Fitbit Tracker gets Toast notifications and more; becomes one step closer to the real app

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

While Windows Phone is still growing each day, gaining new apps and services, Fitbit is still a holdout. For those who aren’t familiar with it, Fitbit (fitbit (opens in new tab).com (opens in new tab)) is popular exercise tracking device that you wear to keep abreast of your activities. They have different versions, including the One, Flex and the most recent Force wristband (which we just picked up ourselves—it’s awesome).

What’s missing on Windows Phone is widespread Bluetooth 4.0 LE support. That means that Fitbit devices can’t sync directly with our phones, and instead we have to use the wireless Bluetooth sync of a PC. Truth be told, even Android devices are lagging behind on Low-Energy (LE) support, making only handful of devices eligible. Of course, the iPhone is supported.

Fitbit Tracker is a third party app that syncs to the Fitibit servers, pulling down your info. While it can’t sync directly with your Fitbit device, it’s still incredibly useful for keeping track of things. Plus, it’s a superbly designed app that recently has been getting a lot of updates. Version 0.9.7.0 is now live on the Store and it packs quite a few new features.

Fitbit Tracker version 0.9.7.0

  • “Active Minutes" now supported in place of Activity Score
  • Toast Notification support for hitting goals, changing rank in leaderboard, and hitting calorie limits for the day
  • Registering of donations with mothership to provide access to beta features
  • Bug fix for timezone and DST changes causing incorrect times to show
  • Better surfacing of errors in the Fitbit API
  • Important behind-the-scenes changes to support future addition of error reporting and food logging
  • Change to crash logic to support debugging of edge-case app crashes
  • The usual bug fixes and performance improvements

The support for Toast notifications is a fairly big addition. In fact, this app for all intents and purposes is exactly like the official app sans the syncing. There’s one other difference though: this looks way better than the official app. Surprised? Of course not, as Windows Phone developers constantly improve on the official offerings all the time.

If you use Fitbit, then you need Fitbit Tracker. It’s free, it’s awesome and is the best solution for Windows Phone owners.

If you do like it, we do suggest you use the ‘Donate’ button and toss the developer, Shane Chism, some cash for his creation. We sent him $5 and we think you folks could spare a little, if you enjoy the app.

In terms of rumors, in case you wanted those too, we have heard Nokia is talking to Fitbit, though we have no other info on progress. Seeing as Windows Phone 8 Update 3 supports Bluetooth LE 4.0 for certain devices, we could imagine a Fitbit app in the future, though there are no guarantees.

Pick up Fitbit Tracker here in the Store. Free. Windows Phone 8 only.

QR: fitbit tracker

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.

20 Comments
  • Am I missing something? I still don't see support for food logging.
  • Let's look at that changelog again... ;)
    "Important behind-the-scenes changes to support future addition of error reporting and food logging"
    "Future addition" being the key phrase.
  • Ah missed that one. I know he's been discussing it for a bit now, thanks.
  • Besides the amazing work and effort this dev have put into this Fitbit App, what is the point of Toast Notifications (or any notifications at all) if the App does not allow real time syncing? This means that you will have to manually Sync your Fitbit with a compatible device, like a PC, when you do that you also see your Sync Activity like progress, goals etc, then the WP App will perform a schedule sync and display the Toast Notifications, but they are going to be Notifications of the info that you already aware of since you previously synced your device manually.
  • Fitbit syncs whenever you are 20 feet near your computer automatically. Meaning if I come home from the gym, my phone will alert me that I hit my goals, etc. Currently, I would have to manually sync and login to my Fitbit account to see if I reached my goals. That's lame. Now, my phone alerts me without having me to do anything. That's better, especially for Flex users who don't have a display on their device. It's not perfect, but it's not bad either. Plus, think about it: if BT 4.0 APIs become available, as they are expected to be, then the developer has already laid out the groundwork for making this a 100% compatible app with Fitbit. He's pushing this app has far as he can go without LE APIs, so when that day comes, he'll only have one thing to do. It's called future-proofing.
  • Yeap, every effort like this is super welcome. The scenario you just described with the auto wireless syncing, makes sense and makes the Toast Notifications practical on Windows Phones. By manual syncing I was referring to people syncing their devices by connecting them to PCs with USB cables. In that case the Toast Notification is obsolete, for the reason I described above. In anyway, Windows Phone needs the official FitBit App, (Windows 8 has it but is very weak) or open their Sync API and let third party devs take care of the rest :)
  • Yeah, that's a fair point. It' also why I moved away from the horrendous Nike FuelBand. Physically syncing was sooo bad.
  • Daniel do you have the force or the flex?
  • Sadly (or awesomely) I have both! I'm getting requests to do a mini-review, if that's what your asking...
  • WP8 software is now compatible with BT4.0 le but most windows phones don't have the bt4.0 le hardware.
  • Slightly more complicated than that.
  • Wanna sell the flex one, Daniel?
  • Very cool. Soon as I get a force for Xmas I'll be pinning a whole lotta fit bit tiles to my home screen
  • Bluetooth 4.0 needs to come soonerrrr
  • Are only the 520, 620 and 720 the only devices with Bluetooth 4.0 LE? What about my 822?
  • As per Nokia's spec page for the 822, it only has BT 3.0 http://www.nokia.com/us-en/phones/phone/lumia822/specifications/
  • The other devices above said the same until they had an update. That doesn't reflect upon the actual hardware inside.
  • I thought we finally got 4.0 LE?
  • All i need is a fitbit force, not available in Australia. Anyone know a place that shops to Oz?
  • I think im gonna pass on this one and just light another smoke instead...