It may take a while before the update reaches you
There are a ton of fitness apps on the Play Store right now coming from a variety of brands, but the Fitbit app stands out as being a better one in the bunch — yes, especially if you own a Fitbit smartwatch or tracker band. Aside from the usual stuff like tracking your activities, the app goes above and beyond with advanced features like daily reminders, tips, workout videos, and training plans. Now, with a new update to its charts interface, the app has gotten even better… or worse — it really is up to you to decide with this one.
Now rolling out through the Play Store, version 3.64.4 of Fitbit for Android has given most of the in-app charts (that includes steps, distance, calories, sleep, heart rate, stress, etc.) a fresh coat of paint — or should we say a whitewash? — since those colorful gradient backgrounds have all been done away with for white backgrounds (via 9to5Google).
The introductory prompt that will pop up when you access the new charts for the first time claims that the revamp makes the whole thing “easier to read.” But considering that the previous background colors helped people recognize and differentiate between all those health metrics, we think it’s fair to argue that such a possible advantage could be nullified. The actual data plots that appear on top of the grid are more or less unchanged, though.
But really, the whole point of this change appears to be those new tabs at the top of the screen that let you quickly switch between weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly views, making the full-screen view redundant. Previously, you had to tap through a chart to access these extended time periods. There are also new left/right arrows underneath the tabs that should make navigating through historical data easier.
Of course, we have our own thoughts on the change, but you do as well, so we’ll just wrap things up by saying that it’ll take a while before we see the update move out to most users.
