The Fitbit Air Is Here, and It Could Very Well Be the Whoop Killer.
The rumors are true: Google has announced the Fitbit Air smartband for $99.99 and is relaunching the Fitbit app as Google Health. I’m excited about a lot of things here: an affordable smartband with no mandatory subscription and a fully featured app that, if Google delivers on its promises, could become a worthy alternative to the Whoop app. Here’s what we know about the band and how it fits into the ecosystem if you already own a Fitbit or Pixel Watch.
The strap is surprisingly light and feels comfortable.
I haven’t seen the Fitbit Air in person yet (though I expect to publish a review soon), but I’m impressed by the design from the photos. Remember how I tried to figure out from the photos whether the device attached to the band because I couldn’t see the connector? It turns out the Fitbit Air device (the “pebble”) inserts into the bottom of the band, just like the old Fitbit Flex . This means you can swap out the band for a different color or material without having to see any visible parts.
The device measures 1.4 x 0.7 x 0.3 inches. It weighs 5.2 grams, or 12 grams with the strap. Available colors include black, light gray, a bluish color (Fitbit calls it “lavender”), and a pinkish-red color (berry). (The lavender color is shown in the image at the top of this page.) And what happened to the gray-orange strap worn by Stephen Curry? It’s a special edition version, with his jersey number embroidered on the strap. The retail price is $129.99. With a regular strap, the price is $99.99. Replacement straps (without the device) will sell for $34.99. The Fitbit Air is available for pre-order now , with shipping starting later this month.
What does the Fitbit Air actually do?
The Fitbit Air, like the Whoop and other smartbands before it, is primarily a heart rate monitor that can pair with your phone. There’s no display; if you want to see your heart rate during a workout, you’ll have to check it on your phone. Unlike the old Fitbit Flex, which had indicator lights, the Fitbit Air has no display.
The Fitbit Air fitness tracker also features accelerometers to detect movement, a blood oxygen sensor, and a vibration motor. There’s a temperature sensor that allows the device to track changes in skin temperature, but Google stated at a briefing that its sensitivity isn’t high enough to track your menstrual cycle. The device also has enough memory to store a day’s worth of workout data before syncing with your phone, so you don’t need to take your phone with you to every workout.
You can now connect your Fitbit fitness tracker and Pixel Watch to the same phone.
I have some good news and some bad news regarding multiple device support. Fitbit users have long complained that the Fitbit app only allows pairing with one device. Pixel watches use the same app, so when I reviewed the Pixel Watch 4, I had to unpair my Fitbit Charge 6 that I had previously paired. That’s about to change! You’ll be able to pair your Pixel Watch and Fitbit.
But, according to Google, this is the only possible combination: one Pixel and one Fitbit. So, you can wear a Pixel Watch and swap it for a Fitbit Air for workouts, sleep, or any other time when you don’t need a watch on your wrist. However, you can’t switch between a Fitbit Charge 6 and a Fitbit Air, or between any other two Fitbit devices. This is a bummer for those who already have a Fitbit device that displays the time.
The Fitbit Public Preview app will become the new Google Health app.
The Fitbit app is being updated and renamed, and by all accounts, it’s going to be great. However, my initial experiments with the public preview didn’t inspire confidence. I found the AI coach constantly daydreaming, forgetting my goals, and generally being a terrible coach .
Google says it has taken user feedback into account, and fixes are either in development or have already been implemented. Key features, such as nutrition tracking, were missing from the public preview, but they will be available after the relaunch. Google claims the developers have simplified information search, made the coaching experience less verbose, and now track progress toward weekly goals.
I’m looking forward to trying the app, and I won’t hesitate to criticize it if the trainer still has serious flaws. I’m not at all convinced by this I saw on Reddit yesterday : a user in public preview said the trainer constantly insists he needs to wake up at 5:30 AM and that he recently went through a big move—neither of which are true. Another Reddit user, claiming to be a product manager at Google, responded, “I’m sorry to hear about these hallucinations. We’ve seen them quite often and have made some progress in fixing them, so it’s helpful to address the ones that still happen.”
If Google can successfully solve the coaching issues, I’ll be truly impressed with the app. I’ve been saying for years that you can’t build a “Whoops killer” by simply attaching a heart rate monitor to a wristband—Whoops’s strength lies in its incredibly feature-rich app, which integrates all your data into actionable recommendations. I love Whoop for its weekly plans, and I’ve joked that Whoop Coach is “the only AI I talk to.” Fitbit’s new app will also feature weekly plans, and its coach is programmed to process conversations and access data from across the app. It sounds much more useful than many chatbots in fitness apps.
Comparing the Fitbit Air with other smartbands
Honestly, I’m thrilled with this one. There are a ton of smartbands on the market right now, but the Fitbit Air seems to find a sweet spot where others haven’t. Whoop is undoubtedly the leader, but its $239 per year subscription is too much for most of us. Polar’s subscription-free Loop bracelet sounded promising , but ultimately doesn’t do much and costs $200. Amazfit’s Helio band is my favorite of the bunch: it costs $99.99, doesn’t have a subscription, and can be paired with other Amazfit devices (like the company’s fitness trackers) via a simple app.
The Fitbit Air combines a low price, no subscription, and (arguably) a fully featured, easy-to-use app. It can stream data to the same app as the watch you might already be wearing—at least if you’re a Pixel wearer. I’m looking forward to testing it out and seeing if the app lives up to its promise and gives it an edge over other smartbands.