Fitbit products are expensive, and it's a proprietary ecosystem

[raydlevel5]

Overall, I've had fun with the Fitbit Charge 2, and I think it has helped improve my movement.  Fitbit has a wonderful platform, and the Charge 2 is pretty solid (except for its band).

I was initially focused on tracking runs and biking, specifically speed, date/time, distance, and GPS.  It's nice to compare effort over time.  Fitbit provides this very well.  With that said, I think Strava presents the data better -- providing a history of matched runs, and a graph displaying whether you're trending faster or slower.  It too has a social aspect, and you can compare your efforts with a community and friends.

I don't really want to lug a phone around anymore, and I don't want to drop the money for the Fitbit GPS watches.  Many of the Garmin GPS watches are cheaper, double as bike computers, and they support external sensors (Heart rate monitors, and cadences sensors).  Fitbit does not support any external sensors, and the accessories are astronomically expensive.  If I had to make an analogy:  I'd say Fitbit is like Apple (proprietary), and Garmin is like PC (open platform).

My current understanding about Strava and Fitbit is that some stuff from Strava will sync back to fitbit (all day stats, like calories and active minutes).  But, does that includes steps too?  I know it won't include any heart rate or GPS data.  It's a 'porous garden'.

One of the only real reasons I would stay in the Fitbit ecosystem is for my coworkers who love to do step challenges every week.  Also, I like to monitor my sleep.  However, total steps in a day are not my main focus -- it is actual tracking biking and jogging.

So, I think I can get what I really need out of Strava and Garmin.  I'll have a choice for more sensors, I can save some money, and I won't have to lug a phone around.

[Rich_Laue]

Please see the Strava info post. 

[Castilla]

And there is a used market for both to save money. 

[CardiganWearer]

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@raydlevel5 wrote:

...

I was initially focused on tracking runs and biking, specifically speed, date/time, distance, and GPS.  It's nice to compare effort over time.  Fitbit provides this very well.  With that said, I think Strava presents the data better -- providing a history of matched runs, and a graph displaying whether you're trending faster or slower. 

...

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I agree with your general argument, except I disagree about fitbit providing tracking/comparison well.

They could fix this relatively easily by implementing some of the many suggestions made over the years such as full export of activity data, and/or filtering of activity data by type.

[RobertoME]

Hi there gang, thank you for visiting the Community @raydlevel5 and for sharing your comments @Castilla, @Rich_Laue and @CardiganWearer.

I really appreciate the feedback provided here and rest assured I will compile this details to send this information to our teams. However there are one thing that I saw that actually is implemented already.

@raydlevel5 you mentioned that the integration between Strava and Fitbit will not include GPS or Heart rate. However this information is the necessary to sync data to Strava. Some of the rules for this integration are the following:

• Exercises with GPS data recorded with Fitbit will be sent to Strava. Heart rate data will be included when it's available
• Exercises recorded with Fitbit's app or devices that do not include GPS data are NOT currently sent to Strava

You can find more details in the post kindly shared by @Rich_Laue.

@CardiganWearer, is true that is not possible to export all the data from your Fitbit account. However you can manually export GPS exercises. For more details refer to this article: How do I export Fitbit data?

For other implementations and improvements with 3rd party integrations. Fitbit doesn't own or maintain third party integrations. It's up to the owner of the third party app to implement or update features for their app. Unless there's some sort of limitation on Fitbit's side (e.g. no Fitbit SDK), then it's safe to assume that the owner of the app is the one to contact if you're interested in seeing the integration improved.

Nonetheless, I'm happy to hear your comments as this helps us to improve the Fitbit functionality.

See you all until the next opportunity.

[raydlevel5]

@RobertoME:

Let me try to summarize what I'm really trying to do...  I realize I'm being pedantic, and could just keep a paper journal, but here it goes:

SCENARIO:

I have a Charge 2, I sync activities with Strava, and I'm in the middle of a Step Challenge.  I wear the Charge 2 during the day, but when I get home, I take off the Charge 2, and strap on the Garmin Forerunner35 for an afternoon jog ($169.92 on Amazon as of 6-20-18 with GPS built-in).

ISSUE:

I want to beat my coworkers, so I want to make sure my steps are being included via the third-party sync... read on....

QUESTION / ASSUMPTION:

Assume the activity is recorded to Strava as an Afternoon Run with GPS, Heartrate, and Step data...  Of that data set, what data is explicitly sync'ed back to Fitbit's DB?  (The articles that talk about Strava ---> Fitbit sync'ing are vague).

From the articles, I have inferred that activity with GPS and Heartrate data should show up in Fitbit as a manually-logged activity, but I'm not too sure, and I'm just seeking clarification before I start spending money.

What I really want are for steps to sync so I can beat my co-workers.

[RobertoME]

Hi there @raydlevel5, thank you for coming back and for sharing your concerns. To answer your question, note that exercises recorded in Strava will be synced to Fitbit as manually logged activities, but will not include GPS or heart rate data from Strava.

Hence the steps from this activity, since are sent from Strava in a manually logged activity to your Fitbit Dashboard, it will not count to your Challenges. Based on the rule of challenges, only steps recorded with your tracker are taken for its progress.

Hope this helps and stay tuned if you have other questions.