“A newer Fitbit app is available. Updating is recommended” – the prompt says.

Some longtime users called it the end of an era, saying they had used Fitbit for more than five years and were especially attached to its food logging, sleep tracking and menstrual health features. Others quickly said they had received the same prompt, with some having expected it for months and others surprised they had held onto the old interface for so long.

How the holdouts lasted this long

Google began replacing the Fitbit app with Google Health on May 19. The redesign brought a new interface built around Today, Fitness, Sleep and Health, along with coaching features powered by Gemini.

Some users never made the move. By keeping older versions of the app installed, they sidestepped the redesign and carried on with the Fitbit experience they preferred. That worked for far longer than expected, but nearly five months on, the update screens appear to be closing the door.

Experiences still vary. A few users say they can dismiss the prompt temporarily, while others report that their older app versions have started struggling to sync certain health metrics.

Google hasn’t announced a separate October cutoff for the original interface. So it’s unclear whether this is a new enforcement step or simply more users reaching the end of an already planned transition.

Why some users are still resisting

The pushback is easy to understand. We covered the features disappearing with Google Health back in May, and there was quite a lot for longtime users to lose. Badges, Sleep Profile animals were removed, along with the Community Feed and direct messages. The app also changed parts of food logging, stress tracking and the way some health metrics appear.

For some people, the bigger issue isn’t any single feature. They simply preferred the original Fitbit layout, which they had used for years and knew inside out.

Google has responded to some of the complaints. It published a roadmap of planned improvements shortly after the rollout and has spent the months since fixing problems and restoring selected features.

Custom food logging returned in July, for example, while other updates improved sleep displays, dashboard customisation and activity tracking. Some users also say they’ve come to prefer the new app after initially disliking it.

But those changes haven’t won everyone over. For people who chose Fitbit for its familiar interface and straightforward approach to tracking, Google Health still feels like a different product.

Google has also been steadily winding down the old Fitbit infrastructure behind the scenes. Google Health version 5.08 removed support for signing in with legacy Fitbit accounts in September, following the earlier account migration deadline. That change was separate from the current update prompts, yet it points in the same direction.

For the remaining holdouts, the choice now comes down to moving to Google Health or finding another fitness tracking platform. Judging by the latest reactions, plenty of them aren’t happy with either option.

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Neither one is much of a mystery anymore. Both have leaked heavily, so next week is really about getting the official specs, prices and release details. And they couldn’t be more different, with Fitbit going after everyday fitness tracking and Suunto aiming at sports-watch buyers.

Fitbit is finally getting a proper new fitness band

Google confirmed the launch on Friday with a brief teaser: “Get an Edge on your health. 10.12.26.” That also puts the Fitbit Edge name to rest after weeks of leaks.

Neither Google nor Fitbit has released anything quite like this in several years. Fitbit Air took the opposite approach earlier this year by eliminating the display entirely, while Pixel Watch 5 handles the smartwatch side of the lineup.

Edge lands somewhere in between. It’s a traditional Fitbit fitness band updated for 2026, making it look very much like the successor to the Charge 6.

Leaked specs suggest a 1.34-inch AMOLED touchscreen, built-in GPS, an altimeter, ECG, SpO2, skin temperature tracking, and up to seven days of battery life. The body reportedly weighs only 17.7 grams, which is very light for a band with a display.

There’s also the pricing question. European leaks put Edge at €179, which would place it only slightly above the normal price of Charge 6. Monday should tell us whether Edge effectively replaces the Charge line or simply sits alongside it.

Then Suunto takes over on Thursday

Just a few days later, Suunto has another launch lined up for October 15. The teaser doesn’t name the watch, so there’s still technically room for a surprise. Even so, the regulatory trail, retailer listings, and leaked product material all point to the Suunto Race 3S.

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This one has been coming for a while. We first followed the Race 3 family through regulatory filings before the names started appearing on retailers and in leaked Suunto material. Our Suunto Race 3 and Race 3S roundup has the longer trail, while a more recent Race 3S leak revealed most of the expected hardware.

