Future Android devices might come with the Fitbit app pre-installed according to a new report. Fitbit is a brand that everyone should be familiar with and the app that you use alongside those devices normally has to be installed manually. You can grab it from the Play Store or App Store, depending on whether you use an Android or iOS device. However, that might change in the future.
As Android Central points out, the recently launched Oppo Find X8 series, which includes the Oppo Find X8 and Oppo Find X8 Pro, has the Fitbit app pre-installed. At that point, all users have to do is launch the app and sign in. Removing some of the steps needed to get the app up and running.
The Fitbit app isn’t guaranteed to be pre-installed on future devices
It goes without saying, but one non-Google device having the app installed out of the box isn’t a 100% guarantee that more manufacturers are going to go down this road. However, it seems highly likely. Google has been pre-loading the Fitbit app on its Pixel devices of late, but Google owns Fitbit now. With the Fitbit acquisition, Google started to move away from Google Fit as its in-house fitness app for tracking health metrics. You can still get the Google Fit app, of course.
But Fitbit is now what Google appears to be preloading by default. It’s also the main app for health tracking on newer devices like the Pixel Watch 3. Also worth noting is that Google is eventually shutting down the Google Fit API. This probably means there’s a good chance the app will shut down eventually as well. That void will leave Fitbit as Google’s main app for health-tracking purposes.
The interesting bit here, which was spotted by 9To5Google, is that this is the first time an Android partner OEM has pre-loaded Fitbit onto its phones. Keeping that in mind, more OEMs may start pre-loading Fitbit.
Users may find the app inside the Google folder
If you’ve used a non-Google Android phone in the past few years, you’ve probably seen the Google folder. It may have been one of a few folders on the phone’s home screen when you powered it on for the first time. On the Oppo Find X8 and Find X8 Pro, this Google Folder is where the Fitbit app was located. You’d find it in the app drawer as well. However, the Google folder serves as a quick way to get to Google’s services on Android.
If you think about it, it does make sense for OEM partners to pre-load this app. Google Fit’s API is shutting down in June of next year. And unless the OEM has its own health app, Fitbit seems like the next most logical choice. Oppo may have been the first OEM to make this change. It might probably won’t be the last though.
