The redesigned iOS Fitbit app is rolling out!

[LizzyFitbit]

Hello everyone!

I would like to announce that the redesigned Fitbit app starts rolling out today! This new app will help you reach your goals, and bring the health and wellness information right on hand.

Check out our latest blog for how to get the most out of the new app. 

Note: Please be patient if you don't see the update right away, as it will take some time to roll out completely.

Happy stepping!

[LizzieDoll444]

I agree. 

My apology to the designers of the new Fit Bit app; I do not mean to be cruel with my criticism. The monotone color scheme & the clean, consistent design would be wonderful on a computer version. However, on a smaller phone screen the same features make it difficult to read easily.

The old version only took a glance while the new version takes focus to read. The circles showing progress are nice but would be much easier to see in different colors.  This is especially apparent when using the Zones feature. I really miss the weekly progress semicircle!  More scrolling is needed with the new app making me feel like I’m surfing the net rather than quickly checking a stat.

The battery on my Fit Bit is starting to wear out and I will need a new one soon, but may have to switch to a brand with a more colorful, quick read app.

[Podunk]

Functionality and accessibility have never been priorities for the Fitbit software developers.

Recently, they changed the second screen in exercise days, making it exceptionally frustrating for me as a blind user, and I’m sure many others who were comfortable with the old format. They did the same with zone minutes again making the data more difficult to read and understand due to the way they changed data presentation.

I have stopped clicking on many of the metrics. I’m monitor due to changes that make interpreting and analyzing the data more difficult. For all intense and purposes, I basically get all my information from the home screen now knowing that the underlying data appears to have been calculated at times Using revised calculations.

The graphic representations that have been mentioned in this thread have not been made available to the blind user. It is a sad statement that the accessibility issues faced by people who are blind and reading disabled, are now being experienced by sided Fitbit users.

I am a blind user, who has never seen my Fitbit tracker or iPhone screen. I have dictated this, and hope that you will be able to understand my ramblings. I use apples, voiceover screen, reading software in order to get information from the screens. For years, now I have brought up accessibility issues with Fitbit, customer care, and, it’s customer care supervisor. Recently I have been addressing my concerns to Google disability support. I have initiated a number of tickets related to this problem through both Fitbit and Google disability support and have never received Fitbit or Google disability support feedback and after more than a month I have had the tickets closed out , figuring that they would never be addressed and never be responded to. I have received messages that the issues I have addressed have been escalated through the forum and again I have never received a follow up communication after escalation.

[Purple_wellies]

It’s awful! Instead of happily scrolling through my exercises so I can see walk maps to compare data, I now have to go into each day individually to see if I can find my mapped walks - and it’s so slow! Sometimes the maps or data don’t load at all.  You took away elevation stats and now you’ve made a total mess of the app which worked really well. Once this (my 5th fitbit) dies, I’m away to a provider who actually listens to customers. Judging by the feedback on these forums, I’m certainly not in the minority but will Fitbit (Google) listen? Not a chance. 

[CcyRdz]

I hate the new interface as well. Everything looks the same, and I can’t edit it so the things that matter are first. 
I got an Apple Watch years ago and I returned it to get a new Fitbit instead because Apple had a weird interface. 
new fitbit interface is even worse. I think I’m gonna go back to Apple

who authorized this change? And why? 

[jonafitness1]

How do I add friends? Years ago it was easy. But now it feels as lonely as an island 

[Bikeracer]

It’s not as good as it was, for example groups now have to be created. To find and add friends I found this by tapping “you” at the bottom of today. Then in the middle is “community”. Under that is friends. When you tap “add”, It prompts you to let it scan your contacts. I wouldn’t suggest that, but you can add individual emails by picking email on the add page. 

Good luck. 

[CristinaDM]

I just came here to say this. What a disaster of an „update“! … and I‘ve never gone through the trouble of giving this type of feedback before on any app ever.

i would pay to go back to the old app! I‘m wasting time looking for everything that was intuitive before, no dark mode, just terrible. 

[Lbyrne]

How do I get the old app back! The new format stinks!!! It looks like a kindergarten made it. It’s bland. No color no headings. Please fix it!

[Skysong]

Can we have the option to keep the old design? This one is painful to look at and I despise the fact I’m being forced to go to it. I LOVED the old version. Things were easy to see and navigate and now it just hurts to even open the app and try to do anything. Just about ready to end my subscription because this version is so bad.

[mforman]

This app is getting worse. I now have the battery level and it moves as battery goes down but now my step count, calories, active minutes, etc do not. When I try and sync to see these again The message reads turn on Bluetooth. Hello - I’m connected to Bluetooth. I have to sync about three times before I can get any movement. Who in the world designs and tests this rubbish. 
we should ALL be getting refunds for product promises and expectations that just do NOT work. Forget the fact the app is ugly and hard to read…… it does not WORK and you have taken things away from us. 
shame on you. 

