Today at its annual developer conference Google revealed some major changes coming to Wear OS, and Fitbit devices appear to be part of that new future.
Not current Fitbit devices, mind you, but brand new ones. If you missed today’s Google IO keynote, the big takeaway for Wear OS is that it’s getting revamped. The revamp is the first big change to the platform in quite some time, and the foundation is built on a unification of Wear OS and Samsung’s Tizen OS.
Together, Google and Samsung will fuse the best parts of both platforms into one cohesive wearables platform. While that in and of itself is big news, there’s more to it. All future Samsung Galaxy watches will run on this platform. It was also confirmed that some future Fitbit devices will run on this new Wear OS platform as well.
It’s also possible that all of Fitbit’s smartwatches in the future will incorporate it. But as of right now neither Google nor Fitbit have elaborated on that.
Fitbit Wear OS devices will be “premium”
According to Fitbit CEO James Park, the company’s Wear OS devices will be premium smartwatches. Park doesn’t expand on that much, but the use of the word premium implies just that. The use of premium materials for everything from the watch straps to the display.
Of course these are still going to be Fitbit devices, so it’s likely that baseline offerings will initially come with the silicone straps that devices such as the Sense and Versa 3 come with. Fitbit will also probably offer multiple strap options just as it does now.
So you can opt for a more “premium” strap if you want to. Right now Fitbit hasn’t announced anything specifically, but Park did state during the keynote that Fitbit is going to be building devices in the future. And not that it’s already working on some.
If that’s the case, then the company may not have anything coming out anytime soon. Fitbit is involved with the new Wear OS in more ways than just hardware though. It’s also going to be building a Fitbit app for the platform.
Which other non-Fitbit devices will be able to install and use. This will make it possible for wearers to stay connected to Fitbit’s advanced health tracking features without actually having a Fitbit device. And that’s a good thing since not everyone enjoys the style of Fitbit’s offerings.