Google strips more features from older Fitbit smartwatches
Fitbit smartwatches were never on the same level as many of theirexcellent Wear OS competitorsor even the Apple Watch. After Google’s acquisition of the company, the problem just seems to have gotten worse. For example, the latest two Fitbit watches, theSense 2and the Versa 4, no longer offer any form of local audio playback. Sadly, their predecessors are now also fully losing this capability with Deezer and Pandora support stripped.
Google is currently informing customers that it will remove the option to download music from Pandora and Deezer on March 31, 2023 (via9to5Google). After that date, you will no longer be able to transfer music from these services for offline enjoyment, nor will you be able to access previously transferred content anymore. Two help articles clarify that the official Deezer and Pandora apps will be removed from Fitbit’s third-party app store, which are a prerequisite for the offline functionality.
Deezer and Pandora downloads were never available on Fitbit’s latest smartwatches, the Sense 2 and the Versa 4. In fact, these new watches don’t support any third-party apps at all, which was a selling point of their predecessors. With the removal of the Deezer and Pandora apps from the Sense and the Versa 2 and 3, the question remains whether other third-party apps are here to stay, or if Google is moving to close third-party app support from all of its Fitbit devices.
It’s possible that Google wants to move Fitbit over to the Wear OS ecosystem in the long-term, given that theGoogle Pixel Watchalso supports most of the features provided by Fitbit trackers. Even if that’s the case, it’s not a great move for customers who are suddenly left with devices with fewer capabilities than what they were promised to get. After all, they will not benefit from newer devices that would presumably offer a different solution. Fitbits alsocan no longer be synced with computers, so a smartphone is now all but required for the trackers to work—and you may’t sync your personally owned MP3s with them anymore, either.
Meanwhile,Deezer is still advertisingthat you can use its service on your Fitbit, and it even includes a free trial for Fitbit owners. If you were to sign up with that offer right now, you wouldn’t be able to stream music through your Fitbit all of a sudden halfway through the trial. Pandora has also yet to mention the shutdownon its help resources, too.
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