While fitness trackers and smartwatches are all the rage right now, sometimes, you would rather not have to wear the same thing on your wrist every day or you don’t have the budget yet to get out. But if you still want to track your activities and you have a Nexus 5X or Nexus 6P then Fitbit wants to help you out, even if you don’t have any of their wearables. All you need is to have your app installed in your device and you can now see how many steps you’ve taken, among other things.
This feature called MobileTrack has actually been around for a bit now and has allowed smartphones with low-power coprocessor chips to still have some sort of activity tracking feature for their users. But what FitBit has done now is to make it available for two popular Android devices through an app update. Users will now be able to use several features of the FitBit app without necessarily having a wearable device.
It can help you track footsteps, which is the most basic thing that some look for in a device. It can also help you keep track of other physical activities like running or biking. It uses the Android Sensor Hub which will keep track of movement without necessarily using up all your power. It can differentiate also your physical activities through the acitivyt-recognition algorithms.
Understandably, it cannot do the more advanced features like heartbeat tracking. But it’s a good start if you just want the basic features. And if you feel like you need the more advanced ones, you can always get an actual fitness band, since a lot of OEMs, even Fitbit, have been lowering their prices lately to be more competitive in the market.
VIA: SlashGear
