Google Fitbit Air review: like a festival wristband, but more subtle
4/7/2026
Translation: Elicia Payne
I’m not a fan of smartwatches – they’re bulky and the displays always distract me. The Fitbit Air doesn’t have a screen, isn’t as bulky and lasts an entire week, which is great for when I work out and go to festivals.
Finally, a fitness tracker I can wear at night and on holiday – without getting distracted or having to worry about battery life. Instead of seeing all the data on the wearable itself, I can view it in the Google Health app. The paid AI coach has its quirks, but it’s more likable than my Garmin watch, which is constantly complaining.
Design, hardware and ergonomics
When I first put on the Google Fitbit Air, I was surprised for a second to find it was thicker than it appeared in the product photos. But that soon stopped bothering me. In fact, I hardly noticed the soft fabric strap in everyday life, and found myself wearing it while drawing, sleeping and partying at concerts. My Garmin Venu 3s annoys me in situations like that, so I always take it off.
The fabric band with the lightweight metal strap can be worn on wrists with a circumference of 13 to 21 cm. For everyone in the Community who’s already asked me: the strap is big enough for my ankle. However, the data isn’t accurately measured if you wear it there. When counting steps, for example, the tracker interprets foot movements differently to a swinging wrist motion. The strap also needs to sit snug against your skin, which is more difficult around the ankle. So I recommend wearing it on your wrist.
The tracker records your heart rate every two seconds. I found it collects readings during workouts that are comparable to those from my Garmin Venu 3s. Like my Garmin, the tracker’s waterproof up to 50 metres.
The Fitbit Air stores one day’s worth of workout data, seven days’ worth of detailed activity data, and the daily summary for 30 days. The app stores the information as soon as your phone connects to the tracker via Bluetooth.
After seven days, the tracker vibrated, and I received a notification on my phone that said: «The battery will last less than 24 hours». So I plugged the magnetic charger in and popped my tracker on top. It took 90 minutes to charge, and then I got another push notification on my phone telling me that the tracker was ready to use again. The seven-day battery life isn’t outstanding for a tracker without a display, but I still think it’s very practical for everyday use.
The app is the centrepiece
Since the Fitbit Air doesn’t have a display, I checked all the data it collected in Google’s free Health app. But you have to pay for the personalised Health Coach — more on that to come. Google revamped the app when the tracker was first released and in doing so combined the apps Fitbit and Google Health.
That’s not to say Health is perfect – in fact, not everything’s clearly organised, or at least I can’t find some stuff right away. But compared to my Garmin app, it’s extremely well organised. And you can customise the display. For example, if you’re focusing on calories burned and steps, you can move those tiles to the very top of the home screen.
In addition to the daily overview, you can switch to three other tabs: Fitness, Sleep and Health.
In the Fitness section, there are training suggestions for various sports. Since I prefer to do my own gym sessions, I don’t need them. But they’re nice for inspiration or cool 30-minute home workouts. This is also where you’ll find your most recent activities and various metrics, such as calories burned, resting heart rate and distance travelled.
In the Sleep section, you can see your bedtime, deep sleep phases and sleep efficiency. If you have trouble falling asleep, Google offers music to help. These range from relaxing sounds to bedtime stories. The length of the pieces vary from ten to 60 minutes.
In the last tab, Health, you can find an overview of your workout days and more personal information, such as your weight and cycle entries. You could also upload medical information here that you’ve received from your doctor, such as vaccination records, lab results, etc. However, you’d need to find the specific doctor on the list first. Unfortunately, the list isn’t particularly long yet and excludes Switzerland, among other countries. Personally, though, I don’t need that either.
Everyday test: from the gym to the festival stage
While I use my Garmin watch specifically to tell the time and track my workouts, the Fitbit Air from Google does a whole lot more on the side. For example, I randomly came across a cool dance video in the evening and spent an hour practising the choreography. Here, the tracker detects my movement and records it as a dance workout. In this case, my Garmin would have either not detected anything or nagged me to get my butt in gear.
