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The Fitbit Air, a new $100 screenless wearable from Alphabet Inc.'s Google, represents a major evolution in what consumers can expect from fitness trackers as tech companies race into an era of personalized health and artificial intelligence-powered wellness insights.
It's also undeniably an answer to the rise of Whoop Inc., a maker of fitness trackers that has found an eager fanbase in recent years among athletes and health-minded consumers. Whoop now has more than 2.5 million subscribers and a valuation exceeding $10 billion. Like smart ring pioneer Oura Health Oy, Whoop has taken a broad approach to fitness by proactively monitoring users' health and formulating detailed plans to help achieve their desired outcome.
For this audience, spitting out workout statistics and daily step counts - the bread and butter of conventional fitness trackers - is no longer enough: They want a much fuller understanding of their progress. Google is trying to appease that crowd while also appealing to a much wider swath of mainstream consumers.
• The Basics
The Fitbit Air flips the script on Whoop's business model. The search giant is charging consumers for the hardware up front and hoping they'll see added value in an optional $10-a-month Google Health Premium subscription that adds extra features not available in the free version. Whoop, meanwhile, doesn't charge for the hardware itself, but requires users to sign up for membership plans that start at $200 a year, without which the device is useless.
If you buy the Fitbit Air and never pay Google another dime, you'll be covered with basics like activity tracking and sleep tracking, as well as the ability to log nutrition and view metrics around heart rate, heart rate variability, breathing rate, blood oxygen and more. None of these are paywalled, and they should offer plenty for casual users who just want a better sense of whether they're being active enough throughout the day, or why their sleep isn't feeling restorative.
But the monthly plan is where Google shows off some of its progress in artificial intelligence. Google Health Premium puts a 24/7 AI Health Coach in your pocket and offers workout plans that are more personalized and tailored to your shifting daily schedule. It includes morning and evening briefings, much deeper sleep insights and medical record summaries (if you're willing to trust that information with Google). It also offers a library of workouts, among other perks.
Several Bloomberg News staffers have been trying out the Fitbit Air for about a week, and we're impressed, especially considering how many cues it takes from a rival company's product. Here are our takeaways:
• A Newcomer's Perspective
Notes from Reporter Chris Welch, who is not new to the world of fitness gadgets, but has never used a Whoop:
• Comfortable to wear: When worn with the default Performance Loop band, the Air weighs just 12 grams and is easy to forget about. It's comfortable enough to wear all day and overnight and has a thin profile that easily tucks under a shirt cuff or jacket. Swapping between bands is easy: You just pop out the pebble-like Air device, nudge it into the new band and adjust the fit.
• The standard band is best: The bundled band, made from recycled plastics and synthetic fiber, is easily my favorite of the three styles that Google offers. It's breathable and has foolproof sizing adjustments. You can go the nondescript route and choose black, but Google also sells colorful options like blue and berry red.
(The limited edition Stephen Curry band can only be purchased with the Air itself and isn't available as an add-on.)
Other styles include the $50 Elevated Modern Band with a leather-like texture and metal clasps, which could help the Air blend in better with formalwear. There's also a $35 Active Band made from silicone, but at least in my case, Google's silicone bands have always caused significant skin irritation after just a day or two, so I'm steering clear of that one for now.
• The standard band is best: The bundled band, made from recycled plastics and synthetic fiber, is easily my favorite of the three styles that Google offers. It's breathable and has foolproof sizing adjustments. You can go the nondescript route and choose black, but Google also sells colorful options like blue and berry red.
(The limited edition Stephen Curry band can only be purchased with the Air itself and isn't available as an add-on.)
Other styles include the $50 Elevated Modern Band with a leather-like texture and metal clasps, which could help the Air blend in better with formalwear.
There's also a $35 Active Band made from silicone, but at least in my case, Google's silicone bands have always caused significant skin irritation after just a day or two, so I'm steering clear of that one for now.
• You get out what you put in: Google Health is largely what you make of it and how much context it has on your current wellness situation and what you hope to achieve. You can devise a thorough fitness plan with the AI-based Health Coach, and the software can tailor your routines around races or other upcoming events, if you care to share your plans with the chatbot.
• Less is more: I took a simpler approach and just started using the Air right out of the box without feeding Google Health much in the way of goals or ambitions. Turns out that even when easing in like this, I've found the app's midday notifications to be motivating and really enjoy the general tone and frankness that it layers on top of daily summaries and sleep tracking insights.
• Accurate activity tracking: The device itself lacks any physical buttons for manually beginning a workout, but I've been pleased with its ability to consistently and automatically detect outdoor walks and runs. Even if it's off slightly, you can adjust start and end times with a simple prompt. You can also snap a picture of a workout journal or treadmill screen to log activities after the fact.
