The Fitbit Air is a good wearable weighed down by a chatty AI "coach"
The Fitbit Air is an excellent screenless fitness tracker that is comfortable and reasonably priced. However, Google's push for an AI health coach that is overly talkative detracts from the experience. Free users get a more useful, information-dense interface. Users can disable the AI, but the option is buried in settings.
Google clearly wants the Coach front and center to get more people using Gemini, but it’s often detrimental to the experience. Free users actually get a more useful, information-dense interface instead of the wordy AI. You can simply choose not to subscribe to Premium, and you don’t lose much aside from the AI. However, several Google One plans include Health Premium, giving you the AI experience by default. You can turn all this off, but in usual Google fashion, the option is buried.
To banish the chatty Health Coach from your app, go to your profile and tap Your data in Google Health > Feature Control > Google Health Coach, and flip the switch. This will remove the summaries and proactive suggestions from the app UI, but in another classic Google move, the Ask Coach button remains in the app. Tapping that will offer to reactivate the Coach.
The bottom line
The Fitbit Air is a worthwhile investment if you want a no-nonsense fitness tracker without the complication of a smartwatch. It’s reasonably priced and extremely comfortable, and it looks pretty good. The Air $100 comes with one of three standard Performance Bands, or you can pay $130 for the Stephen Curry special edition. If you want a screenless tracker, the Air is much easier to justify than a Whoop, which requires a minimum $200 annual subscription.
Left: Fitbit Air, Right: Pixel Watch 4 45 mm.