14 DAY TRIAL // Google announced that it’s taking over Fitbit last year, and while the deal is still waiting for regulatory approval, it looks like the search giant and the wearable maker have already started working together on a series of improvements.
One of them concerns the pairing process of a Fitbit smartwatch with an Android device and which has recently been updated to be a little bit more straightforward.
If you’ve previously paired a Wear OS smartwatch with an Android smartphone you probably noticed how the whole thing works. The smartwatch enters the pairing mode (this is actually one of the first screens that you see after unboxing the device), and then a pairing notification is automatically sent to nearby Android devices.
Tapping that notification helps continue the pairing process, as the two devices already recognized each other, without the need for things like pairing codes.
New improvements for Android users
The same thing is now possible with a Fitbit smartwatch too, as a recent update appears to have enabled similar functionality between models like the Versa 2 and Charge 4 and Android smartphones. The folks over at 9to5Google claim this is possibly powered by an update for Google Play Services, but at the same time, there’s a chance that a new firmware update released by Fitbit is the one to thank to.
Tapping the notification that shows up on Android devices points users to the Google Play store where they are provided with the official Fitbit app. If the app is already installed on the device, the notification initiates the setup of the new Fitbit device.
In the meantime, everybody is waiting for the Fitbit takeover to go through, and once this happens, expect more such improvements to get the go-ahead. Needless to say, most of these goodies will only be available for Android devices.