Google has announced the Fitbit Air, a screenless health-tracking band that packs a lot of features into a small package for $99.99. It weighs just 5.2 grams without the band, has no display, and tracks everything from heart rate to sleep to blood oxygen levels. Google says it was rated more comfortable than leading competitors in an independent consumer study. You get up to seven days of battery life, fast charging that delivers a full day of power in just five minutes, and water resistance up to 50 meters.
The idea is that you wear it all day and night and check your stats on your phone through the Google Health app whenever you want. It automatically detects workouts, too, so you don't have to remember to start and stop tracking manually.
What Fitbit Air tracks
The health tracking is pretty extensive for a $99.99 band. You get 24/7 heart rate monitoring, detailed sleep tracking broken down by stage, blood oxygen levels, skin temperature, and FDA-certified irregular heart rhythm alerts that can detect signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib). It tracks how hard you've been pushing yourself with a weekly cardio load score and gives you a daily readiness score to help you figure out when to go all out and when to rest.
Google says the sleep tracking has gotten a significant upgrade, with new machine learning models that are 15% more accurate than previous Fitbit models at capturing interruptions, naps, and transitions between sleep stages. There is also a Smart Wake alarm that tries to wake you up at the best point in your sleep cycle, which is nice.
Fitbit Air's subscription is optional, and that’s the best part
All of the tracking features I just mentioned work without any subscription. You pay $99.99 for the band, and that is it.
If you want extra features, Google Health Premium adds an AI-powered coaching experience built with Gemini. It gives you personalized fitness plans, adaptive workout suggestions, deeper sleep insights, and nutrition logging for $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year. Three months of Premium come free with the tracker.
Google is also launching the Google Health app, which replaces the old Fitbit app. It works with all existing Fitbit devices, the Pixel Watch, and can pull in data from third-party devices and apps through Health Connect and Apple Health. So even if you don't buy the Fitbit Air, you can use the app with other wearables you might already own.
If you've looked into health trackers that focus on recovery and readiness data, you've probably come across WHOOP. It's a screenless band that tracks similar metrics, and it's excellent. I've been wearing one for over 500 days. But WHOOP requires a subscription starting at $199 per year just to use it, and the hardware only comes bundled with that membership.
The Fitbit Air offers a similar core experience at $99.99 with no required subscription, and even the optional Premium plan at $9.99 per month is less than half the price. That's a big deal for anyone who has been curious about this kind of tracker but couldn't justify the ongoing cost. Whether Google Health Coach can match WHOOP’s insights in practice remains to be seen, but Fitbit's 15-plus years of health-tracking expertise give me hope.
Colors, bands, and availability
The Fitbit Air comes in four colors (shown above: Lavender, Obsidian, Berry, and Fog) with swappable bands starting at $34.99. There's a silicone Active Band for workouts, a textile Performance Loop for everyday wear, and a dressier Elevated Modern Band. Google also has a Stephen Curry Special Edition for $129.99 with a water-resistant coating and raised interior print for better airflow. It ships starting May 26 and works with both Android and iOS.
[Image credits: Google]