The tracker also helped me focus on my workout at the gym. I could just start the workout through the app, and it will show me, in a simple way, how long and how intensely I’m currently working out. I don’t need anything more fancy. After I’m done, I’d get detailed information about my fitness level and things like that. What’s confusing here is that the Fitbit Air once classified a gym workout as lacrosse practice. It’s hard to believe it can make these kind of mistakes when I’m the one who chose the sport.
Since I hardly notice the tracker and it lasts a week, I now know that I actually slept better during a festival weekend than I did the week before. Perhaps down to the more than 20,000 steps a day and all the dancing in front of the stage? Whatever it is, I like being able to get all the information without having to actively think about recording it – or get annoyed by an inconvenient timer.
Your Health Coach: personalised plans
You can use the health features I’ve already mentioned – such as heart rate, sleep tracking and calorie tracking – for free via the Google Health app. If you want to use the Health Coach, you’ll need to activate a plan – three months are included with the purchase of the tracker, after which you’ll pay 100 francs or euros per year.
Health Coach is an AI health coach that provides you with personalised workout plans and tips. You can discuss results and future goals with it, using natural language. Through the Health Coach, you’ll also receive a brief overview of your current well-being and tracking data two to three times a day as a push notification. It also includes weather data, sleep and past workouts.
For example, one morning I got a quick greeting and a suggestion that, since the weather is so nice in St. Gallen, I should move my workout outside. Since I mentioned in the chat at the beginning which sports I like, the Health Coach included that as well: «Today would be a good time for a jump rope session – and you should drink plenty of water, since it’s going to be pretty hot today.»
The coach will also ask how I’m feeling and what my goals for the day are. You can reply with a text or a voice message, if you want to. The tips and ideas are good, even if they’re often repeated. Sometimes, however, the weather or the unit of measurement for temperature’s incorrect. Or the app’s too slow to update the location, or it suddenly starts sending messages in something that looks like Swiss German.
I really like that you can report errors via chat so the coach can correct the data. When I forgot to track my hike and didn’t want to wait for it to be added in the evening, I told the AI via the app. I also asked it to break the hike down into breaks, kilometres and step counts for each stage. That way, I had everything I wanted to know right there in writing.
In a nutshell
Not distracting and comfortable
The Google Fitbit Air is a comfortable and stylish tracker. I finally have a wristband to track my sleep data and can complete a workout without getting distracted by a display. In the app, my past workouts, sleep data and health metrics are all clearly visible.
Unfortunately, the Health Coach costs 100 francs a year, but it offers countless possibilities thanks to its natural language capabilities. It incorporates health data, location information and weather data into its recommendations. However, the AI coach does make mistakes, and it doesn’t always recognise the correct sport during workouts. At least you can quickly correct them – even via voice message.
If you’re looking for a comfortable and affordable tracker that records your active daily routine or helps motivate you to lead a more active lifestyle, the Fitbit Air might be a good choice. The additional, paid Health Coach feature isn’t absolutely necessary, but it’s a helpful extra. The seven-day battery life is decent, but it’s not outstanding for a tracker without a display.
Pro
- Super comfortable
- No display — no distraction
- Easy error correction thanks to voice memos
- AI coach offers personalised suggestions and workouts (costs extra)
- Automatically detects workout
Contra
- Seven-day battery life only average for a device without a display
- AI coach makes mistakes and costs extra
- Workout detection sometimes inaccurate (incorrectly assigns manually selected workouts)
Header image: Michelle Brändle
Ever since I learned how to hold a pen, I've been doodling away in bright colours. Thanks to my iPad, digital art has also become part of my life. That's why I love testing tablets – from the graphic design range to the regular kind. When I feel the urge to express my creativity without lugging lots of equipment, I go for the latest smartphones and start snapping away.
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