Fitbit today announced Fitbit OS 3.0. The new version adds an extended on-device dashboard, on-device quick logging for weight and water intake, and goal-based exercise modes originally introduced with the Fitbit Charge 3. “We are excited to announce these software and app updates, as they provide Fitbit smartwatch users with more ways to take action based on their personal data to achieve their health and fitness goals,” Fitbit product senior vice president Jon Oakes said in a statement.
Fitbit OS powers the company’s two smartwatches: Fitbit Ionic and Fitbit Versa. The Fitbit Ionic launched in October 2017, and the Fitbit Versa arrived in April 2018.
Fitbit OS 3.0
Fitbit OS 3.0 is supposed to give Fitbit smartwatch owners “even more personal data at a glance.” The expanded on-device dashboard includes more stats and data — including sleep, water intake, and weight — additional exercise stats, and heart rate and hourly activity. Goal-based exercise modes let you set a goal for calories burned, distance, or time for more than 15 exercises, and you can see real-time stats, progress, and celebrations when goals are reached.
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Fitbit also announced today that the Fitbit app will receive Female Health Tracking trends in early 2019. This will allow female users to see menstrual cycle data, logged symptoms, and trends over time.
New developer APIs
Fitbit OS 3.0 also brings new features for the ecosystem’s 44,000 developers. The new Exercise API helps developers build more complex smartwatch apps, while the new Scientific API lets developers and researchers perform advanced data processing through a more efficient collection of math, statistical, and digital signal processing functions.
Developers can now also use their own algorithms when building health and fitness apps and can record custom exercise sessions on the Fitbit platform. The hope is that developers will design Fitbit smartwatch apps for more complex (not step-based) activities — like snowboarding, skiing, and skateboarding.
Two such apps are already debuting in the Fitbit Featured App Gallery: Alpine Snow and Skateboard. The former lets you take your Fitbit device on the slopes to track distance traveled, GPS route, number of runs, speed, altitude, weather conditions, calories burned, and heart rate in real time. The latter can track your speed, heart rate, calories burned, and distance traveled while you skateboard.
New apps and clock faces
Speaking of new apps, Fitbit today also announced 10 new partner apps and clock faces coming to the Fitbit App Gallery. “We are partnering with some of the most popular health and fitness brands to develop apps that leverage Fitbit data to offer unique experiences and deliver more valuable and personal insights to help our users live healthier lifestyles,” Fitbit CMO Tim Rosa said in a statement.
The first four are available today:
- achu health: This clock face transfers your Fitbit data to achu’s illness prediction technology to help you evaluate potential illness, providing alerts when your body shows signs of sickness before it happens.
- Couch to 5K: Pulls your Fitbit data, including distance and calories burned, to provide you with insights and training programs for races ranging from 5K to a marathon.
- Genius Wrist: Features four apps (Gym Genius, Gym Time Pro, Workout Builder, and Workout Genius) that provide structured on-device workouts, productivity, and visualization tools, offering different ways for you to view your Fitbit data and workout anywhere, anytime.
- MySwimPro: Offers custom guided swim workouts, training plans, and video coaching for all levels, using real-time heart rate from your Fitbit device to help you improve your swim performance. Post-workout analytics pull personal workout data to track progress and measure improvement.
The other six apps that are coming in early 2019: Charity Miles, FitBark, Gold’s Amp for Fitbit, Mindbody, Noonlight, and TRX.
