The past year hasn't been great for Fitbit users. Constant outages, feature removals, and some bizarre behavior from Google are slowly eroding Fitbit's reputation. Unfortunately, it feels like the unimpressive and overpriced Pixel Watch is Google's priority right now.

On February 6th, Fitbit services suffered an outage that prevented users from syncing (or even looking at) their data. This outage continued for two days, and many users lost health and fitness data that was not correctly synced. Another (much shorter) outage occurred on February 23rd, leaving customers to wonder how often this will happen.

What's worse, Fitbit plans to ditch many of its social features, including Adventures and Challenges. These features have always been a selling point for Fitbit, as they encourage friends and family to meet exercise goals together. As noted by The Verge, many customers are thinking about leaving Fitbit because of this feature removal---the r/Fitbit subreddit is like a funeral service right now!

But here's the weirdest thing; Google is refusing to bring new apps to the Fitbit Versa 4 and Sense 2, its premium "smartwatches." Third-party app development for these devices is "solely for watch faces." It's asinine behavior; what's the point in selling an expensive "smartwatch" if you're going to treat it like a much cheaper fitness tracker?

Many Fitbit customers are coming to an interesting conclusion---they believe that Google is forcing the Pixel Watch down their throats. And if that's the case, then Google needs to do some thinking. The Pixel Watch is not an amazing product, and it's not a stand-in for a fitness tracker. While a Fitbit is affordable, simple, and packed with a weeks-long battery life, the Pixel Watch is expensive, somewhat complicated, and last less than 24 hours on a charge.

We hope that Google doesn't squander the Fitbit brand. But Google is known to neglect its products, so perhaps this is inevitable.