Google has been working on the Fitbit Ace LTE for the past two to three years and it shows. In my short time using Fitbit’s Wear OS devices, what strikes me most – as someone outside of the intended kid/parent audience – is how great of an experience it provides.
From the basic podcast experience on YouTube Music to the Gemini app that lacks phone assistant functionality, the minimally viable Google — as I call it — can be frustrating for the end user. The Fitbit Ace LTE offers the opposite by having a bright, if narrow, focus.
A well thought out game from Google
Aside from the fact that you can actually play games on it, the whole Fitbit Ace LTE has an immersive video game-like quality to it. This is of course intended to attract children to want to wear it. The basic premise is: “The more [kids] movement, the more game time they unlock.”
Titles in Fitbit Arcade take full advantage of haptic feedback, an accelerometer for input, and a speaker. This is more than just squeezing a touchscreen game into a smartwatch-sized display.
I had the opportunity to play a virtual fishing title where your arm becomes a rod that you cast and reel in. Another game I tried is similar to “Mario Kart” and involves flicking your wrist to move around the race track. The games definitely got me moving and serve as a nice addition to the traditional Move Goal Ace LTE, where 90 points is about 45 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity.
Built with the Unity engine, these titles are a little slow to load at first, but once you get into them, they’re smooth. The style of the games is a bit generic and I wish they were a bit more Google in nature. Playing on a round square is acceptable, and the intended 7+ target audience might be more forgiving of this very real limitation.
As they progress and complete daily activities, kids earn arcade tickets to customize their virtual characters — called “eejies” — and decorate their homes. This is another big aspect of Ace LTE and it is clearly inspired by “Animal Crossing”.
Google puts limits in place to ensure kids don’t push themselves too hard. She collaborated with “independent experts on child psychology, public health, privacy and digital well-being”.
Meanwhile, Google continues to take inspiration from Nintendo’s old cartridges with a patented tape mechanism that loads new virtual content such as different items, styles, rooms and activities of the “Noodles” ring. You don’t need to be on the bandwagon to access this content. As such, Google envisions kids swapping bands to get more content in a nice playground/social aspect that allows the technology to be more tangible. I love this tactility as well as the pouch-like packaging.
A thoughtful but limited Fitbit
The Fitbit Ace LTE isn’t really meant to be a full-fledged fitness tracker with less activity tracking than previous models in the Ace line of fitness trackers. For example, the parent Fitbit Ace app only shows 30 days of activity, with Google directly deleting the data from its servers after 35 days as part of its core data minimization goal for the product.
The main stat is the movement target, which is displayed as a “Noodle” activity ring around the watch face. Other available metrics are Active Minutes, Steps, Floors and Heart Rate. There’s no sleep tracking, Google encourages kids to take it off and charge it while they sleep, and even “rewards” them through software for remembering to charge their watch.
It’s not a full Fitbit in that regard, and I hope Google considers that. After all, Google Research has clearly put in the work to make this an accurate fitness device for kids by redesigning the sensor algorithms for them instead of just using the adult version.
The versatile Google
Most of the smart watches for kids that are often sold by carriers are not very powerful. Google is largely matching the Apple Watch SE, using existing Pixel Watch 2 hardware and Wear OS for this project.
Swipe down to see Quick settings like battery percentage, screen brightness, ringtone on/off, and Do Not Disturb mode. Swipe up to access notifications such as messages from set contacts and goal completion updates.
Swipe left to access your eejie’s virtual world. Swipe right to see a dashboard that shows your eeji’s face, what level you are at, the number of arcade tickets you have, as well as your daily quest progress. Arranged like tiles, you can return to your watch face with another swipe.
There are two buttons on the side. At the top, you’ll get to Call & Message, where you’ll get an approved contact list (up to 20), day/date, and a list of basic fitness stats, while Google Wallet will arrive in an upcoming update. The chat UI is essentially Google Messages for Wear OS, although the Ace LTE uses an IP-based backend for messaging and calling. The bottom button starts the carousel of games.
The target audience is kids aged 7+, but the guided one-tap calling and messaging feature, as well as location sharing, seems useful for everyone. Speaking of placement, Google notes the patents when the Ace LTE is in place but not currently being worn.
If you’re 13 or older, you can set up Ace LTE on your own phone to receive basic app notifications.
You need an LTE subscription to set up Ace LTE for the first time. If you stop paying, step and activity tracking will still work with an available Wi-Fi connection, although these settings are beyond the scope of the design-level software. This means the full Wear OS Settings app is available.
Kids’ wearables are a fast-growing segment, especially for those who aren’t ready for a smartphone yet.
Google’s usual strategy is to launch a core set of features and then add more via updates. In comparison, the Ace LTE feels like a complete story. It must be since the bar for anything you give your kids to make sure they are safe and sound is so high. Frankly, this is refreshing for Google users.
The end result is a product that tries something new with a lot of whimsy and versatility, even for someone outside of the target audience. The Fitbit Ace LTE costs $229.95 + monthly/annual subscription and is available for pre-order on the Google Store as well as Amazon ahead of general availability on June 5th.
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