Fitbit

Fitbit, now a subsidiary of Google, is a company that produces fitness tracking devices, some of which also function as smartwatches. They acquired Pebble in 2016, and produced the Ionic, Versa series and Sense series with Pebble-like SDKs, OSes and features, but skipped out on a lot of the openness and consumer freedom that Pebble users enjoyed. Most of the anti-consumer practices came following Google's purchase of the company in 2021.

Fitbit Charge 3 / 4 Faulty Strap Connectors (2018, 2020)

Unlike the Charge devices that came before and after them, the Charge 3 and 4 have plastic strap connectors that snap off from the device with regular use, this often happened in under a year. Fitbit was willing to provide replacement devices in many cases, but never admitted to this fault publicly.

Music Limitations (2020 - 2022)

Fitbit supported syncing music from your PC to your smartwatch to play offline. Supported devices for this were:

• Fitbit Blaze (2016)
• Fitbit Ionic (2017)
• Fitbit Versa (2018)
• Fitbit Versa 2 (2019)

With the release of the Versa 3 and Sense in 2020, Fitbit removed this functionality, instead mandating that users either use a paid Deezer / Pandora subscription to sync offline music to their device (with DRM), or control music from their phone.

With the release of the Versa 4 and Sense 2 in 2022, the remaining music functionality in the previous device was scrapped, and Google later added support for YouTube Music controls, requiring the user to have their phone nearby and a YouTube Premium subscription.

In 2022, Google shut down the necessary servers for syncing music to the older 2016 - 2019 devices.

Fitbit Ionic Recall Program (2022)

The Fitbit Ionic was the first device to debut Fitbit's new Pebble-like SDK called "Fitbit SDK 1.0" and it released in 2017. Fitbit reportedly ignored issues of the device burning on people's wrists for 5 years until their voluntary recall program in 2022. If a user enrolled in this recall, they would be offered varying refund options, and their device, regardless of functionality, would be remotely bricked by Google. If a user did not enroll into the recall, their device would remain as-is, but without any new security patches for it's Fitbit OS.

Fitbit Versa 4 / Sense 2 issues (2022)

The Fitbit Versa 4 and Sense 2 were successors to Fitbit's previous smartwatches, but missed out on a lot of the features that made them "smart" despite using the same SoC as it's predecessors, likely in attempt to make them less competitive to the Pixel Watch.

Lack of communication with developers

Every Fitbit smartwatch since the Ionic was released alongside SDK information for developers until these two. Google refused to give clarification on development tools for months, while silently marking selected popular clockfaces as installable on these new devices. Developers found workarounds, and eventually Google silently released Fitbit SDK 7.0 in beta which was capable of building for these devices, albeit without documentation. If you attempt to submit an app compatible with these devices to the Fitbit Gallery, it will be rejected, however clockfaces are allowed. You can still sideload apps with this SDK if you know what you're doing. As of August 2025, the relevant SDK is still:

• In a "beta" state
• Only works with a deprecated version of Node.js
• Has no documentation

Missing features

Many features were removed from this device, including but not limited to:

• The ability to switch between clockfaces on device
• The ability to play music on device or control music from your phone (You may still do the latter if you are using YouTube Music Premium)
• Bluetooth headphone pairing

Users also reported the software on this device to be buggy and incomplete.

Fitbit Studio Shutdown (2023)

In 2023, Google shut down Fitbit Studio, an online development tool for Fitbit applications and clockfaces. Many developers did not hear about this until it was too late and lost their source code, Google briefly re-opened the site to give developers a last chance to download their code, but many still did not meet the deadline. Following this shutdown, developers were required to run a deprecated version of Node.js on their system to continue building software.

Fitbit Gallery Shutdown in EEU (2024)

Following failure to comply with local laws, Google delisted all third party software for Fitbit smartwatch users within the EEU.

Fitbit Sense and Versa 3 Battery Performance Program (2025)

(See full article: Fitbit Sense and Versa 3 Battery Performance Program)

Google released a program select Fitbit Versa 3 and Sense devices where they would be forcibly updated to a version of Fitbit OS 5 with limited battery performance. Affected users were offered $50 from Google.

Google Assistant Shutdown (2025)

Following Google's focus on Gemini, Google quietly deprecated Google Assistant for devices they considered "legacy". This included Fitbit Versa 3 and Sense devices that were still being newly sold just over 2 years ago, which were now only capable of using Amazon Alexa. Around this time, Google launched a marketing campaign showing their new Gemini assistant on Pixel Watch devices.