"Between a rock and a hard place"
It is really amateurish that a company with the tech resources of Google can't even get the fonts fixed (white text on light gray background is illegible) much less a significant batter drain issue knowing that the discontent is driving loyal Fitbit users to search for alternatives. Additionally, I can almost guarantee that if this problem goes on much longer that Google will incur some additional expense to replace iPhone batteries or refund Fitbit purchases (Lizzy - I hope that this modified wording is acceptable). I know that hiring staff is particularly difficult now and getting expensive but seriously Google, did you need to hire the local jr high computer club to make the app changes?
But I digress. Getting back to the rocks. I looked at the fitness tech on offer from some Fitbit competitors and didn't find anything that I would be happy with. I seriously considered Apple but all of their tech has really short battery life, in some cases less than a day. I don't want to constantly have to pay attention to tracker charge levels and I know that would periodically forget to charge the tracker and have my tracker die in the middle of a workout. My Versa 2 still holds a charge for over 7 days even when worn and used 7 by 24. Consequently, Apple is out. Apple and Fitbit are the only 2 options that have invested heavily in verifying the accuracy of their algorithms and are FDA cleared for the arrhythmia detection which is of special interest to me. I won't install an app from a no name tech company or a Chinese company which rules out a lot of the other competitors. The only remaining option was Garmin. I have had good experience with Garmin having owned one of their hand held GPS units when I used to sail. However, I realized that there is another deal breaker which is that I didn't want to lose my historical data or need to use 2 different apps for historical data from different time periods. So, I am stuck with Fitbit.
Neither of the app updates have fixed any of the problems (font & battery) and none of the work-arounds such as disabling motion and fitness tracking or turning off the Fitbit app background refresh have worked other than closing the app. The only work-around that has worked for me on my iPhone 13 mini with IOS 16.7 is to force close the app when not using and then there is 0 battery drain while not using the app. It only takes a second to close the app and now I do it automatically. To force close the app, on an iPhone with a physical home button such as the SE, double click the home button 2 times fast, slide the tiles for the open apps to the side until the Fitbit app is in the center of the screen and then slide the Fitbit tile up and off of the top of the screen. On all newer iPhones, from any screen, slide the black bar at the bottom of the screen up about an inch and then swipe to the side until the Fitbit app is centered and then slide the Fitbit tile off of the top of the screen. This method consistently works for me.
I have an older iPhone with the v 3.8 version of the Fitbit app which offered an alternative option that I used for a while in a 2 phone tactic. The older phone had the Bluetooth connection to the Versa 2, I left it in a drawer and periodically synced it with the Versa 2, and then had both phones logged on to my Fitbit account. Both phones showed the same data in near real time.
OK, my relationship with Fitbit has hit a rocky patch (No, I'm not a geologist) but I have hopes that the situation will improve so I'm not ready to dump the relationship yet because my Versa 2 really rocks."
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