The Fitbit Edge just made Google’s wearable lineup better than you think

None of us had it on our bingo cards this year, but Google has surprisingly emerged as the company with the best wearable ecosystem on the market. The new Fitbit Edge not only carries forward the legacy of the Fitbit Charge from the bygone era but also gives Google a solid chance to put its best foot forward in a wearable market that has already picked sides.

But beyond a lineup that addresses (nearly) every consumer need on the spectrum, Google has, more importantly, created an underlying platform that is actually shaping its fitness ecosystem for the long run.

There’s something for everybody

Apple nudges everyone who needs fitness tracking towards its smartwatches (although an Apple fitness tracker is rumored), but not Google. After acquiring Fitbit, Google has continued its tradition of keeping around simpler fitness trackers that don’t force you to stare at another screen on your wrist or compete with your stunningly elegant mechanical wristwatch.

The recent Fitbit Air is the one to pick if you like passive fitness tracking while still rocking your traditional timepiece. But that’s not to dismiss a large section of the audience that wants a secondary screen on its wrist — me included. The Pixel Watch 5 serves that need superbly — and it’s one of the best smartwatches that plays nice with any Android handset. Besides giving me live fitness metrics without needing to pull out the phone over and over, I use a smartwatch to reduce my dependence on the phone, thanks to features like notification mirroring and call handoff.

While the Fitbit Charge series was a sensation back in the day, it is still the need of the hour for people who want to see their fitness metrics while working out but don’t like having full-blown apps running on their wrist. Its tiny OLED screen strikes the right balance between ergonomics and battery life — seven days of non-stop use isn’t something any smartwatch can match to date.

No matter where you sit on the spectrum, Google has a wearable for you — something neither Apple nor Samsung can claim, at least today. Your only alternative is Garmin, although it usually causes a bigger dent in your wallet.

Google Health pulls everything together

The Fitbit branding has stayed for hardware, though Google removed it from the app in favor of Google Health — and for good reason. Google Fit was once the weakest part of the company’s health tracking universe, but the refreshed Health app feels like it belongs in 2026. It’s this platform that brings together Google’s entire wearable ecosystem — making it worthy of the name.

That’s because Google shipped a unified experience where all its fitness devices connect to the same app. Sounds trivial, but it enables so many personalization tricks. For instance, if you prefer wearing a smartwatch to the office but not in bed, you can have both the Pixel Watch and the Fitbit Air for each purpose, without the transition feeling fractured. Even the Fitbit Edge and Air combo works for using the screen only briefly in the gym and not otherwise.

While the Pixel Watch remains Android-exclusive, this Fitbit duo works equally well with iOS, letting Google fill the fitness tracker-shaped hole for iPhone users. If that wasn’t enough, Google Health can bidirectionally sync your fitness data with Apple Health without needing third-party bridges — suitable for cross-platform fitness tracking if you want to alternate between an Apple Watch and a Fitbit Air.

Not to forget, Google Health can also receive data from Oura, WHOOP, Samsung, Garmin, etc., making it one of the most holistic multi-platform fitness tracking apps. And the cherry on top has to be its contextual fitness planning using all your data and Gemini’s smarts to personalize your training for the day. It senses how well you’ve recovered the previous night to proactively adjust the next day’s goal, or you can simply talk it out with your AI coach, just like you do with Gemini. Note that this requires a Health Premium or an AI Pro/Ultra subscription.

This parity and all the cross-platform features are going to pay off in the long term with a solid ecosystem advantage — as long as Google continues to justify the Health Premium price and irons out a few details.

The missing pieces

Google already has an array of fitness trackers and smartwatches that meet everyone’s needs — except for this minor gap. Apple may not have a screenless fitness tracker in its roster, but it does have a budget smartwatch in the form of the Watch SE. That gives users a budget-friendly yet capable entry point into the fitness world if they don’t want the extra bells and whistles. In Google’s portfolio, there is currently a void between the $180 Fitbit Edge and the high-end $400 Pixel Watch 5.

Adding a cheaper smartwatch would strengthen Google’s already inclusive hardware portfolio further — not everyone wants to spend upwards of $400 just to have a functional smartwatch on their wrist.

Secondly, as we highlighted earlier, the Google Health app can feel both too simplistic and too complicated in different areas. For example, you have to scroll through lengthy chats in Health Coach to find any specific piece of information, which isn’t always convenient. The Health app experience is already getting better, so it gives me a rare trust in Google this time.

The company has already laid a solid foundation for its fitness wearable catalog, and all it needs is a bit of refinement, on both the hardware and software fronts, to sustain the momentum it built with the Fitbit Air and make the most of its first-mover advantage among its peers.