If that material is accurate, Suunto is keeping roughly the same compact dimensions as the Race S while making substantial changes underneath. The 1.32-inch AMOLED display reportedly jumps from 600 to 2,000 nits. Sapphire crystal replaces Gorilla Glass, and storage doubles from 32GB to 64GB.

Battery life may be the biggest story. The leaked material points to 45 hours of dual-band GPS in Performance mode, up from 30 hours on the Race S, with similar dimensions and weight. It also mentions silicon-carbon battery technology, which would go a long way toward explaining how Suunto fits that much more GPS runtime into a watch of the same size.

The expected price is $499, with Titanium Black, Titanium Feather, and Titanium Orchid among the leaked colour options. Until Suunto unveils the watch, all of this should be treated as unofficial.

Two completely different launches

There isn’t much point comparing Fitbit Edge directly with Race 3S. One is shaping up to be a lightweight everyday fitness tracker, while the other is a proper GPS sports watch aimed heavily at trail running and endurance training.

What they do have in common is timing. We don’t often get two notable wearable launches packed into the same week outside the usual September rush.

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You get quite a bit for the extra money

The Fitbit Edge launched today. But pretty much all the specs were known ahead of time.

And the differences start adding up surprisingly quickly. Our full Fitbit Edge vs Charge 6 comparison shows more than a dozen differences across the two trackers.

The display is an obvious one. Edge uses a 1.34-inch AMOLED touchscreen compared with the 1.04-inch panel on Charge 6. The larger screen should give Edge a little more room for workout data, notifications and navigation.

More surprising is the weight. Fitbit Edge is listed at just 17.7 grams without the strap, while Charge 6 comes in at around 30 grams. That is a pretty substantial reduction for a device that actually gets a larger display.

Also worth noting, the new Fitbit has a physical button on the side. This should be a bit easier to use than the Charge 6’s haptic nub.

Edge also adds a gyroscope and, importantly, a barometric altimeter. Charge 6 strangely dropped the altimeter found on some earlier Fitbit trackers, so floors climbed never really made it into the equation. Edge brings that back.

GPS remains built in on both devices, so runners and cyclists still will not need to carry a phone just to record a route. But Google claims Edge’s new GPS chip is 40% more accurate than the Charge 6’s.

ECG, SpO2, skin temperature, heart rate, HRV, sleep tracking, Daily Readiness and Fitbit’s usual activity metrics also appear on both. But Charge 6 also has an EDA sensor for electrodermal activity measurements. Whether that matters in real life depends on how much you actually use Fitbit’s stress tools.

Battery life stays the same but charging improves

Google is not using the larger Edge body to chase huge battery numbers. Both trackers are rated for up to seven days, which is fine considering the amount of hardware packed into them.

Edge is rated for only two days with the always-on display switched on, so that headline seven-day figure clearly comes with the usual conditions. Charge 6 also takes a battery hit when its always-on display and SpO2 features are used.

Charging looks much better on Edge, though. Five minutes on the charger can provide around 24 hours of use. Charge 6 takes roughly two hours for a full charge.

Another thing worth mentioning is that Edge has a user-replaceable battery. This means owners can genuinely swap a worn battery rather than needing a service centre to do it. That should make Edge much easier to keep for several years.

The health features are getting broader too

The core health package remains familiar, but Edge adds blood pressure trends and insulin resistance trends. These are features Google recently introduced for its Pixel Watches and Fitbit Air.

There is also Gemini-based coaching, continuing Google’s push to bring its AI tools deeper into Fitbit and Google Health. We have already seen the company move in that direction with its newer health platform, so Edge looks less like an isolated Fitbit product and more like another piece of Google’s broader wearable setup.

That makes the positioning fairly clear. Fitbit Air handles the tiny screenless tracker end of the range, Pixel Watch covers the full smartwatch experience, and Edge appears to sit right between them.

Other differences, and the bottom line

As far as smart features, Edge gets more useful music controls. The Charge 6 can only control music playing on Youtube Music. And this requires a subscription. On the flip side, the Fitbit Edge does not have a tap-to-pay option like the Charge 6. Which means no NFC chip.

