Communicating with a native phone app

[jtlapp]

What are the options for transferring data between a native phone app and a FitBit app?

Must we first transfer data between the native phone app and the companion app via the Internet? I hope not, because this means the companion app would have to constantly poll, the FitBit app would only reflect changes every 5 minutes (2.5 minutes on average at best), and the native phone app would have to poll or keep a websocket open.

[JonFitbit · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately, at this time we don't offer any libraries for communicating directly with mobile applications, but we're aware of the use cases, and hope to offer this in a future update.

Thanks

[jtlapp]

Okay, thank you! I'm not sure if I should "accept this solution" or not -- given that the real solution is pending.

[jtlapp]

Update: I've come up with a solution that seems to fit the platform constraints. It's both simpler than I first imagined and may even put me on a better path toward success. Yay for creative constraints! Thanks for all your help!

[hlyates]

jtlapp,

Can you share your approach here? I am a PhD student and I am interested in getting data from a fitbit (steps, heart rate) and storing it on my Android SD card.

Thanks,

hlyates

[jtlapp]

I attempted to answer you in your thread on the topic

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@hlyates wrote:

jtlapp,

Can you share your approach here? I am a PhD student and I am interested in getting data from a fitbit (steps, heart rate) and storing it on my Android SD card.

Thanks,

hlyates

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[DLetourneau]

Would be useful to have a Bluetooth LE API so we could build our own protocol and send data to any custom APP. For now, bridging the data through the companion App seems the right choice. I have a similar project, but I would like to store accelerometer, GPS, gyros, magnetometer, altimeter data at high rate (100Hz) and transfer it to a custom app. 

[paperinik]

I've put a possible solution here, please upvote: https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/add-support-for-listening-to-a-port-in-companion...