Google account will be needed for Fitbit by 2025, following the search giants’ acquisition of the health tech label.
Following Google’s acquisition of Fitbit and its rebranding of the health tech business ‘Fitbit by Google,’ the search giant is moving to merge its services with Fitbit’s own tightly.
As a consequence, a Google account will be needed for “some uses” of Fitbit devices and features from 2023, with strategies to have all existing Fitbit accounts migrated to Google accounts by 2025.
An updated support page says that creating a Fitbit account and activating new Fitbit devices and features will require a Google account from 2023. After that, existing Fitbit account holders can move over to a Google account or remain with their current Fitbit login until “at least early 2025,” which will terminate support for Fitbit accounts.
The FAQ states that the company will be “transparent with our customers about the timeline for ending Fitbit accounts through notices within the Fitbit app, by email, and in help articles.”
Support for existing Fitbit accounts will end in 2025. As of the time of writing, Fitbit users can access their desktop accounts via a dedicated Fitbit login or the option to “continue with Google.” This differs from using your Google account to log into Fitbit, as they are two separate accounts that do not share data. Furthermore, as a condition of the Fitbit acquisition, Google made binding commitments with the European Commission in 2020.
As a result, it keeps Fitbit user data separated from Google systems and does not use said data to target Fitbit users within the European Economic Area with advertisements for at least ten years.
You can currently use ‘continue with Google’ to access desktop Fitbit accounts. However, this differs from the planned changes for account migrations.
When we asked how the upcoming change to account access would impact these commitments, a Fitbit spokesperson said, “Google accounts on Fitbit will remain in full compliance with our commitments to global regulators. In addition, after a user signs up for or moves to a Google account, we will keep Fitbit users’ health and wellness data separated from Google Ads data, and this data won’t be used for Google Ads.”
Google is pushing this as a positive move for Fitbit users. The support page says the benefits of the change include having “a single login for Fitbit and other Google services, industry-leading account security, centralized privacy controls for Fitbit user data, and more features from Google on Fitbit.” However, some skepticism is understandable, given Google’s previous history with forced account migrations and customer privacy.
Fitbit is a consumer electronics and American fitness company. It delivers wireless-enabled physical fitness monitors, wearable technology, activity trackers such as smartwatches, pedometers, and monitors for heart rate, quality of sleep, stairs ascended, and related software. Alphabet, Inc. acquired the company in 2021.
In 2019, Fitbit was shipments’ fifth most extensive wearable technology business. The company has traded over 120 million gadgets and 29 million users in over 100 nations. The company was launched on March 26, 2007, as Healthy Metrics Research, Inc. in San Francisco, California, by James Park (CEO) and Eric Friedman (CTO).
In October 2007, it altered its name to Fitbit, Inc. In January 2015, the company successfully safeguarded against a trademark lawsuit from Fitbug. On March 5, 2015, Fitbit earned fitness coaching app developer Fitstar for $17.8 million. In June 2015, the company evolved into a public company thru an initial public offering, raising $732 million.
In May 2016, Fitbit received a wearable payment platform from the brilliant credit card company Coin. In October 2016, CEO James Park revealed that the company was transforming significantly from a “consumer electronics company” to a “digital healthcare company.” On December 6, 2016, Fitbit gained assets from Pebble for $23 million. On January 10, 2017, Fitbit gained Romania-based smartwatch startup Vector Watch SRL.