> I am super happy with my Fitbit but given Google I assume it will be "sunset" within a year or two

I work for Fitbit. I don't speak for Fitbit, but now that the deal is closed I can share my own opinions and ask my own questions.

What makes you think Google wants Apple to have the only good smart watch? That would be the main effect of sunsetting Fitbit.

Nest still exists after their 2014 acquisition by Google, and Nest is not as important to any other part of Google as Fitbit is to Android. Why would they be more inclined to sunset Fitbit?

Google has a perception problem. Even if I can't logically defend how I feel about their likelihood of killing a product, it doesn't mean that image hasn't been built up over time by their actions. That's branding.

That aside, if they end up tying Fitbit accounts to Google accounts, the whole jig is up anyway, because no-one wants to buy a hardware product whose operation depends upon not having Google shut your account down with no recourse other than to raise a stink on sites like HN.

They have a very clear history of buying companies, carving out what they need from it and reselling it (Boston Dynamics, Motorola, HTC, etc).

Chances are that Fitbit won't be around 2-3 years from now, hence no real reason to invest in a product from them now.

Like everyone who has an account on HN, I'm aware that there are companies acquired by Google that no longer exist. But some -- Android, youtube, Nest, etc. -- still exist. What makes you think Fitbit will fall in the former category? Random probability?

I don't know, I used to resist people's comments about Google shutting everything down, but I find myself on that side of the fence more often these days. With that said, I would be surprised if Google shut Fitbit down. Wearables seem to be big business when done right, and Fitbit is the best thing outside of Apple watches (not counting Garmin, they are in an upper tier imo). I think it's in Google's best interest to properly integrate Fitbit into their company and help it grow.

Usually the hardware companies they kill off eventually, Nest being the outlier.

I'm not saying that they'll 100% kill off Fitbit, but it's very likely. Google already does hardware and software that does a lot of the same stuff, no point in having 2 brands.

As I understand it, the bits they carved out of HTC and motorola are what became Pixel. It's not like they stopped producing phones.

> What makes you think Google wants Apple to have the only good smart watch?

Wear OS shows how little Google care about good smart watches. It's six years old and still bad, if they wanted it to be good they would've fixed it years ago.

FTR making a good smart watch is a hard problem. Acquiring a company that's already put in the hard work is more resource efficient than scaling that mountain yourself.

> That would be the main effect of sunsetting Fitbit.

That's very debatable, considering the smartwatches from Samsung, Fossil, Garmin...

The Garmin Forerunner 45/245 might fit that bill. I'm wearing one right now and only notice it because its riding up on my wrist from my sweater.

And as a bit of a metric nerd the Garmin data exports rock.

Oh, and I haven't charged it in over a week.

After having seen how difficult it is to get an Oura in the UK, I might investigate this first - thanks!

Sure thing! The forerunner 45s is the cheaper option in the forerunner lineup, BUT it doesn't have standard lugs.

There is also the Venu and Vivoactive lines with touch screens, but their battery isn't nearly as good as anything in forerunner's camp.

Has something made it more difficult? :o I ordered a Oura ring in the UK about a year ago, and it was just a standard online purchase.

I use the Oura Ring and really like it for sleep tracking. It also tracks heart rate, but with a caveat which is it doesn’t track while you’re moving quickly, so it’s not really an exercise tracker. (Something about how it’s tiny sensors work)

My combo is Apple Watch by day, Oura Ring by night. I don’t often wear them together.

Very happy with the setup and would recommend.

Thanks for reminding me about the Oura ring, I've seen a few people say they've been happy with it on Twitter in the past year, it sounds like an ideal place to start - thanks! :)

I've heard good things about the Oura Ring https://ouraring.com/. It tracks sleep and has a 7 day battery life.

Oura ring is good. Tracks heart rate and sleep satisfactorily. I heartedly recommend.

I'm in all the Subreddits, and the Garmin users seem pretty happy with those products.

Disclosure: I also own Garmin Stock, but am a FitBit user (owned FitBit stock too but sold when the GOOG acquisition was announced).

Withings Scanwatch [0]

[0]: https://www.withings.com/de/en/scanwatch

Whoop has a lot of cool data and is lightweight but has no display, no GPS, and they lock you in with a subscription fee. I

Xiaomi Mi Band.

The mi bands seem great if you want something very basic. Super cheap but still retains a lot of the features of premium smart watches.

Only issue I noticed was the heart rate monitor was wildly inaccurate but this was on a much older version (the 2 I think, maybe the mi band 5 has fixed this)

Yeah the heart monitor on my Mi Band 2 isn't very accurate, even when I "press" the band to my wrist. It came out in 2016 so I'm assuming the 5 will feature a much more modern sensor suite.

Do these phone home to Xiaomi?