In 2020, Fitbit released Fitbit OS 5.1, which brought the Google Assistant to the company’s latest smartwatches, the Sense and Versa 3. At the time, the Fitbit Assistant was not available in Canada, but has since arrived. support for Canadians. . If you have a Sense or Versa 3 smartwatch, this is how you can activate the Google Assistant.
If you’re setting up a Fitbit Sense or Versa 3 for the first time, it’s worth noting that the setup flow now includes the option to choose between Assistant and Amazon Alexa. If you change your mind after setting up your device or you already have an active Sense or Versa 3 and want to switch to the Assistant, the process is relatively straightforward.
First, open the Fitbit app on your smartphone. Tap your account icon in the upper left corner> Tap your connected watch (Sense or Versa 3)> Tap ‘Voice Assistant’. The Fitbit app will ask you to choose between Alexa or Assistant; just touch the one you want to configure. For the purposes of this article, we’ll focus on the Assistant setup process, but the Alexa process shouldn’t differ significantly.
Once you select the Google Assistant, the Fitbit app will display a screen with some details about the benefits of the Assistant on your smartwatch. Tap the ‘Activate Google Assistant’ button to continue. Then Fitbit will take you to the Google Assistant app on your smartphone; You will see a loading screen, followed by a message to activate the Assistant on your Sense or Versa 3. Touch ‘Activate’ to continue.
Once activated with the Assistant, you will return to the Fitbit app. It will ask if you agree to the Google Assistant accessing and entering data into your Fitbit account, followed by a data checklist. In my case the only options were ‘Allow all’ or just ‘suspend’ data. Select what you want and tap “Allow”. The process will end by showing you how to activate the Assistant by long pressing the button on the side of your Sense or Versa 3.
In my tests, the Google Assistant works quite well on Fitbit Sense. It’s not the fastest implementation, but the convenience of having it on my wrist is nice. Also, it can access your Fitbit data, which is helpful. Here are some examples of queries you can perform:
- “How did I sleep last night?”
- “Start running.” (works with other workouts too, like yoga, or just saying ‘workout’)
- “What’s the weather like?”
- “Send a text message.”
It’s worth noting that Assistant on Fitbit devices currently only supports English in Canada. The Fitbit website says Canadian French will be an option for the Google Assistant in early 2021. To learn more about the Assistant on Fitbit, check out the website for this product.