GoKawiilRita El Khoury / Android Authority
I’ve had the new Google Fitbit Air for about 10 days now, and from the moment I unboxed it, I’ve been wondering what it brings to my use case that my daily-worn Pixel Watch 4 doesn’t already provide. There’s the longer battery life and the quasi-certainty of knowing that, even if I forget to charge my watch on a busy day, I can still track my sleep or activity. There’s also the added freedom of sleeping with a lighter, less intrusive tracker on my wrist. But I wanted something more out of it.
This is when I started thinking about the early days of Fitbit and how some people used to wear the One, Zip, or Flex around their ankles to count steps while exercising. And that made me realize I could solve one of my biggest Pixel Watch 4 problems with the Air. So, I started testing.
Have you ever worn an activity tracker around your ankle? 18 votes Yes, all the time. 22 % Yes, I've done it a few times. 11 % No, I've never tried that. 44 % I never had a tracker I could wear around my ankle. 22 %
Why I wore the Fitbit Air around my ankle
One of my most frequent home exercises involves walking on a Walking Pad A1 (a foldable treadmill) while I’m working on my computer. It’s a very light exercise at around 2.5-3 kmph, since I can’t bob up and down at higher speeds while keeping my eyes level and reading my computer screen, but it’s a good way to be less sedentary while working long hours in front of a computer. It also lets me get in some steps, no matter the weather.
Because my wrists are mostly steady while typing — just like they would be for anyone gripping the side rails of a regular treadmill — and not swinging back and forth with every step, my Pixel Watch 4 has immense trouble detecting any of those steps. I’ve tried using my phone in my pocket to count the steps, but it never worked well enough. I tried using Health Connect to sync my stats from my Walking Pad’s KS Fit app to my Fitbit app, but it’s limited to one phone or tablet, and since I use my tablet as a fitness dashboard while all my fitness is on my phone, it ended up being a convoluted mess. Not to mention that, for some reason, Google Health is no longer reading some third-party steps data these days, despite it appearing properly in Health Connect.
I don't think I'm the only person who walks on a treadmill and barely moves their arms while doing so. Where do I get my steps, Google?
My ideal solution was always to force my Pixel Watch to detect those steps even when my arms weren’t moving. The March 2025 Pixel Drop was supposed to make that a reality with an improved algorithm that detects when you move without moving your arms too much, but the changes were too aggressive in detecting anything as a step, so Google had to roll them back.
Which brings us to the Fitbit Air and my ankle. Finally, I had a tracker that can technically be strapped to my ankle and works with my Pixel Watch 4. Having both in the app was essential because I didn’t want to give up all the smartwatch features. So I decided to test it on my treadmill.
... continue reading