Personally, the Google Pixel Watch 3 was the success story of 2024. In just three generations, Google debuted the Pixel Watch, a pretty terrible smartwatch, improved it massively for the Pixel Watch 2, and then perfected it with the Pixel Watch 3. And I’ll admit, it’s a comeback story I wasn’t expecting to see. Sure, I’d noticed the Pixel Watch 2 was pretty good, but at no point did I expect it to smash through the glass ceiling in my yearning heart marked “Only Samsung Galaxy Watches here”. But smash through it did, and through the shards of raining glass it rose, like an ascending angel.
Alright, so I’m laying it on a little thick. But it’s important to note quite how desirable the Pixel Watch has become in the last year. I’m even considering giving up my own hard-earned cash in return for the Google Pixel Watch 4 when it releases later this year. Except, there’s one little issue I have with the Pixel Watches, and have had since the beginning. And until that one problem is changed, I can’t see myself buying the Pixel Watch 4, or any future Pixel Watch.
Google, just drop the Fitbit subscription cost already
That’s a strong statement, so I’m going to quickly caveat: Fitbit’s platform is solid. Great, even. I have no problems with how well Fitbit functions, and while I haven’t had the chance to play with a Fitbit product myself in the almost decade I’ve been writing about smarrtphones and smartwatches, I know that there’s rarely a bad word said about Fitbit’s ability to track health or exercise. Heck, when Google bought Fitbit in 2021, I hoped it would be the dawn of a new age for Fitbit, and the end of my most hated part of the Fitbit package. I am, of course, talking about the subscription cost.
It rankles that the Pixel Watch, a premium smartwatch, is hampered with an additional subscription cost. I get why it used to exist — Fitbit wasn’t a small company by any means, but it needed additional, ongoing funds to keep it going. I haven’t looked it up, so I don’t know if it’s true or not, but it feels like it could be true. Pair that with the fact that Fitbits are dirt cheap, and you can justify it. Sure, it’s an ongoing subscription cost, but you offset that with a comparatively low entry cost and it’s more palatable.
Google is not a small company struggling for funding, and the Pixel Watch 3 is not dirt cheap like Fitbit products are, so … why am I paying like both of those things are true? It reads as pure greed from Google, and it’s hard to see it as anything but.
I want to recommend Pixel Watches and Fitbits, but I can’t
I’ve been writing about smartwatches for close to a decade now, and in all of that time, the subscription means I’ve never been able to recommend a Fitbit to friends and family — and that applies to the Pixel Watch too.
If it was nothing more than a few extra exercise classes, perhaps an AI-generated report or two, like Apple Fitness Plus, then I wouldn’t be so annoyed. But no, if you want a Sleep Score or Daily Readiness Score, then you’ll need to pay Google — one of the world’s biggest companies — $10 a month to do so. And it rankles even more because the competition just isn’t doing it. If I strap on a Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 it doesn’t nickle and dime me for my sleep tracking, and the Apple Watch Series 10 doesn’t shake a donations tin before I’m allowed to see what my energy levels are. Because it’s part of the service and Apple and Samsung get that. Google still doesn’t, and it’s a big barrier.
Yes, it annoyed me when Garmin introduced a subscription, but unlike Fitbit, Garmin hasn’t hidden anything that feels like a standard inclusion. Instead it’s just adding extra stuff, and I can live with that. Can I live without a Sleep Score or Daily Readiness? Sure, I’ll survive, but will I thrive?
Google doesn’t even have to do much to change this. All it needs to say is “and because the Pixel Watch 4 is a premium product, it’ll get these features from Fitbit Premium for free”. That’s all it needs to do, and I’m on board. But until then? I’ll lust after the Pixel Watch 4, but I’m sure not buying one.
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