In a recent email, Fitbit confirmed that it is preparing to drop out of Pandora and Deezer for Fitbit Sense, Versa 3, and other devices. This decision is going to disappoint users and there is no clear reason specified behind this move. As of now, it is clear that Fitbit has set to remove these third-party apps from its devices effective from 31st March this year. However, users are waiting for an explanation from the company regarding this particular decision.
These two apps were the preferred choice of users to listen to music from their smartwatches. Last year, Fitbit did away with the function of transferring music from the computer to the watches. And the recent decision to end support for these two apps is making users void of their choices to listen to music through their smartwatches. Fitbit Sense, Versa 2, Versa 3, and Ionic were some devices that used to support the Pandora and Deezer apps.
Instead of providing any detailed explanation for this removal, Fitbit only says sorry for the inconvenience. Further, the support page for these two apps is also removed which confirms the end of these two apps by March 31. This means that now Fitbit users will not be able to download any music from these services. Further, users will not be available to have access to previously downloaded content too.
Probably, this might be one of the crucial steps to put end to the third-party app ecosystem on the Fitbit smartwatches. The irony is Fitbit’s new watches, Sense 2 & Versa 4 have also launched without any third-party apps, mini-games, as well as watch faces support.
This decision manifests Google’s intention to promote the Pixel watch as the best choice for users. Google-owned Fitbit, and now it is taking steps to put forward its Pixel Watch. Meanwhile, Google expanding third-party app support to its smartwatches running on Wear OS 3. It will be interesting to see what happens with the remaining third-party apps on Fitbit watches.
