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Apple Health Plans 2017

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Will Fitbit change course and sync with Apple Health in 2017?

Refusing to integrate with Apple does not secure nor improve Fitbit's position in Fitness tracker market.  

---------- Carpe diem - exercise!
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I just received a charge 2 as a birthday present from my kids. I didn’t do the research and have only now found out that the app doesn’t integrate with Apple health app. Looks like I will be returning it for something that does. Like you I just expect things to integrate like my current HR strap and pedometer do with iCardio and Apple health. 

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Fitbit universe is pretty separate. That being said, it’s not a bad system. I’m still using my Blaze and relatively happy. Still use Map My Ride for bike workouts.
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I want my Fitbit watch to coordinate with the health data sent by my iPhone to my Doctor’s website. Is it too much to ask in 2018?

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I’ve had the Apple Watch since it’s release. I do love that device but I also love to wear my mechanical watches and therefore I feel that a smaller, lighter and thinner bracelet like tracker is perfect and why I just picked up the Alta HR. 

It would have been very cool if FitBit synchronized the data with Apple Health, mybe one day. 

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I couldn’t agree more. That is ridiculous. Come on Apple!

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@Dachary Apple has nothing to do with this. It is all on Fitbit. Fitbit decided years ago (perhaps when Health Kit came out) that they wanted their own ecosystem and that other companies to link to Fitbit. In essence, they want to build a health platform like Apple's. As a result, they have refused to link to Health Kit.

 

Apple has an open API. If you do not like Fitbit's policy, don't blame Apple, instead I would recommend you do something productive and get rid of your Fitbit. I don't understand why people continue supporting a company that obviously doesn't care what its users want.

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Sorry. My Fitbit watch was a present from my son. I had no idea it was the other way around. I started using Apple Macs in 1980 and have iPhone iPad and MacBook. I wouldn’t use anything else. My apologies but do you realise Apple gets the blame in social media? Being retired, I can’t afford an Apple Watch. 

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@Dachary Much on social media is wrong as people do not do research. If I saw something on social media, I would immediately fact check it multiple times. There are many other trackers that connect to Apple Health Kit. Some are very cheap such as units from Garmin or Nokia (formerly Withings). Withings makes excellent trackers. Fitbit has no incentive to link to Apple Health Kit as long as people continue to buy them.

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It's not Apple as others have said.

 

Fitbit cut a deal with Microsoft years ago.

 

However, it doesn't help that Apple put out the Watch, which is a direct competitor to Fitbit products.

 

Fitbit is going to have big problems continuing to sell its products.

 

Apple claims the Watch is seeing 50% sales growth the last 3 quarters so it's just accelerating.

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Seems the other requests for Apple Health support have been locked by Fitbit.

 

The smaller and simpler Fitbits are really attractive to me. Have tried 3 different ones with pretty good success.

The dashboard is also very fun and easy to read.

 

The misfit app seemed a little easier to use. The tracker was pretty sweet too. It syncs with Apple Health, too. But it does not have a date, nor continuous HR. So here I am.

 

Apple Health now has my data from skiing, scale, food (lifesum), and chest HR.

 

Would be nice to have my wrist natively sync with that same solution.

 

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I couldn’t agree more. My doctor gets the info from Apple Health on their website. 

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Hi Everyone- Just wanted to update this thread and thank you for your suggestions.

 

We are always looking for ways you can use your data to support your health and fitness goals. For the past few years, we’ve been the leader in developing direct partnerships through our open API with hundreds of the most popular health apps, wellness programs, incentive systems, and other services that have enabled people like you to make the most of your products and data. In addition, the launch of Fitbit Ionic has given us the opportunity to allow third-party developers to develop apps for the Fitbit App Gallery through our SDK, providing opportunities to offer even more features and apps to our global Fitbit community from our developer community.

 

With regards to Apple Health, we continue to evaluate new partners and will update if we have news to share. Fitbit has a history of working with the community to bring potential features to reality, and we thank you for taking the time to share your ideas and suggestions.

Actively managing your weight? Find accountability buddies on the Manage Weight board

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N O T solved.  This is not a solution.  Fitbit needs to surmount it’s ego and corporate greed for market share.  Integration with Apple is not submission to a competitor but and act of customer appreciation.  We want to have all of our health data in one place.  I check my Fitbit dashboard daily but want to have one place to see historical health data.  Fitbit may have designs on providing a single source for this data in the future.  But they do not have anything with the depth of Apple Health now. 

 

I am A dissatisfied customer right now and not happy. I have purchased 5 Fitbits but will not buy another if market share and ego continue to drive their business plan.  

 

BTW, Fitness watches are not something I want.  I want a fitness tracker that tracks calories burned from physical activity as a function of work performed from stairs, steps, pace, cadence and strokes as a function of distance and change in elevation. Focus on delivering these, and I’ll remain loyal. Throw in algorithms that use heart rate and O2 saturation to gauge cardio fitness and you’ll no doubt gain market share.  Forget about being the keeper complete health data.  Apple is my preferred provider since I Always have my iPhone in my pocket and already use it to visualize my health state, current progress and I use everyday to formulate a health plan for the future.  

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Thing I don't get is, MS has pretty much bailed on its own health efforts.  It's stopped developing its own trackers and its smart phone efforts are gone.

 

So does MS bother with health data any more.

 

It might have made sense at one time to partner with MS but not any more.

 

OTOH, the Apple Watch is an existential threat to Fitbit.

