Fitbit Solution _NOT_ compatible with Withings BP/Pulse Cuff

[LukeMullen]

NOTE: This has been cross posted to Fitbit ARIA Forum, Fitbit FLEX Forum, Amazon, Twitter & Facebook for both my Fitbit purchases.

My wife & I have used Fitbit FLEX for over a year now, more recently we purchased the ARIA scale. Yesterday, we purchased the Withings BP/Pulse Cuff since Fitbit does not have a BP/Pulse cuff. Prior research had indicated that Withings BP/Pulse cuff data would synch with Fitbit via IFTTT channel (If This Then That); HOWEVER, all such capability that existed Summer/Fall 2014 has been shut down. Withings appears willing; however, Fitbit neither offers their own BP/Pulse cuff nor does their API allow third-party apps to synch BP/Pulse.

Spare me the advice that I can manually login to either the Fitbit website or the Fitbit iPhone App to manually enter BP/Pulse. This is 2015 not 1994, synch seamlessly or file for bankruptcy already. Spare me the advice that Fitbit now offers a Heart Rate monitor because I am talking about BP/Pulse

Spare me the suggestion to submit an enhancement request since the same request was made by a Fitbit User on Sept-2014, it is now six-months later and Fitbit has not replied with anything at all: no JIRA Ticker, no Bugzilla Ticket, no pointer to 3rd Party App, no pointer of RTFM and spin your own IFTTT channel, etc etc etc.

[SunsetRunner]

@LukeMullen 

Feel free to add your suggestions to the 'Feature Requests' Sub Forum, where users can vote, add comments,.. if there's a certain interest then there's a chance the developers pick it up and it'll be developed.

Tip: Search if the idea already has been suggested and add your vote / comment!

Feature Suggestions

URL: Click to go to the Feature Requests Forum

---

[LukeMullen]

Luke's Core Message: Forum Moderator StefanC Response is non-responsive, a meaningless boiler plate copy 'n paste effort. 

StefanC responded: "Feel free to add your suggestions to the 'Feature Requests' Sub Forum, where users can vote, add comments,.. if there's a certain interest then there's a chance the developers pick it up and it'll be developed."

Luke replies: I reject StefanC response in so much as the first thing I did was search for such in the "Feature Requests Sub Forum" and commenting about how awesome such would be.

Luke's Concern: The feature request was made in September 2014. Today is February 2014, six months later.  The feature request has no update, no developer query "what exactly do you mean", no hint of a Beta Test, no hint of a minimum vialble product type try this out attempt, no suggestion about how a thrid-party s/w developer could "spin his own", no JIRA Ticket #, no Bugzilla #, etc

Luke's Actions in Response: Update Facebook post about Fitbit non-response, Update Twitter about Fitbit non-response, Update Amazon about Fitbit non-response

[Michael]

@LukeMullen Given that Fitbit has deprecated the BP feature of their site, new users no longer have it as an option, I am not suspecting that they are going to return the functionality to IFTTT.

A third party developer, for instance Withings, could certainly use the Fitbit API to accomplish this. But apparently Withings didn't want to do that or they would have years ago. (I'm not sure there is any point now as the BP API end points have been deprecated as well.)

Maybe they deprecated the BP because very few people were using it, or maybe it is a regulatory thing since BP meters are controlled by the FDA. (I have no idea if that has anything to do with Fitbits decision or not.)

The IFTTT BP feature request has all of 3 votes while the return the BP feature request has all of 5 votes. I suspect that isn't enough votes to get their attention.

The best thing you can do is vote for the existing feature suggestions to request that they bring back the features. (And get anyone else you know that wants them to vote as well.)

BTW: the feature request for IFTTT looks like it was posted on 1/05/2015, not in September. (So it took ~4 months from the time Fitbit took the feature away before someone noticed and asked for it back.)

[Michael]

---

@LukeMullen wrote:

Luke's Core Message: Forum Moderator StefanC Response is non-responsive, a meaningless boiler plate copy 'n paste effort. 

---

And StefanC isn't a forum moderator, just another community member trying to help people out.

I had started creating a interface to upload BP data from my Omron BP device, but I never bothered to fully finish it since Fitbit has pulled the feature.

[SunsetRunner]

As an aside, I consolidated all of the posts into the 3rd party integrations forum as that appears to be the core issue. Cross posting into multiple help threads serves no real purpose and just makes it harder for others to follow and offer solutions/comments/suggestions.

[LukeMullen]

Given the Fitbit API apparently denies third-party's access to:

• Blood Pressure Logging (https://wiki.fitbit.com/display/API/API-Log-Blood-Pressure)
• Heart Rate Logging (https://wiki.fitbit.com/display/API/API-Log-Heart-Rate)

based on the notice of deprecation at the top of each Fitbit API wiki page (i.e. "DEPRECATED: This endpoint is deprecated. Please see the October 2014 announcement.") it is not entirely clear how Withings or other supporters of the IFTTT concept would be able to make it happen.

How exactly would Withings or any other vendor craft their webservice to force data into Fitbit webservice if the Fitbit API lacks the hooks?

[Michael]

@LukeMullen They are still available, and work, but have been unsupported at this time. (They will be removed at some point in the future.) That is why I said there wouldn't be much point in somebody building an interface now. But those end points were supported for years prior to that and Withings never built an interface, so I assume they didn't really want to. Which brings me back to my comments that maybe they deprecated the BP feature because very few people were using it.

But maybe if enough people vote for the suggestions Fitbit will return them to a supported state.

[allan473]

Sync Solver used to import steps from Apple Watch. It still does but the data no longer shows up on the Friends Tile nor in the challenges. I would like to have this feature back, even if it means a premium addition. I can understand why Fitbit would not want people who do not own Fitbit trackers to use their dashboard - site, but it is clear I am a Fitbit owner. I just want to use both Fitbit and AW and share with friends.

Fitbit recently changed the Fitbit app (around Dec. 1, 2015) to exclude steps recorded as activities from the 7-day total. Your steps will still show up under the activities list but no longer in the totals. We realize this limits the usefulness of Sync Solver, but it is entirely out of our control and we are asking Fitbit to reverse this decision. This decision is actually just the latest example of Fitbit removing functionality from the API