cellular networks. iPhones do not need Fitbits to connect to the Internet to update databases. iPhones do not even need Fitbits to count steps and stairs as it has its own M series chip to track all sorts of fitness metrics internally (iPhone 5 and later). So, if you have an iPhone with you all the time, there’s really no need for Fitbit trackers. Apple is responsible for its own success by intelligently designing and building consistently superior hardware and software while providing a positive experience to its users.
4. Fitbit chose to be a registered Apple iOS Developer, responsible for writing the Fitbit iOS App adhering to Apple’s software development frameworks and policies. Fitbit has to agree to this reponsibility in order to distribute the Fitbit App through Apple’s iOS App Store. In other words, Fitbit NEEDS Apple’s App Store for its business to survive and thrive. Apple on the other hand has no such need from Fitbit. Fitbit does not even have an app store.
5. Fitbit, as a registered Apple Developer, is responsible for implementing its own features set (from how its app collects user / fitness data, visualizing the data, updating Fitbits servers with such data, to the much requested and ignored HealthKit integration) into its own iOS app. Yes, whether you like it or not, in this universe, Fitbit is responsible for building and maintaining its own App (not Apple, not Sync Solver, not any other Third Party).
6. There is no reasonable expectation for third party apps (created by Apple or others) to interact or be responsible with interacting with Fitbit’s ecosystem other than Fitbit’s own iOS app. If Fitbit has such expectations, then Fitbit would be negligent with its own business goals and practices. It’s a normal expectation in this universe for companies to take ownership of their own products and environments.
7. If Fitbit does want to pass responsibility to third parties to implement features sets that users really want, then it should fully open its API and improve its performance. As it stands, Fitbit’s API consists of a minimal set of javascript web commands which would choke under any serious usage loading. No wonder Fitbit restricts access to it. And that’s why third party apps like Sync Solver have never been successful at what they were hoping to achieve: full access and transfer from Fitbit’s database. Even if Apple wanted to create such an app, it would be a fruitless endeavour, as Fitbit ultimately controls and degrades access to its data to a point where the user experience is a frustrating one. Apple is all about improving user experience, not degrading it.

I could list many more points. But, I’ll stop at lucky 7. There, defense (Apple does NOT NEED Fitbit, hence not responsible for syncing to it) and exhaustive explanations based on facts and reality given. Being a troll that you are, I don’t expect you to have the capacity to accept them. My courtesy ends here.

Your loyalty to Fitbit is fascinating, 11000+ posts in other threads pacifying dissatisfied Fitbit users with Blaze problems, connectivity problems, band problems, and other issues, offering no real solutions to any of those problems. Are you sure you are not a Fitbit employee? Maybe James Park in disguise? Too much invested in Fitbit Stocks? Getting brownie points and a rush for the most posts in Fitbit forums? Just kidding and trolling you - no need to answer, don’t care.

Please do respect (if respect is in your vocabulary) that this is a thread for iOS users to vote for HealthKit Integration, plain and simple. Your continued spreading of misinformation and dwelling on your ignorance will prove that you are a troll of the most ignoramus kind. I don’t anticipate that you have anything that’s insightful or useful to offer other than your usual nonsensical rants. Please save face and leave now.

set troll_ignore_mode = true

[HopefulRunner]

@PKDaba,

So very well put.

[HopefulRunner]

My blood glucose meter app once took the stand that they would not integrate with HealthKit. They didn't waste time saying the were thinking about it. They didn't say they were going watch how HealthKit would evolve.

They said an unequivocal no until one day they said they were working on doing it.

I wish Fitbit would be that honest.

[kazamaran]

I want my data to sync with the Stepz app and Apple health so I can keep track of all my steps in each app, not add them up individually. Sometimes I have my phone to track my steps, sometimes I have my fitbit. Thanks.

[zacheagle]

@DKDaba well said, well said! This post is about asking for Fitbit to step up to the challenge and opportunity for it as a company to serve a large portion of its user base, not one ignorant troll. If that is truly their path, then they ultimately may be left with none except for one ignorant troll on this post.