Fitbit for Android

The Fitbit Android app syncs with your Fitbit tracking device to monitor your daily activities and allow you to participate in challenges with friends.

Pros

Quick check of daily progress: The app syncs with your Fitbit device and lets you monitor your activities, including daily steps, resting heart rate, sleep patterns, and weight loss -- or gain. You can can pick from a dozen or so activity tiles to put on your dashboard to monitor your progress.

Set goals: You can set goals, such as steps taken, distance covered, calories burned, floors walked, and hours slept. The app lets you see, at a glance, how you are progressing, and you can tap an activity tile to see more details. You can also customize the app if, for example, you want to set your own heart rate zones.

Watch your calories: Fitbit estimates calories burned throughout the day. You can also stay within your daily calorie budget by tracking food consumption. You can pick meals from the app's food catalog, which includes many brand names and restaurants, and use the app's barcode scanner for an item you don't see in the catalog. You can also create custom meals, such as for homemade lasagna.

Be part of a community: Add friends to compare your progress or join challenges with up to 10 people to see who can log the most steps.

Sync across apps: Connect the app to other health and fitness services, such as Strava, Peloton, Weight Watchers, Lose It, and MapMyRun. Oddly, you can't sync with Google's Fit app.

Cons

Not gym or bike friendly: Fitbit is a sophisticated pedometer but struggles to record gym activities, such as cycling or elliptical training. It also also does not count elevation gains simulated on exercise equipment because the Fitbit tracker uses changes in barometric pressure to detect elevation change. To get around these limitations, you can always record your activities manually in the app.

Distance estimates can vary: Fitbit records distance traveled using an estimate of your stride length. You may find Fitbit's estimate varies from your actual distance -- at times significantly. You can calculate your own stride length and override Fitbit's estimate or connect your Fitbit device to your phone's GPS to more accurately record your distance.

Bottom Line

While Fitbit does a fine job of tracking your walks and runs, it struggles with monitoring biking or gym activities.