Yesterday, we saw the official launch of the Fitbit Air. Which is now available in stores and online, though some countries have some pretty massive delays in shipping. But this also means that the new Google Health app is rolling out to replace the Fitbit app…. and Fitbit users are not happy at all.
This time around, they aren’t unhappy simply because it’s a change. They are unhappy because Google removed many features and added “AI slop” to the app. Some users are reporting that all of their historical data is simply gone.
This isn’t the first time that Google has done this either. I remember back when they were trying to replace Google Play Music with YouTube Music, and started to force everyone over to YouTube Music while it was still missing a ton of features that Google Play Music had. But the difference this time is that there’s only one app. And users are unable to revert to Fitbit.
One user said they woke up “this morning to this absolute dogsh*t ‘Google Fitness’ app”; they meant Google Health, but we know what they’re talking about.
The Google Health Coach
To absolutely no one’s surprise, Google has made the new Google Health app mostly about the Google Health Coach. It now takes up about two-thirds of the main page in the app. And, many users are not happy about it. If you don’t have Google Health Premium, it’s just a blank space, which is arguably worse.
Many are calling it “AI Slop”, though I’m in the minority that actually likes the Google Health Coach, I can see why many don’t like it. Many are complaining that they have to scroll past “smarmy, obsequious, condescending platitudes” about a simple 15-minute walk, just to get to their raw data.
Of course, this is AI, and despite having the disclaimer at the bottom that it’s AI and it can make mistakes, it does tend to hallucinate quite a bit. For instance, it’s telling people they hit their step goal, while only being halfway there. In fact, the other day it told me I had hit 12,000 steps already, while right above it, it said I was only at 5,000 steps for the day.
The Health Coach could use some help, but it also shouldn’t be front-and-center. It needs to be in its own tab, or only live under the blue “ask coach” button. This is something that Whoop got right.
Custom data and hidden features are gone
For those that have used Fitbit for years, and logged all their food into the app, this is a devastating blow. Users are reporting that custom meal histories are wiped when updating to the new Google Health app. Years of custom-built foods, personalized meals, and historical diet logs are completely gone after migration. And Google has confirmed that this data is unrecoverable, unfortunately.
That’s not all, as old historical runs have now been automatically rebreanded as generic “workouts”, stripping away valuable legacy data like pace, routes, and specific timing maps. Google has also gotten rid of hourly step tracking. The 250 steps per hour option is now gone, and when it comes to actually tracking your steps hourly, you get one bar per hour and can’t drill into that hour at all.
Cluttered and “ugly” UI
The UI isn’t everyone’s favorite, and I can understand why. All of your metrics are pushed into the top third of the main tab. And while these “widgets” are customizable, they really don’t give you a whole lot of info at a glance.
And if you don’t have Fitbit Premium, which is now Google Health Premium, the rest of the screen is just blank until you start using the app more. That’s really bad design, and honestly, quite surprising from Google.
Google is burying a lot of your metrics, making it tougher to find out the data you want. What Google should do is keep those widgets at the top, making it easier to glance at some important data based on the user. Then show the metrics from the “health” page, below it. Putting the health coach behind a dedicated button. Like Whoop has done. As a Whoop user for the past couple of years, the Whoop Coach never got in the way, and I didn’t use it all that often.
Now, to Google’s credit, they are making changes and making them pretty quickly. One that I mentioned in my Fitbit Air Review is the step goal streak. That had been removed, but is now available in the Google Health app again.
Users are looking for alternatives
Longtime Fitbit users are now looking to move on from Fitbit. Of course, we all knew that some sort of rebrand was coming, back when Google acquired Fitbit in 2021, though we didn’t expect it to take this long, or be this confusing. Removing “Fitbit” from the app, while also launching new hardware using the “Fitbit” name? Very confusing.
A lot of users are now looking at Garmin and Amazfit, which could end up being the big winners here. Keep in mind that Fitbit is still relatively huge. I honestly did not realize just how many people still used Fitbit every day. At one point, Fitbit had over 100 million users. That number is definitely going to drop if Google doesn’t make changes quickly.
One user even said, “When this device dies, I’m out”. So not everyone is looking to jump ship quickly, but they are looking for a good alternative soon. Sort of giving Google a chance to right the ship.
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