There is another complication here, and it is already happening. Charge 6 is an older product and Google and retailers discount it regularly.

That changes the calculation quite a bit. During sales, paying substantially less for Charge 6 can still make perfect sense because most of the important health features are already there. You still get built-in GPS, ECG, NFC payments, Google Maps, music controls and seven-day headline battery life.

Fitbit Edge

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Fitbit Charge 6

$132.50 View at Amazon

At its normal price, though, the argument becomes much harder. Paying around $20 more for Edge looks like the obvious move if you are buying new. The device does not appear to be priced as some expensive new category above Charge 6. It looks much more like Google has built the Charge successor people have been waiting for, changed the name and kept the price gap small.

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Back in August, we reported on a unidentified fitness tracker hiding in Google’s own Pixel 11 advertising. Now Android Headlines says the device is actually called Fitbit Edge, and has published what appear to be proper product renders along with a much clearer picture of where it fits in Google’s wearable lineup.

Fitbit Edge looks like the Charge successor we expected

The basic formula is very Fitbit Charge.

Edge reportedly has a colour display, notifications, built-in GPS, an altimeter and automatic activity recognition. Battery life is listed at up to seven days.

There are also a few Google extras. The leaked comparison material lists Google Maps, media and music controls and Find My Phone, although this is clearly not being positioned as a mini Pixel Watch with a full app ecosystem.

To remind, Google Pixel Watch 5 gets Wi-Fi, LTE, satellite connectivity, Gemini and the broader Google Play Store, while Edge appears deliberately simpler. It keeps the screen and some smart features without going all the way to Wear OS.

Fitbit Air sits at the other end. It has no screen and is built around passive tracking, while Edge adds the display, notifications and more on-wrist interaction without giving up the week-long battery life.

In other words, Google now appears to have a fairly obvious three-level wearable lineup. Air is the discreet screenless tracker, Edge is the conventional fitness band, and Pixel Watch handles the full smartwatch side.

We may have already seen this device at the FCC

There is another piece of this that makes the leak more convincing. Last month, we found Google model G8BL6 in an FCC filing. The paperwork pointed to a wrist-worn device with straps, a screen, Bluetooth LE, GNSS and a charging base, but no Wi-Fi or cellular radio.

A few days later, an IMDA listing confirmed that G8BL6 is a Google device. At that point, the obvious question was whether it was connected to the mystery tracker from Google’s advertising. Fitbit Edge now looks like a very plausible answer. The leaked feature set lines up well with what we saw in those filings.

Price and launch timing are still guesses

The leaked colors include black, green and orange, apparently matching the Obsidian, Olive and Canyon finishes used elsewhere in Google’s Pixel lineup. The design also includes elongated side buttons and a removable band mechanism on the back.

Android Headlines expects Fitbit Edge to launch this month, but Google has not announced a date. The suggested $149 to $199 price range is also an estimate based on previous Charge pricing rather than leaked pricing information.

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A newly published Google patent describes a system that monitors what happens after an initial cardiac arrhythmia event, looks for patterns in subsequent episodes and uses those patterns to predict when another event is likely to occur. The US patent application, numbered US 2026/0294263 A1, was published at the start of this month.

The watch would learn your own pattern

The basic idea is actually pretty simple. A wearable detects an initial cardiac arrhythmia event using its biometric sensors. The patent repeatedly uses atrial fibrillation as an example, although its claims cover cardiac arrhythmias more broadly.

That first event then triggers an observation period. During this window, the wearable continues collecting heart data and records additional arrhythmia events.

The system looks at their timing and frequency to see whether there is a pattern specific to that person. If there is, Google proposes using it to generate a prediction of when a future event may occur.

So this is not simply a general risk score telling someone they are more likely to develop AFib at some point. The patent describes learning from actual arrhythmia events and looking for temporal patterns that could help forecast another one. For example, if someone’s episodes repeatedly occur at certain times or tend to appear at fairly regular intervals, that information could potentially become part of the prediction.

This goes beyond today’s AFib alerts

Current wearables can already look for signs of AFib. Google’s own devices are part of that. I recently looked at how AFib detection works on Fitbit Air, where heart rhythm and movement data collected while the user is still can trigger an irregular rhythm notification.

