Overview
- Google launched the $99 Fitbit Air, a screenless fitness tracker that relies on the Google Health mobile app and offers an optional Gemini‑powered AI Coach behind a paid Premium tier.
- Early professional reviews praised the Air for comfort, accurate basic tracking, haptic Smart Wake and roughly seven to eight days of battery life, while noting it lacks a display and onboard GPS.
- Longtime Fitbit users reacted strongly to Google’s retirement of the standalone Fitbit app, complaining that the Google Health interface is less intuitive, that historical metrics and run labels moved or disappeared, and that AI features are foregrounded and harder to disable.
- In response to the backlash and a surge of negative Google Play reviews, Google posted a timeline of staged fixes and has begun rolling updates to address pairing, sleep and nutrition views, run labeling and Coach behavior.
- Some users report canceling subscriptions or saying they will switch devices, and the dispute highlights a wider tradeoff for buyers choosing a low‑cost, screenless tracker that depends on a redesigned, AI‑focused mobile app.