Google is transferring Fitbit accounts to Google accounts, with the deadline now being February 2026. The transition follows Google’s acquisition of Fitbit in 2019 and aims to integrate Fitbit services deeply into Google’s services. New Fitbit accounts from June 2023 onwards require a Google login, but existing users can continue using their Fitbit accounts until early 2026. From then, a Google account will be needed to access Fitbit functionality.
The migration provides such benefits as a unified group of privacy controls, stronger account protection, and secure integration with Google services. Customers will have responsibility to determine what data is transferred in the migration. Google promises that health and fitness data will be segregated from ad data and satisfy international privacy regulations, including commitments under EU guidelines, for a minimum of ten years.
Despite these assurances, concerns among users persist about data privacy and the scope for additional integration of fitness information into the broader Google infrastructure. There are worries about the consequences of linking health-sensitive data to Google accounts outside those jurisdictions that have strict privacy protections in place like the EU.
In addition, Google is phasing out Fitbit Pay in favor of Google Wallet for contactless payments. Legacy Fitbit Pay will be phased out globally by July 2024, except in Japan, Taiwan, and Saudi Arabia, where it will be supported until January 2025. Products like Sense 2, Versa 4, and Charge 6 already have Google Wallet as the default payment option.
The transition is Google’s move to consolidate all of its services under one ecosystem in the wake of privacy and data protection concerns by its users. However, the transfer process was compared to the previous Nest account merger, whose difficulty caused waves. The transfer is also being hoped to have a smoother ride as well as greater transparency, though Google continues to provide news of the ongoing transfer process.