• No judgment here: It's well documented how sycophantic AI assistants can often be, but Google Health doesn't mince words if you've had a lousy night's rest. Thankfully, it's also not in the business of shaming users for poor sleep habits or a slow start to the day. The software always suggests opportune times for exercise depending on your readiness score and other factors like the weather. Most importantly, it's good at informing me about why I might feel sluggish on a given morning and offer tips for how I can do better tomorrow.
• Accurate sleep tracking: I've worn an Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Fitbit Air on separate wrists across several nights, looking out for any blatant discrepancies in sleep data, but so far the two have shown similar results with sleep scores in the same ballpark.
• All-week battery life: Google claims the Air can last for as many as seven days on a charge, and that's right in line with my testing. A week after first putting it on, the battery had dwindled to around 10%, but not before I got several mobile notifications as it trickled down. Like many wearables, it uses a proprietary charger, so try not to lose it.
• A Whoop User's Take
Takeaways from Senior Editor Dana Wollman, who reviewed the Whoop MG last year and knows the platform well:
• A design that doesn't make me angry: When I wrote about the high-end MG (“medical grade”) tracker last year, I described the unique hardware clasp as infuriating. Twelve months later, I still struggle with it, and it's the main reason that I put off charging the Whoop as long as I can: because taking it off and putting it on again is annoying. In comparison, the Fitbit Air - which is also a lot slimmer - uses an idiotproof Velcro strap.
• The basics are about even: The two devices offered similar feedback on multiple metrics, including heart-rate variability and sleep duration.
• Whoop wins on battery life: In absolute terms, Whoop offers superior battery life: Its trackers can last around two weeks on a charge. That said, because the Fitbit Air is easier to take on and off, I didn't mind having to charge it more frequently.
• You buy Whoop for the software: It's not that Google Health is difficult to navigate, but in my subjective opinion, Whoop's app is prettier and better organized. It also offers some health metrics that are more sophisticated than what Google does. That software polish is what you're paying for, and it's difficult for even a major developer like Google to quickly replicate.
• Google is hard to beat at AI: Both the Fitbit Air and Whoop have AI coaches. They work similarly, with the ability to offer proactive insights, especially if you allow push notifications. Both can do things like develop a personalized plan and estimate the calories in a meal by analyzing a photo. The lag time is similar.
But Google's assistant is more conversational, whereas Whoop's feels a little closer to speaking with a customer-service bot. Google's calorie estimates based on photos of my meals also seemed more reasonable; in one case, I showed Whoop a photo of a quiche where I'd taken one bite, and it estimated I'd gobbled up a third of it.
• A built-in food tracker is clutch: Like a lot of people, I'm trying to lose weight and, specifically, cut fat. Food logging has been helpful to me, and it's been super helpful to do this from within the Google Health app, including by showing the AI assistant photos of my meals. Not only is it convenient to not have to toggle between this and an app like MyFitnessPal, but I get to avoid the barrage of ads you might see in a free offering like that. (Google has committed to keeping its Health app ad-free, including the basic tier.)
• Whoop is still better for advanced users: I missed some of Whoop's unique features, including its biological-age estimate, “Whoop Age,” and the “strain” score, which attempts to quantify how hard you're working each day and if that's in line with how well rested you are. As Chris said, the Fitbit Air's features will be ample for many people, but folks who are already fit might gravitate toward Whoop and its geekier approach to biometric data.
• Nobody's perfect: Both devices make mistakes. The Fitbit Air thought I got up at 4 a.m. when really I took a bathroom break, fiddled on my phone and then fell back into a deep sleep. I also had to tell Google's AI multiple times that no, I don't have time for running on weekdays and no, I don't necessarily mind jogging in the rain. Whoop often misses some of my overnight sleep if I charge the device right before bed and then put it back on my wrist as I'm climbing under the covers. And so on: Mild frustration is part of the experience. (The same is true of the Apple Watch, the Oura Ring and so many other wellness gadgets.)
• The Takeaway
That Google would feel compelled to enter a new subcategory to match a startup that many consumers likely still haven't heard of speaks to how far this segment has come. What was once a niche device, founded by and for professional athletes, has inspired a cheaper alternative for the masses. As it turns out, competition is good, and there's room for both. Whoop, for instance, tells you how much “sleep debt” you have. Google Health tells you how long it took you to nod off and offers an easy-to-understand explanation for why. The two brands would do well to keep looking to each other for inspiration.
With the features that Fitbit Air is offering at launch, it's the better choice for the average person, especially beginners. That's thanks to its cheaper cost, food logging and friendlier AI. Whoop should still appeal to people who are already fit, and crave more data. But with Google's influence and scale - the company has pledged to rapidly improve its new health and wellness app - Whoop now faces a significant challenge. The startup would be smart to invest more in artificial intelligence and find new ways to keep its growing base right where they are.
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