In recent months, Google stopped offering “Google Pay” as a separate app and began directing users to a “Google Wallet” interface that is integrated into Play Services. Fitbit is the brand which Google purchased last year and currently offers its payment service called Fitbit Pay.
Fitbit is getting ready to introduce the Fitbit Sense 2 and Versa 4 this year, according to recent regulatory listings. These will be Fitbit’s first major product launches following Google’s acquisition of the company. Some users are anticipating a closer connection between Fitbit products and Google services.
You can discover just that in the most recent version of Play Services, along with graphic proof that Google is getting ready for at least some Fitbit watches to use Google Wallet. The Fitbit app first adds a new menu that our Dylan Roussel was able to enable. The menu displays Fitbit’s typical square smartwatches, which are probably meant to resemble Versa 4 and Sense 2. Each of these images is referred to as a “Fitbit watch illustration” in the code.
Overview Fitbit and Google Wallet
The Fitbit brand is well-known for its health and fitness functions, but it is less well-known as the smartwatch to wear for everyday conveniences like electronic payments. Now, Google bought Fitbit in 2019, everyone began to speculate about the brand’s future and if it would gradually adopt Google culture or vanish in favour of the Wear OS.
Fitbit doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, and the platform keeps adding new features and improvements, so we may already know an answer to it. It seems more and more likely that it will coexist with Wear OS as both platforms take components from one another.
Electronic Payment Solutions
The most recent evidence for this is an APK analysis performed by 9to5Google that revealed indications that Google Pay/Wallet is coming to Fitbit, but it is more likely to do so on the future Fitbit Sense 2 and Versa 4 watches. These two models will be the first to be introduced under Google’s guidance, and it is anticipated that they will interact with Google’s features and services more thoroughly.
Setup photos from the deconstruction that depict a Fitbit watch with Google Pay/Wallet marketing material and drawings were discovered. It would make sense for this to replace the current Fitbit Pay, even though it is not widely known. Fitbit devices have been using Fitbit Pay up until this point.
Development in Fitbit
Even while the feature is still in its early stages of development, what we can put together suggests that Fitbit Pay and Google Wallet are directly connected. Our current theory is that you’ll be able to add Google Wallet to your “Fitbit Wallet” rather than Fitbit Pay being replaced by Google Wallet on a current or upcoming device.
Style in Fitbit
This type of connectivity seems a little lacking at first glance when compared to a full-fledged Google Wallet integration that includes support for non-payment cards and passes. The advantage, though, is that rather than being limited to the newest generation of watches, Fitbit Pay may at least be able to link to Google Wallet on previous models.
Notably, even though the aesthetics resemble those on more expensive Versa/Sense devices, we discover that Google is now testing the Wallet feature using a Fitbit “Charge 6” as a stand-in. On the one hand, it’s conceivable that Google is already working with a pre-production Fitbit Charge 6, but this moniker might equally well be a made-up placeholder selected by a developer during testing.
Two New Fitbit Models Are Expected to Integrate Google Wallet
Signs indicate the inclusion of Fitbit smartwatch functionality in Google Wallet and Google Pay, which will include a new menu with graphics that resemble the most recent version of Android’s Play Services. Although Google displayed an “illustration of a Fitbit watch,” it is unclear whether Google Wallet would replace “Fitbit Pay or whether there will be another sort of connectivity, similar to how Samsung smartwatches allow users to download Google Wallet.
According to the report, Google may be using it as a method to support older Fitbit models by integrating its payment system with Fitbit Pay. Google’s Assistant is the sole integration between Fitbit and Google at the moment. With the Fitbit Versa 2, Alexa was added to devices as a digital assistant. The Fitbit Versa 3 and Sense then got the ability to use Google Assistant.
Conclusion
These new Fitbit flagship gadgets, which are expected to launch next month, have already had a lot of their specifications and designs leaked. I now have a Versa 2 that I’m merely using till it either dies or is changed out for a Pixel Watch, whichever comes first. Even so, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t interested in seeing how the new Fitbit watches stack up against the Pixel Watch’s pure Wear OS experience. We’ll have to wait a few months to find out.