Google not too long ago launched the Fitbit Air after years of controversy. Put up-acquisition in 2021, Google fairly rapidly misplaced a variety of goodwill with model loyalists. It successfully gutted Fitbit by eliminating favourite group options, ending a number of common machine traces, and kiboshing the web site — all whereas placing its beloved Pixel Watch lineup on a pedestal. Now we now have the Fitbit Air, a seeming competitor to common Whoop health trackers that makes you surprise if Fitbit is again, child. It’s. Kinda. However there are some issues you must know before you purchase.
All in all, the Google Fitbit Air seems to be like a wonderful machine, however we would not rush out to purchase it simply based mostly on the advertising and marketing alone. In case you’re studying this, you are most likely making an attempt to make up your thoughts, so you’re little doubt already properly conscious of the AI-heavy well being coach facet of the machine. We can’t focus on if that half’s price it. As a substitute, we’ll contemplate some caveats — some much less apparent, some hidden within the documentation — that may make or break this machine for you.
Your smartphone is principally the one manner you work together with it
Whereas a very good chunk of individuals purchase a smartwatch for his or her health journey, one other equally giant chunk simply buys it to get notifications on their wrist. Smartwatches do a wonderful job of being an extension of your smartphone. The Google Fitbit Air doesn’t. Clearly, you may see along with your eyes that there is no display on the machine like earlier Fitbit variations, and consequentially, there’s virtually no method to work together with it. The Fitbit Air conveys nearly every thing by means of the Google Well being app in your smartphone.
And that is going to be the great thing about it for some individuals. Simply put the band in your wrist and overlook about it, letting it quietly and unobtrusively observe your exercise within the background. Many would argue that in a world of so many distracting screens, a tool with out one more attention-grabbing display is an efficient factor — and to others, a dealbreaker.
The Google Fitbit Air is not totally bereft of person interplay. There is a standing mild that tells you the cost ranges and replace standing. Moreover, the watch vibrates in your morning alarm, which can be the one time that you’d bodily work together with it; double-tapping turns off the alarm. Except for that one small exception, there is no tapping or swiping to start out exercises, or vibrations to let you know you have bought a brand new notification. All of it is dependent upon you. However the easy incapability to examine the time, for instance, might make this a no-go.
It really works with no subscription
The $99 price ticket of the Fitbit Air seems to be to some like an awesome deal, and to others like a regarding indicator that the actual value is a subscription shoehorned in later. That’s true to an extent. To expertise your Google Fitbit Air to its “fullest,” it’s essential spend $9.99 a month (or $100 a yr) for the Google Well being Premium plan. This is the excellent news: relying in your view of AI, you could not truly be lacking out on a lot.
Google Well being Premium is basically AI options. Your subscription buys you full entry to the AI coach, the bespoke health plans it creates, and different well being tendencies that it opines on, like your sleeping habits. For all intents and functions, Google Well being’s Premium plan is only a chatbot constructed round your well being. You do additionally get entry to some human-curated exercises and mindfulness classes, however that is solely icing on the cake.
In case you do not subscribe, you will nonetheless get a completely practical machine. The watch can be utilized without spending a dime simply to see the uncooked numbers of your exercise, your sleep, your vitals, and some other personally logged info. Google Gemini struggles dearly with goal, factual issues (as all LLMs do), so when you’re skeptical of chatbots, then Google Well being Premium is extra of a dodged bullet than a paywalled function.
Water sports activities don’t appear to be a main focus
Make no mistake, the Google Fitbit Air can be utilized for swimming. Its spec sheet boasts water resistance as much as 50 meters of depth, and you should purchase a silicone band somewhat than the default material one. It does additionally assist totally different strokes when swimming, in addition to laps and pool size. Within the footnotes, nonetheless, Google says it doesn’t “assure continued water resistance for the lifespan of the product.” Not one of the promotional imagery for the Google Well being app reveals anybody swimming, and anecdotal person proof appears to counsel it does not do properly in that realm. For individuals who plan to do a variety of water-based exercises, loads of different waterproof smartwatches will higher go well with water sports activities.
Evaluate it to one thing just like the Apple Watch, which has devoted swim exercises and a built-in water-clearing mode. Some fashions just like the Apple Watch Extremely virtually beg you to swim with them in promotional materials, and boast swimmer-oriented {hardware} options like 100-meter water resistance, a water temperature sensor, and an automated depth gauge for diving. Having a display is also extraordinarily helpful if you wish to know what number of laps you have finished and the way far you have gone. We do not have to elucidate why it isn’t ultimate to go away your smartphone poolside and cease your laps halfway to examine your progress with moist fingers.
Allow us to be abundantly clear: we’re not saying that you simply cannot swim with this watch or that you simply should not swim with this watch. What we’re saying is that there are arguably a lot better smartwatches for frequent swimmers, given how restricted swim-focused information is on the Fitbit Air, how absent swimming is within the advertising and marketing, and the heavy disclaimers within the spec sheets seemingly discouraging it.
iOS is supported
Many are doubtless conscious that Apple Watches refuse to pair with Android telephones and might solely be tricked into doing so by a workaround — and even then, they do not provide the full breadth of their options. It is form of the identical with Android smartwatches on iPhone, simply in reverse. Whereas they do work, Apple has a historical past of limiting sure options and solely bending when regulatory businesses step in. Fortunately, the Google Fitbit Air is supported on iPhones and will work flawlessly.
Simply obtain the Google Well being app, and your Fitbit ought to work on any iPhone so long as it is operating not less than iOS 16.4. Additional points that will usually trigger complications with different Android smartwatches doubtless will not be an issue right here in any respect, since you do not have the {hardware} for them to even be a difficulty; integration roadblocks stopping the receipt of notifications, interacting with them, sending SMS over iMessage through smartwatch, and many others., haven’t any influence in any way on the Fitbit. So long as your Google Fitbit Air is linked over Bluetooth, it will probably feed its well being metrics immediately into Google Well being. That in and of itself could also be an enormous promoting level for iPhone customers who’ve been annoyed prior to now with Android smartwatches.
There is not any built-in location monitoring
It is common for smartwatches to incorporate their very own GPS for location monitoring. Tremendous useful if you wish to see how far you have gone (and the place you have gone) throughout a stroll, run, swim, or different bodily exercise the place distance and placement matter. Sadly, the Google Fitbit Air doesn’t have any built-in GPS. As a substitute, all location monitoring is finished through the app in your cellphone utilizing location permissions. So that you can take a look at distance, pace, and placement, however your cellphone is doing it, not the Fitbit.
Why does this matter? Properly, for one, you are gonna must take your smartphone with you in your walks and runs when you care about location-based metrics; presumably you will need to know what number of miles you have gone. An enormous a part of the enchantment of a smartwatch is you can depart your smartphone at house for morning jogs and evening walks and nonetheless observe your location and distance.
Additional, fitness center shorts or tights are usually not precisely well-known for holding a smartphone safe when your legs are in movement. Going out, you’d must get an arm strap or a bag, which suggests you may’t simply go together with the garments in your again, the Fitbit, and nothing else. This type of places a damper on how small, light-weight, and unobtrusive the Fitbit is, which might in any other case make it good for out of doors cardio. Having stated that, a variety of different health trackers within the $100 vary nix GPS as properly. Whether or not or not it is a draw back is dependent upon how a lot that location info issues to you.