Pixel Watch goes further by offering ECG hardware on compatible models. But these features are still fundamentally looking for something that is happening or has already happened.

Prediction flips that around. Rather than asking whether the wearer’s rhythm appears irregular now, the system starts asking what might happen next.

It also fits well with where Google has been taking its health platform lately. Health Guardian already uses existing wearable data to identify longer-term patterns linked to blood pressure and insulin resistance, rather than relying on dedicated sensors that directly measure either one.

AFib prediction would push that idea further. The sensors gather the raw signals, but more of the value comes from interpreting patterns across time.

But patents are not product roadmaps. Companies routinely patent technologies that never appear in a commercial device, or that arrive years later in a substantially different form.

There would also be a much higher bar for something that claims to predict a future cardiac event. Detecting signs of AFib is already a regulated health feature. Telling someone that another episode may be approaching would need convincing clinical validation before Google could put that sort of warning on millions of wrists.

Still, the direction is worth watching.

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Google started rolling out Health Guardian last week to Pixel Watch 3, Pixel Watch 4 and Pixel Watch 5. The system looks for longer-term patterns related to blood pressure, insulin resistance and sleep breathing quality.

Now the first monthly reports are landing, and the early reaction is a mix of surprise, concern and a fair bit of confusion.

Some results are raising eyebrows

Several early users have reported receiving a “High” insulin resistance trend despite recent glucose or A1C tests that they say were normal. Others have received a high blood pressure trend and questioned it after getting more reassuring readings from a conventional cuff.

That does not necessarily mean Health Guardian is wrong. One Pixel Watch owner with type 2 diabetes reported that the watch correctly showed high insulin resistance while showing normal blood pressure, which matched their current situation. Another user with pre-diabetes also received a high insulin resistance result.

But there are enough conflicting examples to show why Google’s wording matters here.

Pixel Watch is not measuring blood pressure in mmHg, and it is not measuring blood glucose or insulin. As we explained when Google first announced these features, the watch is looking at signals it already collects and using machine-learning models to identify patterns associated with these conditions.

For blood pressure, Google analyses pulse and movement data using its WavesFM model. The end result is deliberately broad. You get a trend such as “High”, rather than a conventional reading such as 140/90.

Insulin Resistance Trends takes a similarly indirect route, combining things such as heart rate patterns, HRV, sleep, activity, skin temperature, weight and age. Again, the result is a trend rather than a blood test.

Some users say the result made them worry despite recent normal tests. Others are asking for more underlying data rather than a simple high or low classification, which is probably a fair criticism of the current presentation. If an algorithm is going to flag something potentially important, people naturally want to know what changed and by how much.

The reports are not based on just a couple of days

There is also some confusion around how Google produced these reports so quickly. Health Guardian only became visible for many users during the past few days, leading some to assume that their October 1 assessment was calculated from only a day or two of information. But that is not the case.

Google says the first Blood Pressure Trends report can appear if you wore a compatible Pixel Watch for at least five consecutive days during September. Insulin Resistance Trends requires at least seven days and nights of wear during September.

In other words, the feature does not necessarily need to have been visible in the app for a week. Google can process eligible data the watch had already collected during the previous month.

That also explains another slightly confusing part of the interface. Some users are seeing the result presented under October even though the underlying data comes largely from September. Technically, October is when the monthly report is delivered, but showing it that way makes it easy to assume the app is talking about the new month.

Our takeaway

For now, these first reports are probably best treated as a nudge to look into things rather than a result you take at face value. Day one is already showing the tricky part for Google. Putting a big “High” label on the screen is easy enough. Giving people enough context to understand why it appeared is where things get much harder.

Google’s Blood Pressure Trends feature is still very different from actually measuring blood pressure. The company is also exploring hardware that could do that, but Health Guardian is not there yet. Right now it is looking for patterns, not replacing the cuff.

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Google may have given developers another month to move existing Fitbit users onto the Google Health API. An email sent to at least one developer says the migration deadline has moved from September 30 to October 30, although Google’s public documentation still hasn’t caught up.

