Fitbit still has a place in the smartwatch era – just look at the Apple Watch SE 3

Last week, Google announced that new Fitbit devices will be coming next year. A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one. This follows a recent revamping of the Fitbit app – including an AI personal health coach for Fitbit Premium users.

I’ve been critical of Google’s handling of Fitbit in the past. Ever since Google began acquiring Fitbit in 2019, it’s been an endless churn of negative headlines – some of those by me. To start with, the European Union placed a 10-year moratorium on Google using the data it collected as a result of the Fitbit sale for advertising purposes in the European Economic Area, provoking concerns that Google would use Fitbit data for invasive advertising in other regions.

Then came the slashing of features. Many community-based features, such as Challenges on the best Fitbits, got the axe, as did offline music storage. Fitbit ...