Fitbit Sense and Versa lose third-party apps later this month

Google said it is closing the third-party Fitbit smartwatch ecosystem on November 28. Sense and Versa owners will still be able to use apps and clock faces they already have installed, but after that date they cannot download new ones or reinstall anything they remove.

This has been coming for a while, but Google has now put an actual end date on it. The Fitbit App Gallery will switch to apps and clock faces made only by Fitbit and Google, bringing an end to the third-party software ecosystem that was once a fairly important part of owning a Fitbit smartwatch.

Don’t delete anything you want to keep

The change applies to Fitbit Sense, Sense 2, Versa, Versa 2, Versa 3, Versa 4 and Versa Lite. Google also lists the recalled Fitbit Ionic, although there should not be many of those still in normal use.

Anything already installed can continue working after November 28. The important catch is what happens if you delete it. Once a third-party app or clock face is removed, there will be no way to download it again. The same problem applies after a factory reset, because the watch will no longer be able to retrieve that software from the gallery.

That makes the next couple of weeks fairly important for anyone still using an older Versa or Sense. If there is a third-party clock face or app you regularly use, this is the time to make sure it is installed and leave it alone.

Developers are being cut off at the same time. From November 28 they will no longer be able to upload new apps and clock faces or push updates to existing ones.

Sense 2 and Versa 4 were already halfway there

For Sense 2 and Versa 4 owners, this is slightly different because Google had already stripped out third-party app support when those watches launched. We covered that back in 2022 when Fitbit confirmed third-party apps were not coming to Sense 2 and Versa 4.

Those two watches did retain third-party clock faces, though, and that door is now closing as well. Google still lets Sense and Versa owners keep up to five clock faces saved on the watch, so anyone using a third-party design they like would be wise not to remove it.

Older Versa and Sense models lose more because they supported proper third-party apps. Fitbit’s gallery once included things such as Strava, Starbucks, Uber, barcode tools and various utilities. Our old guide to the best Fitbit smartwatch apps gives a pretty good idea of how much broader the platform once was.

The App Gallery was never on the scale of Apple’s App Store or Wear OS, but it did make Fitbit’s smartwatches feel more expandable. That distinction has been fading for years as Google shifted its proper smartwatch ambitions toward Pixel Watch and Wear OS.

Another piece of Fitbit OS disappears

The timing is not especially surprising. Google has spent the past few years steadily moving away from Fitbit OS as a smartwatch platform, while Fitbit itself has moved back toward simpler health and fitness hardware.

There is also some history here. Google already removed third-party Fitbit apps and clock faces for users in the European Economic Area in 2024 because of regulatory requirements. What happens on November 28 takes that much further, effectively ending new third-party Fitbit smartwatch software everywhere.

For owners, nothing suddenly stops working on November 28. That is worth stressing. Existing third-party apps and clock faces remain on the watch and can continue to function. But there is now an expiry mechanism built into them. Delete one, reset the watch or eventually replace the device, and it is gone.