Fitbit introduced a new user interface (UI) for its smartwatches with the Sense 2 and Versa 4, which is substantially equivalent to stock Wear OS 3 and, consequently, the Pixel Watch.
Fitbit OS 5.0 allows you to slide down from the clock face on the 2020 Sense and Versa 3 to view alerts, left to access the app grid, up to access health stats/widgets, and right to access fast settings.
Although Fitbit has significantly updated the basic UI, it has not yet disclosed the OS version number for the future watches. Now, quick settings are accessed by swiping down, while notifications are displayed by swiping up.
Going left or right will bring up tiles, a Wear OS feature that allows you to check the weather, start timers, start an activity, and view step count, a daily summary, heart rate, sleep, and other health statistics.
Sense 2 versus Fitbit Sense
The Wear OS 3 interface on the Montblanc Summit 3—the only non-Samsung wearable running the new OS—and the Fitbit Sense 2 and Versa 4 are the same. The Pixel Watch should support the same basic swipe navigation.
The app list is another resemblance; it appears to let you pin favorites at the top and display active timers next to the program item. The Ongoing Activities concept from Wear OS 3’s Recents section is comparable to this.
In the meanwhile, the new Fitbit OS features a variety of Material You components, with huge pill-shaped buttons being the norm. (It takes the place of rectangular, full-width buttons.) You’ll see that the battery percentage has been shifted to the bottom of the quick settings screen, similar to how Wear OS displays status symbols below.
All of this is happening before Google Maps and Wallet become available for the Sense 2 and Versa 4 later this month.
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Strategically, having Fitbit align its user interface with Wear OS results in a more unified and cohesive family of Google products. The true benefit of this is that Fitbit customers can upgrade to the Pixel Watch, which will have many more apps available thanks to the Play Store, without having to learn an entirely new user interface, and vice versa for those who want a fitness-focused gadget.
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