Google Fitbit Air Extended Thoughts

My early impressions were overall positive and today I wanted to document my overall thoughts on the Fitbit Air. In typical MereCivilian style, I will keep this succinct and unfiltered.

• I returned the Fitbit Air Elevated Modern Band. Despite purchasing the band from existing Google Store credits, at AUD79, I feel it is not worth it. The band that comes with the Fitbit Air is more minimal and sits better on my wrist. I also dislike the loop the modern band creates. It does not sit flush on my wrist. In terms of feel, I quite like this band and it is pretty comfortable too but I have no need for a 2nd band so I am returning this one.

• I have also settled on a routine for the Fitbit Air. Essentially, this is my sleep-tracking device. I wear it on my left wrist and I updated the Google Health app accordingly. So nice not to have the light from the Apple Watch/Pixel Watch at night.

• I also wear the Fitbit Air when I prefer not to wear any watches, which recently I have done on a few occasions and enjoyed the distraction-free days. Sometimes I prefer nothing to distract me, and this is where the Fitbit Air excels. It does its thing quietly in the background.

• I am keeping an eye out for a third-party band that allows me to wear the Fitbit Air on my arm instead of my wrist. I feel it will be more comfortable and out of the way both when wearing it while asleep and also during the day. So far, I have seen some clever 3D options but I am hopeful a fully finished product will show up on Amazon Australia soon.

• Its automatic workout feature works well, but it is not always accurate. Admittedly, there arent many exercises that I do. My exercise is limited to strength workouts from the Fitbit Premium library or from Apple Fitness. Additionally, I go for runs, walks and occasional hikes. I gather the automatic workout feature will only get better with time. The same goes for the Google Health app. I await bidirectional Apple Health sync.

• Sync works well for me. I wake up and its already synced to my Google Pixel Fold. I picked up the iPhone Air and the data is already available in the app. Its not limited to these two devices as well. Sync is updated to my iPad and the Pixel Tablet. It is impressive the speed at which it syncs with Withings and Lose It. For Apple Health, I always needed to do a refresh etc but with Google Health, it appears to have a direct cloud connection and its seamless. Sync was already been great with Google products (Gmail, Google Calendar, Drive, Docs), and Google Health is no different.

• Any data from any health tracker should be taken with a grain of salt. I am not a pro user; I was never in the target market of a Whoop user. Personally, I am hoping to see trends over the medium to long term and hopefully the numbers improve. Or, the app can tell me based on the data it has collected on what aspects I need to focus on and how to improve accordingly. Apple Health has many years of data on me but I feel it fails to tell me where to improve, etc. It is as if it does nothing useful with the data it has. We all know Google's expertise with data and Gemini has impressed me recently. I have already created two android Apps and one mac app 😸

• Google Health app has many issues and even more bugs, but the foundation is strong for someone like me. I am someone who is of average health and trying to focus on my well-being. The guidance and encouragement it offers is useful to me. I feel, the Whoop is made for pro athletes, the Apple Watch Ultra is for mountain climbers, the Fitbit Air is for mere civilians.

Dear reader, from Melbourne, I send positive vibes and wish you a great week ahead!

Written and edited on MacBook Pro 13 M1 Touch, using Ghost Editor on Arc Browser.