I turned my Pixel 10 Pro into a free Fitbit, but there's one big problem

I won’t hide it: I love tracking my fitness data. I don’t really do anything with the number of steps I walk each day or the calories I burn, but I like to have the data. Perhaps one day I’ll figure out how to analyze it to become a better runner, but in the meantime, I’ll just keep collecting. The thing is, though, I don’t always love to strap a wearable on my wrist. Usually, I don’t mind, but sometimes I need to let my wrist breathe, and I want to push notifications just a little further out of my face.

So, what can I do when my Garmin is in the drawer? For a while, there wasn’t much — I could let Google Fit track my steps and try to sync it to Garmin Connect or another platform, but then I had data all over the place. Then, as part of Android 16, Google introduced the ability to set up your phone as a Fitbit alternative and link your steps via Health Connect, and I knew I had to try it out.

Here’s what happens when you let your Pixel become your pedometer.

Simple, spot-on step tracking

The good (and maybe even great) news about using an Android 16 phone as a Fitbit is that it couldn’t be easier to set up. All you have to do is go to the Fitbit app — or install it if you haven’t already — and begin to set up a new device. Instead of choosing from the long list of Fitbit models, you’ll pick your phone, and then you’re off to the races, both literal and metaphorical. You’ll probably also want to opt into sharing your data via Health Connect, as it makes it easier to access your steps from other devices.

Honestly, the entire setup process took me no more than about five minutes, which I thoroughly appreciate. When you’re competing for health data against a Garmin Forerunner 970 that I’ve been wearing nonstop since I reviewed it, you have to keep things simple for me to stick around. My next criterion, however, was whether the Pixel 10 Pro XL could match the accuracy of my trusty Garmin. So, I made sure that the two weren’t syncing to each other, and then I headed back to my hometown for the holidays.

In my head, going home for the holidays to count my steps seemed like a brilliant plan. It was the perfect little break from real life, which meant I could leave my Garmin behind here and there and wouldn’t always be glued to my phone. For the most part, my plan worked, and I’ll readily admit that the Pixel 10 Pro XL exceeded my expectations in terms of accuracy. I figured there would be a margin of error between the steps counted in my pocket and those counted on my wrist, but I was surprised by how little it was.

Of the days I spent at home, the screenshots above probably reflect the best one. It wasn’t a holiday itself, which meant I actually had a chance to get out and go for a run, logging eight miles on a loop I know like the back of my hand. It also happened to be the only day that I actually hit my step goal — but it’s the holidays, who’s counting?

The main thing to notice is that my step totals on both Garmin Connect and Fitbit are as close as they could be. I kept my phone in my pocket for the entire run — not something I usually do — and it logged everything just about perfectly. My Pixel actually slightly over-recorded steps by a few hundred, but that’s perfectly acceptable over the course of a day. It was pretty close on my count of calories burned for the day, too, though slightly below Garmin’s tally.

There is, however, one pretty big discrepancy between the two: my actual mileage. I can tell you with Garmin-tracked certainty that I ran eight miles, even adding a little extra trip down Main Street to round off my total, yet the Pixel 10 Pro XL dropped me to just over seven miles. It’s missing nearly a mile off the run itself, and it’s missing even more distance when you count the fact that I finished at a coffee shop and had to walk back to my car, so maybe a case of trusting the steps over the distance.

It’s not a perfect science, though, as my Garmin Connect app currently lists me at 2,610 steps for the day (995 calories burned), while the Google and Fitbit combination lists me at 2,599 steps (948 calories burned). I haven’t gone out for a run just yet, but you can believe I’ll be watching the distance totals like a hawk. By the way, if you don’t have a Garmin (or other wearable) to compare against, you can also log activities using your phone as your primary tracker.

Counting my steps is only one bit of the fit

Although I’ve been pretty pleased with my Pixel 10 Pro XL’s performance as a stand-in Fitbit when it comes to step-tracking, I hesitate to call it the perfect replacement. If you’re eyeing a fitness tracker of any kind, it’s probably because you want to track all of your fitness — sleep, steps, stress, and more — and the Pixel 10 Pro doesn’t quite do that. It allows you to do some of those things manually, but there’s a lot more room for error.

For example, you can manually start a sleep tracking mode, but it only works if you do it before you fall asleep. If you, say, lie down and go to sleep right away, you might not think to begin the activity — the same goes for tracking your sleep after the fact. I’m not sure about you, but I never know exactly what time I fall asleep, so I can only provide rough estimates and hope for the best. And, being human, I’d probably always skew towards calling my sleep better than it was, purely so that I can score higher in the Fitbit app.

Granted, tracking your food, weight, and water intake doesn’t happen automatically with a wearable, either — that stuff is all manual, all the time. However, if I’m using my phone as a Fitbit to take off my watch and put screen time a little further out of mind, I don’t really want to replace my wrist-mounted display with more time spent in front of my phone. If anything, I’d rather check a watch that doesn’t let me type out text responses than a phone where I can so easily doomscroll.

So, if I had to make a recommendation on whether or not to use your Android 16 phone as a Fitbit, it would be this: if you’re starting your fitness journey, do it. Absolutely. It’ll keep a close enough eye on your steps and allow you to track other metrics pretty easily. However, if you already have some experience with a Fitbit or another wearable, you might find that its basic data is a step back and is less intuitive than you might expect. And, if that’s the case, a Pixel Watch 4 might be the perfect alternative.