Fitbit will end support for the community features challenges, adventures, and open groups on March 27. The company says it’s doing this to “streamline parts of the app.” Before the features are no longer available, users can still download their data.
The social features were “of limited use,” says Fitbit in a comment against The Verge. No further explanation for the discontinuation of the services is given. Users can still export their data from these features until March 27, let the Google subsidiary on its forum.
The ‘challenges’ feature allows users to invite friends to certain events, such as a competition to see who can take the most steps in a day. In ‘Adventures’, users can take a virtual tour of famous locations while meeting their step goal. The trophies that users have earned from these two features will also be lost on March 27. However, it is still possible to compete with friends via rankings and to earn badges with personal achievements.
The open groups feature allows users to unite in the Fitbit app around a specific topic, such as healthy eating or pregnancy. As of March 27, users will only be able to connect with other Fitbit users through the Community Forum.
In addition to these social features, Fitbit will also pull the plug on Fitbit Studio on April 20, which allowed developers to develop apps and digital watch faces for the platform. However, it is still possible to create such software for Fitbit OS via the command line interface .
