From straightforward watch face growth to neighborhood constructing, say goodbye to those options

Lengthy earlier than it was acquired by Google, Fitbit had some nice software program options centered round its neighborhood of customers. The Adventures function, for instance, has been incentivizing customers to fulfill their step targets by unlocking digital excursions of fashionable locations resembling California’s Yosemite Nationwide Park. On the similar time, its Challenges have grow to be so fashionable that most of the greatest health trackers have copied them. However because the model continues to transition into Google’s ecosystem, Fitbit is now ditching these previous options, in addition to help for open teams.

Fitbit has stunned customers by asserting that Adventures and Challenges can be discontinued on March 27. Which means that your favourite social actions and immersive competitions based mostly on step counts are going away.

Customers will lose any trophies they earned from challenges they participated in after March 27, however they’ll obtain their knowledge earlier than that date by visiting this Fitbit settings web page and going to the Fitbit dashboard. Nonetheless, customers can nonetheless work together with associates by way of the app’s Mates leaderboard and Group Feed.

Moreover, open teams, which permit anybody to hitch a neighborhood with a standard curiosity, can be phased out starting subsequent month. When this happens, customers will solely be capable to type non-public closed teams with their associates — open teams, nevertheless, don’t require an invite to hitch and anybody locally can ship a request to get roped in, a lot not like closed teams. Fitbit customers will nonetheless be capable to congregate via the Well being & Wellness boards.

And as if these closures weren’t sufficient, Fitbit Studio — a device for constructing third-party apps and watch faces for its smartwatches — can be shuttered as effectively on April 20, in keeping with 9to5Google. Builders are suggested to make use of Fitbit’s command-line interface instruments for future app creation.

Fitbit says these newest strikes are a part of its efforts to streamline the app expertise and supply the perfect instruments for a wholesome life-style. Nonetheless, they’ve additionally been revered as paving the best way for tighter integration with Google providers. As a part of that aim, you may be required to log in to your Fitbit account along with your Google account starting this 12 months. The Google sign-in choice on the corporate’s web site can be being phased out.