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Good news for Fitbit users! Google, the new parent company for that health-centric wearable on your wrist, has announced that they’re making the Health Metrics Dashboard feature available for free to all users, without the need for a premium subscription! Normally, users would have to pay a monthly cost to access information on their breathing rate, skin temperature, oxygen saturation, resting heart rate, heart-rate variability, and other important health data.
In a statement, a Google spokesperson said, “Later this month we will make more of Fitbit’s Health Metrics Dashboard feature available without a subscription to people using Fitbit with compatible devices in countries where the feature is available.”
This is a powerful tool that helps users gain a better understanding of their health over time. While it’s not meant to replace professional medical advice, it could help you track trends and make more informed decisions about your lifestyle choices and could even become something you present to your doctor so they can have a peek at those same observations.
Likely before April rolls around, Fitbit users will start to see their dashboard fill up with the aforementioned data types, and over time, thirty to ninety days worth of data will be available to start drawing patterns from. If you’re a Premium user, you can access the Health Metrics Dashboard by visiting the Fitbit app’s home screen and scrolling down to the “Health Metrics” section (aptly named!)
It’s my guess that in typical Google fashion, a base-level of features will tend to become free when the tech giant buys out a company – as we’ve seen happen so many times in the past. This allows them to provide a better user experience for all and gives them the sense that the tools or products are more useful all while giving them plenty of a taste of what they could upgrade to. This is just another example of how we’ll begin to see Fitbit become more Googley as it co-exists and merges in some ways with Wear OS.
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