Fitbit upgrades its software with new social features and personalized workouts

By Kelly Hodgkins Published December 19, 2017

Since the release of its first wearable in 2008, Fitbit has been synonymous with fitness tracking. The company set the fitness world on fire with its Fitbit Classic, which could measure parameters like sleep and step count. More than just a measurement tool, the tracker could also send that data to a companion website, which would analyze the raw movement data and provide valuable fitness information to the wearer. Fitbit continues to innovate in this analysis area with its latest Fitbit software, which improves both the core Fitbit app and the companion Fitstar personal trainer.

In the newest revision unveiled at CES 2017, Fitbit has created a new Community social experience to help wearers connect with other Fitbit owners for motivation and inspiration. The Community functions like a mini-Facebook for your fitness tracker. It includes a Feed social feature that lets users share their inspirational moments, exchange messages among friends, read helpful articles from fitness experts, and even join up to 20 groups of like-minded individuals.

Recommended Videos

Fitbit also updated its Fitstar Personal Trainer software with an entirely new interface that emphasizes customization and personalization so users can meet their exercise goals more quickly and easily. The updated software has a new Personal Goal feature that guides a user and helps them reach achievable goals based on their activity level and their selected fitness goals. The updated app allows a user to set fitness goals in such areas as sleep, exercise, weight, and more. The software then uses these goals along with data from the tracker to provide recommended workouts. “For example, if your motivation is to get more fit and your data shows you walk an average of 9,200 steps per day, Fitbit may recommend setting a higher goal of 10,000 steps per day,” notes Fitbit in a statement.

The updated Fitstar Personal Trainer is available now for Android, iOS, and online users through a software update. The new Personal Goal Setting will be rolled out to all existing Fitbit app users globally in January 2017, while the Community feature will be made available to U.S. Fitbit app users in March 2017 and then globally to all users in 2017.

Former Contributor

Kelly's been writing online for ten years, working at Gizmodo, TUAW, and BGR among others. Living near the White Mountains of…

Topics

Computing

Qualcomm is set to ratchet up chip prices in September, and your next gadget upgrade could bear the brunt

The price hike could touch every Snapdragon-powered device category.

The new Qualcomm Snadragon 8 Elite Gen 5

I want you to sit with this for a second. Qualcomm, the company whose Snapdragon chips sit inside your Android phone and tablet, your Windows laptop, your Meta smart glasses, your Galaxy Watch, and your wireless earbuds, reportedly sent a letter to every major customer telling them prices are going up by double digits.

The price hike will be in effect from September 1, 2026, a recent Bloomberg report claims. Essentially, all the companies placing their chip orders after that will pay a higher price.

Wearables

Slacked off all summer? Here are 3 fitness trackers that’ll help you stay accountable as you head back to school

Three trackers, three price points, three totally different approaches to keeping you honest about your own goals.

A person wearing the Whoop 5.0.

Summer break did what it usually does. Your sleep schedule drifted, workouts happened less often than you'd hoped, and by the time August rolled around, you were feeling it. You've got a plan to get back on track once the school year starts and your days have more structure, but you know how that usually goes. The first two weeks are solid, then the routine quietly slips.

A fitness tracker won't get you off your couch. What it will do is put a number in front of you every day, one that makes it obvious whether you stuck to your goal or slacked off. That small bit of visibility is often the difference between meaning to work out and actually doing it. Back-to-school season is a good time to buy in, since you're already resetting more than one part of your routine, and the overlap makes the habit more likely to stick. To keep the odds in your favor, here are three fitness trackers that can help you stay accountable and actually hit your goals.

Wearables

Galaxy Watch 9 vs. Watch Series 11: Has Apple finally met its smartwatch match?

From AI-powered health coaching to outdoor fitness tracking, here's how Samsung's Galaxy Watch 9 stacks up against Apple's Watch Series 11.

Wristwatch, Arm, Body Part

These days, the real battleground between smartwatches is who can turn a wrist-worn, sensor-loaded device into something that resembles a personal fitness trainer, and this year's crop of flagship wearables takes that fight more seriously than ever.

Samsung just refreshed its mainstream Galaxy Watch line with a new silicon and a batch of clinically-backed health tools, landing squarely on Apple's home turf of preventive wellness tracking. Apple, for its part, has spent the better part of a year letting its Series 11 sit as the reigning pick for anyone inside its ecosystem, propped up by a software catalog few rivals match feature-for-feature.