Where is the Bluetooth SDK? Can my app communicate directly with the Fitbit tracker?

[JeremiahFitbit]

Fitbit devices only sync through the Fitbit app. The device data is then immediately available via the API for third-party applications that a Fitbit user has authorized.

[Ben_35]

Hi everybody, 

Is there a way to access the heart rate raw signal from the charge HR, and if possible in real time. I can'T seem to find the answer

Thanks

[Michael]

@Ben_35 No, Fitbit only has an API to access data from the Fitbit site. (No direct communication with the Fitbit trackers.)

And at this point they haven't released the APIs that access HR data from the site.

[Vexra]

Hi,

does this mean that, although fitbit devices are using BLE and the app seems to be using the Android 4.3 BLE API, fitbit devices are not supporting the BLE API for third party developers (probably some encryption)?

This would be good to know, as I'm searching for a fitness tracker that actually exposes their data via the bluetooth API for my bachelor thesis.

[SunsetRunner]

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@Vexra wrote:

Hi,

does this mean that, although fitbit devices are using BLE and the app seems to be using the Android 4.3 BLE API, fitbit devices are not supporting the BLE API for third party developers (probably some encryption)?

This would be good to know, as I'm searching for a fitness tracker that actually exposes their data via the bluetooth API for my bachelor thesis.

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Correct, we currently don't have APIs for third party developers to communicate directly with the devices.

[thebossman]

is there plans to have live data exposed over bluetooth?

[Michael]

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@thebossman wrote:

is there plans to have live data exposed over bluetooth?

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@thebossman No, Fitbit has not announced any plans to allow direct/real time access to their trackers. Their API only allows access to data synced on to their servers. You certainly can add, or vote for, it in the Feature Request forum.

[alexryan]

We have a need for real-time access to heart rate data for our iOS/Android apps.

Accessing the data only after it has been uploaded to a web-site is of no use to us.

But this Web API is the only one that I see.

Is an iOS/Android SDK available or will it be available soon?

[JeremiahFitbit]

@alexryan: We do not have anything to announce at this time.

[alexryan]

fyi ... apple announced that they will provide this to us today for the iWatch.

we would very much like to have this for fitbit

[Cucumber_Apps]

Hello,

Is there any way we can access the data on the FitBit device directly ?  Or that this information can be accessed ?  We are starting an Android phone app development track for a university that needs FitBit integration, but i see it as a possible problem for users needing to first connect to FitBit cloud for upload before we can use the data in the app.  This means the user must activate and use two apps instead of one, and would only need the FitBit app only for synching purpose.

Is there any solution for that to connect directly or to at least not have to open the FitBit app for syncing to the cloud ?  Is there a way of putting a part of code in our app to allow the synching to be activated from our app ?

[SunsetRunner]

I do not believe you can directly connect to a Fitbit tracker with a 3rd party app. Fitbit wants to control that process.

[Danielc99]

Hi,

I need a way to get real time heart rate updates from my fitbit Charge HR. Is this possible to do with the API? I don't want to be hitting any API limits. Thanks!

[JeremiahFitbit]

@Danielc99: No, data is only available via the Web API after the device syncs with the Fitbit app.

[MinMiguelM]

I don´t speak English, so excuse me for my bad english.

I'm doing a desktop app, my idea is to get the information from the tracker to my app, but I want to know if I can do this directly over device, or I always must to do POST request to get this information. The idea is to get it very fast.

I hope that you understand my question.

Thanks

[JeremiahFitbit]

@MinMiguelM: Please see https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Web-API/Where-is-the-Bluetooth-SDK-Can-my-app-communicate-directly-w...

[remkohdev]

Hello, do you have a special access program for health care solutions by any chance, that would provide direct access to the raw data via BLE?

For responsive health care devices to give direct alerts based on certain heart rate pulse patterns, e.g. for epileptic episodes, it is not a sufficient solution to provice period bulk access via the cloud, though this is a requirement as well for pattern detection. To provide direct alerts, I need a data stream solution and to do immediate analysis, even when offline.

[JeremiahFitbit]

@remkohdev: If that is your requirement, unfortunately you will need to consider another product.

[TerChris]

I´m working on a health solution for elderly. The goal is to create a solution that enables elderly to stay longer in their own home before they have to live in a nursing home.

The idea is to monitor that the elderly gets out of bed and starts walking by monitoring their Fitbit Surge HR watch. Then create sets of rules/triggers that alert caregivers and family in case the elderly does not move as expected.

During our trials we have used smartphones/ipad app to sync data to fitbit web. This works, but the user has to initiate the sync himself.

We need to be able to initiate sync from our sw. And we need to be able to read realtime pulse and steps the same way that the fitbit app does.

I see that there is a open source sw called Galileo that connects to Firbit via bluetooth and reads the data. From reading other posts in the development forum I get the feeling that Fitbit does not want this.  That they are actively trying to prevent people from making new innovative solutions that involves their hardware.

Microsoft behaved the same way when people started innovating with their Kinect device [How Hackers Made Kinect a Game Changer] But then they discovered that they gained more by opening up.

I would be pleased if Fitbit would say something official about this. I respect fully if Fitbit declare that they don´t want sw like Galileo communicating with their watch.

If that is the case then I will just have to find another tracker for my health project.

Regards

Terje

[JeremiahFitbit]

Hello @TerChris,

Fitbit products are designed for how most people want to track activity and exercise. Certain experiences are optimized for the physical constraints of the device. This means that some use cases are not well served and we understand this tradeoff.

If you require real time data via Bluetooth or need to control the device syncing behavior, you will need to consider another product at this time.

Using an unofficial method to sync a Fitbit device is not supported, will likely break, and may result in significantly degraded device battery life.

[dstarck]

Just a comment on this reply.  I understand wanting to minimize the impact of abusive BLE integrations with the device to save battery life.  However,  you could provide a stream of the data (Heart rate specifically on the HR and Surge models).  You do this for your application, from the device's perspective this should not impact the battery.

I'd separate data into two buckes... real time and summary.  Food, calaries, wieght, floors...etc can all be summaries,  GPS location (Surge), HR and Steps could be real time and provided in the same way as used by your fitbit application.

Please open your BLE API, and work with developers in this community to add features and capabilites.  It is in everyone's interest to not impact device or phone battery life.