Plans for apps on Fitbit Sense 2?

[berukmano]

I just got the Sense 2 yesterday after a year of having the Fitbit Luxe, I thought it was time for an upgrade. However, I cannot download any apps whatsoever. I've looked at my family and friends' watches (who have Versas 2, 3 and Sense 1) and they all have music control or Spotify or 3rd party apps. When I go onto the gallery the only thing I can download is watch faces.

It seems from reading that the Sense 2 doesn't support any 3rd party apps! I want to know if this is just because the device is brand new, or if they have no plans at all to allow 3rd party apps on Sense 2. If so, I'm not entirely sure why I've paid almost 3 times the amount I did for a tracker... when Sense 2 is supposed to be a smartwatch. What is the point of having a newer watch without the capabilities/features that the older watch offers?

If anyone has any insight as to if/when Fitbit may allow 3rd party apps (if they will at all) that would be great. Or if Fitbit has completely cut them out and I need to return the watch and stick to my Luxe.

[LZeeW]

Hello @berukmano and welcome to the Community.  This article in 9to5google says there are no plans to add third party apps.  We are all dumbfounded by this decision.

[asiayeah]

@berukmano Return

[honkerdown]

Return it while it is still inside the return window.  

[Killroy-TM]

Did the same thing returned it, but be aware of the fact that Google will also take away the feature of music storage and 3rd party music streaming apps from older FitBits starting in March. When my Sense 1 dies I am out of the FitBit eco system.

[honkerdown]

Unfortunately for me, this is my first tracker, which Google sells as a "smart watch light".  Now I know they are pushing the Pixel Watch, which I would like, but I thought the Sense 2 fit my needs well enough to begin with.  I was wrong, and now regret it.

That said, I think sublimation of the FitBit users into a Google-ish ecosystem is certainly what they want. Hobbling the Sense 2 and Versa 4 are a means to that end.  

[Killroy-TM]

The Pixel watch battery life is horrible 18h is wishful thinking for normal opperation and so if you are prepared to do a daily charging than perhaps, but not for me I recharge my FitBit once a week.

[honkerdown]

Battery life of the PIxel Watch was one of the cons for me, and pushed me towards the Sense 2.  

[N8teGee]

It's worth noting that Fitbit are also discontinuing Fitbit Studio (web based tool for 3rd party app/watch face creation) (Link). So it's unclear what this means for app development even on older watches. 

[t.parker]

@N8teGee not sure about the future (my opinion is that it is rather bleak) but for now the alternative is to install toolchain and use CLI to build projects. Myself, I haven't had luck to set it up though (tried only on Linux).

[N8teGee]

@t.parker Yes it's certainly still possible, but it's a great deal less accessible. If I wanted developers to create apps and clock faces for my platform I'd be making it as easy as possible, not harder. 

[t.parker]

@N8teGee totally agree. The learning curve just got much steeper and considering that setting up the dev environment isn't trivial even for experienced engineers I expect that lots of people will just give up. But maybe this is the purpose of the change - to let the development cease and then remove it for good as "not very popular feature".

[honkerdown]

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But maybe this is the purpose of the change - to let the development cease and then remove it for good as "not very popular feature".

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Unfortunately, Google has done this more than once with many of their products.

[N8teGee]

Yes it will be interesting to see where things go from here. I think a lot of us are confused as to the direction things seem to be going. 

[Nandor]

Do not return Sense 2! Go and talk with fibit with your issues save your talk with the agent and complain at the right places. In my view this is the only way for get help from now.

[Malone1956]

I have found every smart watches has their own pros & cons. I've own Samsung smartwatches for many years. Most all either don't work or don't work properly with third party apps. But I just went with the Fitbit Sense 2. Apps aren't all that important on the watch when you've got your cell phone, but how long your watch operates in between charges is golden. Samsung is bragging about "up to 40 hrs".  Seriously, previous Samsung models go into "powersaver mode" in less than a day.