The deadline appears to have moved

Back in June, a Google Health Community specialist said September 30, 2026 was the exact date when the Fitbit Web API would be fully decommissioned and disabled. Existing authorisations and refresh tokens were also expected to stop working at that point.

But a developer posted on Google’s support forum on September 24 saying they had received a new email from Google. According to the message, Google is “extending the user migration deadline to October 30, 2026,” while official developer support for the legacy Fitbit API will still end on September 30. 

That suggests Google may now be separating two deadlines. Developer support would end on September 30, but existing Fitbit API connections could keep working until October 30 while users complete the migration.

Google’s own documentation still says September

Google’s main developer page still says the legacy Fitbit Web API will be turned down in September 2026 and tells developers to migrate before then. It does not currently mention the reported October 30 extension. So this is all yet to be confirmed.

There is some support for the later date elsewhere. MyDataHelps, which provides health-data tools used in research projects, has updated its own migration guidance to say the Fitbit API will shut down on October 30.

So October 30 increasingly looks like the new cutoff, but Google’s public-facing documentation remains inconsistent. With September 30 almost here, that is likely to leave some developers wondering exactly what will stop working this week.

Users still have to reconnect

Moving from the Fitbit Web API to Google Health is not something developers can handle entirely in the background. Google uses a different OAuth system for the new API, so existing Fitbit access and refresh tokens cannot simply move across.

Users therefore need to authorise the connection again. Google’s migration guide recommends temporarily supporting both systems, keeping existing users on the Fitbit API until they complete the new Google Health consent process. 

That makes an extra month useful. Developers may already have moved their apps to Google Health technically, but some users will not have opened the app, seen the migration notice or reconnected their Fitbit account yet.

The switch is part of Google’s wider move away from the old Fitbit software platform. The company has rebuilt the API around Google infrastructure and Google OAuth, while retaining access to data from Fitbit devices and Pixel Watches.

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Pixel Watch gets the features for free

Google announced today that Health Guardian is rolling out in the Google Health app. Pixel Watch 3, Pixel Watch 4 and Pixel Watch 5 owners can begin setting up Blood Pressure Trends, Insulin Resistance Trends and Sleep Breathing Quality this week.

The first proper trend reports will not appear immediately. Google says they should begin arriving in early October, once there is enough data to work with.

Blood Pressure Trends requires at least five consecutive days of data during a week, while Insulin Resistance Trends needs at least seven days of data. The reports are then delivered at the beginning of each month. So these are not daily or real-time measurements.

We already had a pretty good idea the rollout was close. Last week, our Google Health APK teardown found Blood Pressure Trends, Insulin Resistance Trends and Sleep Breathing Quality wired into the app, complete with onboarding screens and places for the resulting data.

Fitbit Air gets a different deal

The odd part is Fitbit Air.

Google says Fitbit Air users will get Blood Pressure Trends and Insulin Resistance Trends later this year, but only with a Google Health Premium subscription. There is no equivalent subscription requirement attached to those features on Pixel Watch 3, 4 or 5.

Google Health Premium costs $9.99 per month or $99 per year, although Fitbit Air buyers receive three months with the device. It is also included with Google AI Pro and Ultra subscriptions, something we covered when Google bundled Health Premium into its AI plans.

That softens the subscription issue for anyone already paying for Google’s AI services. But for everyone else, there is now a fairly clear distinction between what the $99 Fitbit Air gets for free and what Pixel Watch owners receive.

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The patent was published on September 17 and describes a miniaturized impedance plethysmography sensor (IPG sensor), built into a computing device. The drawings make the wearable angle pretty obvious too. One example is a smartwatch, while others show small finger-worn devices and even other types of electronics.

Your fingertip becomes part of the sensor

The basic idea is quite neat. Google places a set of miniature electrodes underneath the fingertip, with two used to send a tiny electrical excitation signal through the tissue and another two used to measure the resulting electrical response.

Blood flowing through the finger changes its electrical impedance. By tracking those changes, the system can produce a pulsatile waveform that reflects the blood pulse, and Google says that signal can then be used to determine blood pressure or a proxy for blood pressure. The patent’s process diagram boils the whole thing down to generating IPG data, deriving the pulsatile signal and then estimating blood pressure from it. 

