Google on Tuesday announced the Fitbit Air, its first Fitbit tracker in four years, a $99 device built around a screenless, modular sensor that can move between bands. The new tracker is small enough to feel more like a piece of jewelry than a gadget, with a metallic fabric clasp and no buttons.
The Fitbit Air is 25 percent smaller than the Luxe and 50 percent smaller than the Inspire, and it weighs 12 grams with the band and 5.2 grams without it. Google said the sensor can be popped out of one band and placed into one of three others, giving the device a more customizable feel than most modern fitness trackers.
Rishi Chandra, who oversees Google's health and fitness products, said wearables have advanced but are still often too complicated, too bulky or too expensive for many people. He said the company wanted something that could be handed to children or parents and worn without any learning curve. That pitch matches the product itself: a simple tracker built for people who want the basics and little else.
The Fitbit Air includes an optical heart rate sensor, a gyroscope, an accelerometer, a blood oxygen sensor and a skin temperature sensor for sleep tracking. It has LED charging lights and haptics for silent alarms, is water resistant to 50 meters and is rated for seven days of battery life on a single charge. Google said five minutes on the charger can deliver one day of use.
The device can also work at the same time as a Pixel Watch, giving users a second, lighter option for tracking health and activity. That matters because Google has spent years folding Fitbit more tightly into its own product lineup since acquiring the company for $2.1 billion in 2021. Starting May 19, the Fitbit app and Android's Health Connect app will be merged into a single Google Health app, and Fitbit Premium will be rebranded as Google Health Premium without a price change.
The timing underscores how Google is trying to revive Fitbit not as a full smartwatch rival, but as a stripped-down tracker for casual use. Fitbit had gone nearly four years without new hardware, and the Fitbit Air looks like a return to the company's older formula of wearable devices that disappear into daily life instead of demanding attention.
What remains to be seen is whether a simpler tracker can stand out in a market filled with watches that do much more. Google is betting that for plenty of people, less is exactly the point.
