I've been covering Android and other mobile technology for close to ten years now, with a specific interest in phone accessories, e-readers, and what makes each individual phone different from another. I delight in looking at the phone market from as many angles as possible, and while my opinions may be odd, at times, they're always from the heart as much as the head.
I have a background in the mobile accessories world, which explains my odd enthusiasm for cases and things that clip onto smartphones.
The Fitbit Air is getting some upgrades that will significantly improve how well it automatically tracks workouts, and add a lot more new automatically-tracked exercises.
The new update, which doesn't have a confirmed release date yet, will use an LLM in order to boost the successful detection rate, and will also add some new exercises to the Air's already impressive list. These changes will also be coming to certain Pixel Watch models, but will most likely be most important to the Fitbit Air.
The Air goes from 10 to 100 auto-tracked activities
As well as cutting missed workout rate in half
Being a screenless wearable, the Fitbit Air is particularly dependent on automatic workout detection to work properly. While it's easy to start a workout on your connected phone's Google Health app, it's easy to forget, and it's nice when the Fitbit Air manages to pick up the slack.
Unfortunately, many Fitbit Air owners, myself included, have noticed the device isn't really up to the task right now. Which is why Google is ready to push out a serious upgrade to the Air's detection abilities.
We know Google took this problem seriously, putting engineers to work completely rewriting the detection software to make it more reliable. As mentioned, there's an LLM in there now, and it uses the data your Air has access to, like movements and location, in order to make better guesses. We imagine that if you attend a class at the same date and time every week, then it will start noticing that too.
How much better? According to Google, it's 300% more accurate, and should be far better at noticing exercises like swimming and weight-lifting. If true, that bodes well for the Air. But it also comes with other new goodies.
The Air will also now be able to detect even more sports as well, like racket sports like tennis. Google hasn't included a full list of the new exercises, but we know it's increased the amount of automatically-tracked workouts from 10 to 100.
That's a huge jump in capability, and it's a big addition that's sure to excite any Fitbit Air owner. Speaking as someone who's worn one since release, my Air has missed a few workouts of my own, and I'm far from the most assiduous of athletes. If it's missed some of my activities, then you can be sure it's missing the exercises of those people who're more active than I.
This update will be dropping later this month, and it will be landing on the Fitbit Edge as well as the Air, and the Pixel Watch 3, 4, and 5 to boot. However, it's a much less exciting update for those other devices, as they, y'know, have screens.
It's far easier to notice if an exercise isn't being tracked on a Pixel Watch or Fitbit Edge — whereas you won't know with the Air until it's done syncing with your phone after the fact. The fact that Google was willing to work this hard on an update that primarily benefits Air owners is a good sign for the future health of the device.
Fitbit Air
8.5/10
- 7 days
- Optical heart rate, 3-axis accelerometer, temperature sensor
- 35 x 17 x 8.3mm (Module)
- 50 meters