And Google clearly has smartwatch use in mind. Figure 6A shows the system incorporated into a watch worn on the wrist, with the sensing area positioned on the watch body where a finger could be placed against it. Earbuds are another option. As well as smartphones.

That’s not the only idea

And this is not even the only recent Google patent dealing with the problem. A separate application published last month describes a small finger cuff containing an inflatable bladder, multiple pressure sensors and optical sensors. 

That system would inflate around the finger while an array of barometric sensors maps pressure around the digital artery. But as you can see from the image below, it’s not exactly a discreet smart ring.

Optical sensors simultaneously measure the pulse, and the device combines those signals to calculate blood pressure. The patent’s flow diagram specifically shows inflation, pressure mapping, optical measurements and the final blood pressure estimate as parts of the process. 

Where this fits with Google’s plans

It is worth noting that neither patent names a Pixel Watch or Fitbit product. Google has been busy around blood pressure lately, though. It ran a Fitbit Hypertension Lab study with Pixel Watch 3 owners last November, and Blood Pressure Trends is coming to the Pixel watches this fall as part of Health Guardian.

We also covered an earlier Fitbit patent that hinted at blood pressure checks from the wrist in April. Put the two finger filings next to that and Google is clearly working on blood pressure from several directions. Patents do not confirm a release though, so treat these as a look at what Google is exploring.

Source USPTO: September patent, August patent

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That matters more now because these scores are popping up everywhere. Garmin, Oura, Whoop and Fitbit already have their own versions, and Apple has now joined them with Readiness on the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4.

The basic idea sounds sensible enough. Your wearable looks at HRV, resting heart rate, sleep and recent activity, then boils everything down to a number telling you whether to push harder, take it easy or have a rest.

The final score is the weak link

Topol was not questioning whether wearables can measure heart rate, sleep or HRV. He wanted to know whether the final readiness score can actually tell someone what to do next.

If Apple says “Recover” or Garmin reports low Training Readiness, does ignoring that advice lead to a worse workout, slower recovery or a greater risk of injury? Topol could find almost no published research testing those recommendations against real outcomes.

A 2025 review of 14 wearable health scores reached a similar conclusion. Most scores used HRV, resting heart rate, sleep and activity, but few manufacturers had published evidence validating the final number produced from that data.

The strongest example Topol found was a Whoop study involving 389 professional golfers. Players performed around half a stroke better when their Recovery score was 10 points higher, but the study had no control group and could only show an association.

That is the missing piece. Wearables can detect changes in the body, but companies have not yet shown that their scores consistently turn those changes into the right advice.

Your wearable may not be measuring HRV in the clinical sense

The HRV figure used by most readiness scores does not come from an ECG. Watches and smart rings use an optical sensor to track the timing of pulse waves at the skin, producing a closely related measurement called pulse-rate variability.

That distinction does not make the reading useless. Optical measurements can match ECG-derived HRV reasonably well while someone rests or sleeps, but the agreement becomes less reliable when movement, sensor fit, circulation or certain health conditions affect the pulse signal.

The research connecting low HRV with poorer health outcomes mainly uses ECG measurements. We cannot automatically apply those findings to short-term changes recorded by a consumer wearable.

HRV is also affected by exercise, alcohol, illness, stress, sleep and many other factors. A lower reading may show that something has changed, but it cannot tell the wearable what caused that change.

Useful signal or daily instruction

None of this means you should ignore readiness scores. A falling score can draw attention to a combination of poor sleep, higher resting heart rate and lower HRV, particularly when the pattern continues for several days.

The problem is the precision implied by the final number. An Oura score of 80 does not have the same meaning as 80 from another platform, and neither score follows a recognised clinical standard.

Readiness scores therefore make the most sense as personal trend indicators. Several unusual days from the same device deserve more attention than one low score after a poor night, late meal or unusually hard workout.

The sensors may have detected a genuine change in your body. The part that remains uncertain is whether the wearable knows exactly what you should do about it.

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