 

MS chose to make apps. For iPhone and accept reality.  Not sure if Fitbit can or will do the same.

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Hello KateFitbit,

Thank you for the reply, but it is really just hollow corporate speak. Fitbit has a right to conduct their business as they think is best for its investors, employees, and customers. I'm sure that Fitbit considers Apple to be an "existential threat," as one of your customers put it. I think Fitbit is making a mistake that will eventually cost the company dearly. Of course, that is only an opinion.

The point that I must disagree with, is your closing of the issue as solved. The issue has not been solved. It is being ignored and buried by Fitbit. Too bad. 

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Hi, 

 

I see ALOT of requests for syncing Aria and Apple Watch, it is simple and dumb at the same time. So you need SyncSolver an app that you always leave on. And from time to time have to activate since the automation may stop, but hey, it’s not like you need to weigh yourself everyday!

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Many people do not wish to have a lot of unnecessary background apps
running on their phone, draining the battery, and creating
unnecessary complexity. Shall I run another background app that warns me to
restart the sync app when it fails? Be serious. Besides, the devil loves
complexity. Complexity is a hackers playground.

I have a suggestion. How about, Fitbit simply writes their software to
sync with the apple health kit like every other major fitness app. That
seems like a quite novel idea. No, it is easier for Fitbit to burden their
customer with additional work rather than fix the problem themselves.

Gee, that's like expecting people to buy dongles to use their headphones!
🙂

Cheers!
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Gosh, I couldn’t agree more. Do everyone have to log on every other day or am I punished for having an iPhone and an iPad. I’ve had to turn off blue tooth on my iPad to get my iPhone to record info. How ridiculous !

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NOT a solution at all. My FitBit Charge 2 is a nice device but would have never purchased it if I knew it would not sync with Apple Health. I have a weight scale and BP monitor that integrate with Apple Health. I want to use the FB to do the same. Thinking about returning my FB. What an arrogant greedy company!

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Hello LeBourell. I agree with you that if all you need to do is record your weight once a week, then syncing to Apple Healthkit is not necessary. In fact, writing it down on a piece of paper or excel and plotting the data (I did this for a number of years) works just fine. 

 

The issue here is not synching a scale to get weight once per week, it is syncing your smartwatch data. Besides, Fitbit does not measure weight. The Fitbit watch data is nearly continuous and there lies the value. Having a context-aware watch (time, location, etc) synching with biometric-data (heart rate, VO2, sleep, etc) provides a rich data set for those that are interested correlating health outcomes with biometrics and context. This is important to some individuals and for many, it is important information for their healthcare practitioner. You may not be interested in that level of detail, but I would assert that most people that would wear a "Fitbit" or another brand of clunky plastic fitness watch, rather than a nice Movado or expensive Tag, is probably interested in that level of biometric detail. Not everyone, but most people. 

 

Let me provide an example. Healthcare practitioners and researchers are interested in Diurnal data. Diurnal meaning "of or during the day." This is important because they are more interested in the spikes in certain metrics such as blood pressure, heart rate, etc.then they are in that one simple data point they get during an office visit or event the daily measurement that you might make at home. It is the spike in blood pressure that kills. It is the sudden arrhythmia that causes a stroke. Advance healthcare analytics is the next major advance in health care. It will empower your physician or trainer to give customized solutions for your health and fitness.

 

One can only imagine the level of data that elite athletes use in their training and many serious amateurs want that sort of data for their use in training. For example, a serious amateur bicyclist wants to correlate their respiration with the power measured at the crank, pedal, chain, hub, or bracket. This information is correlated with the environmental context such as day, weather, time, location, altitude, barometric pressure, etc. Additionally, the context and biometric data can then be correlated with the athlete's sleep and diet over time. The result of this analysis provides information and significant insight into the performance of the athlete and guidance into designing a proper training routine. 

 

One might criticize the above by pointing out that most of us are not elite athletes that need that sort of detail in our training and that sort of neurotic and obsessive focus on metrics would better be replaced by more dedication to getting off the couch to go for a walk or a run. I would agree with that wholeheartedly, but that was not the point. The point of the above three paragraphs was to illustrate by example, the rich amount of data that could be used by an individual, personal trainer, or healthcare practitioner to help that person achieve their health and fitness goals.  

 

Another example. Sleep or the lack thereof, has become a major healthcare concern lately. Americans currently average 6.8 hours of sleep at night, down more than an hour from 1942. Medical studies have related a lack of sleep to health problems and cognitive impairment. Therefore, experts typically recommend seven to nine hours sleep for adults. 40% of Americans get less than the recommended amount of sleep. Why? Is it the food they eat while watching TV? Is it the stress they encountered on their drive home? Is it the excessive amount of sitting a typical office or "knowledge" worker does during the day? Is it reading a screen (smartphone, computer, TV) just before bed? All of these have been linked to our inapbility to go to sleep or maintain a healthy sleep schedule.  Sleep derivation has been linked to heart disease, mental impairment, automobile accidents, diabetes, obesity, etc. How can we hope to deconvolve and understand this multiplicity of factors? That is the purpose or goal of Healthkit. Healthkit allows diverse applications to share biometrics and gather a large amount of diurnal data on a significant set of the population. This is the reason that Apple has committed significant resources to Healthkit. Apple works with many of the largest medical research institutions such as Stanford, Johns Hopkins, University of Rochester and many Healthcare providers and technology developers. They are also using "Research Kit" and "CareKit" to gather data and provide better healthcare outcomes.

 

But Fitbit will not participate, why? 

 

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