[AlanBFit]

The app sucks plain and simple. In a year it wont matter as fitbit as we know it now will be Poof! GONE. unfortunately those that are heavily invested in the eco system pay the price. Alphabit/Google/Fitbit could give a crap less. 

[Lbyrne]

This update stinks!!!  It’s very bland and uninviting.Please go back one or two versions. No update was needed. We keep losing functionality with every update and upgrade. 

[RL87]

Is there a way to have all you exercise data available on one scrolling screen like the old app? Or do you literally have to click into each week to click into each day to see activity?  Also having difficulty with the heart rate maps in each exercise… most of the time they just don’t show up at all. Also now it doesn’t show your highest heart rate only your average? Also what are these new titles…? Light, moderate, vigorous?! Please go back to standards… fat burn, cardio, etc. This new “redesign” is a huge step backwards in my opinion. Work on making your products live longer than 3 months instead of. Hanging an app that was totally fine. I’ve had a Fitbit since 2017 and my charge 2 still works but somehow I had 3 charge 5s in less than a year…….

[neomom]

Well they fixed the problem with the battery percentage not showing, but since they fixed that issue I now have NEW problem!  9 times out of 10 when I open my app, it says I have 6,497 steps.  I have to close and reopen the app over and over and over again to get it to register my correct step amount.  This "upgrade" is the worst in the history of upgrades.  Once my Fitbit Charge 5 quits working, trust me, I'm finding a new fitness tracker!  This is terrible!  

[brilliantyears]

Aside from everything that's already been mentioned (well, I assume everything's been mentioned, looking at the page count - the update is garbage), the app also just doesn't function well. I tried to remove an exercise I started by accident, but because of the way the app loads (and I waited for it to load properly) - I removed a correct exercise.

I've been a Fitbit user for over a decade, but I'm tired of it. My Charge 5 heart rate isn't working correctly and no one at Fitbit cares to get back to me about it, necessary functionality in the app doesn't work half the time and takes months to fix (and is then claimed to be 'fixed' but honestly still doesn't work), and this update takes the cake. Absolute disaster. When my Charge 5 is ready for replacement I'm moving brands.

[TerriFout]

In all the hundreds of entries on this forum I have yet to see one single compliment for this update.  It is totally a dog's breakfast.  They didn’t test it, they didn’t use a focus group, they had no user input.  It is a total abomination, NO ONE LIKES IT.   NO ONE.  Fitbit, give us a reason why you are foisting this useless garbage on us!

[kgabelsb]

Have you identified a replacement?

[Faisgal]

I believe the designers collected all good feedback about the app screens and decided to remove all features that makes people happy

the did it well with the main screen, then ended up to the exercise screen 

so dears, the sleep screen still great and looking forward to see your brilliant art to destroy it 

[MelvinL]

Totally agree with the others. I seriously do not know what is Fitbit doing. I chose Fitbit many years ago over other brands because of the user friendly App design. Sadly, with each update of the App, things are getting from good to bad to worse.

First is the re-designed dashboard few months back, which is now boring, no colours which makes it hard to read, and lots of scrolling required as everything is very spaced out. Does Fitbit understand what a dashboard is? (FYI, I was an analytics dashboard consultant) A good dashboard is meant to maximise screen space, and to allow a user to see the most important metrics in the easiest manner possible (minimal scrolling and tapping around), while also providing the ability to drill-down into the details, and with easy ways to analyse the data. This is clearly not the case now. 

Next with this latest update, things are even worse. I believe most people use Fitbit to track our activities and exercises. The Fitbit tracks so much data, but now a lot of details are gone. This is the first time I am seeing an app update with lesser features than before. This is a joke.
- Can no longer see the full list of recorded activities in one screen. We now have to select week by week just to check back on our activities over past 1-2 weeks.
- Fitbit is able to auto-track an activity/exercise, but we now cannot change the name of it. If an activity is not accurately recognised, it is just going to be "Sport".
- Heart rate graph and heart rate zones over the period of the activity is now missing. 
- For auto-tracked "Sport", I only see Duration, Steps, and Energy burned. Any free/cheap fitness tracker can also provide this information.

If this is the case, Fitbit is not any better than the free fitness trackers that my government is giving out to the community, or any other trackers we get free from promotional or sporting events. Why spend money and effort to "update" the app only to make it worse, and with less features?

[cmdonahue]

MelvinL is absolutely correct.  Compression of information is key when you are working with an app.  Who wants to scroll incessantly to find one piece of information or tap an itty-bitty icon to find the total for activity minutes for the week.  This is very difficult when you are on the treadmill.  Please get rid of the white space and let us rearrange our icons again.