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I have a FitBit Inspire HR fitness tracker. I play Pokemon Go on my phone. Will the steps that the FitBit detects, get added to towards the distance covered to hatch eggs in the game, if I do not have my phone with me when I am walking?

I have enabled Adventure Sync feature on my phone.

I know that the fitness tracker does not have built-in GPS. However, I see that it has connected-GPS; which means that it can detect the location via the phone. But since I will not be having my phone with me when I am walking, how will the distance be counted? And then, how will this distance be recorded in the game?

I am asking this question because, without the phone, the FitBit will not be connected to GPS and Bluetooth to record data. So, will the game be able to see the distance covered?

Without the phone, FitBit will count the steps. But then, after I connect my phone back to my fitness tracker, will the accumulated steps get added to the game? (Example: Say I left my phone at home and walked for 10 km. Then, when I come back home, the tracker automatically connects to my phone (since Bluetooth is on), will the 10 km get added in the game and get deducted/go towards hatching of the eggs?)

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  • As I see it, Pokemon Go works via GPS and not via steps walked. This means, that as long as your FitBit has no GPS (because not connected to the phone), there wont be any distance added
    – XtremeBaumer
    Mar 21, 2019 at 15:12
  • @XtremeBaumer So, you are saying, I need to have my phone with me while walking to have the steps sync to the game.
    – Dashamlav
    Mar 21, 2019 at 15:26
  • That is how I understand the system, yes. I could be wrong as I have no sources/proof
    – XtremeBaumer
    Mar 21, 2019 at 15:33

3 Answers 3

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Currently, as of this time of answer, there is no integration with Pokemon Go Adventure cooperating with third party fitness trackers such as fitbit.

source.

"The current consensus is that ALL 3rd party fitness trackers will NOT credit distance towards weekly goals UNLESS they have native support for HealthKit or Google Fit (in essence, only the Apple Watch).

Fitbit uses it's own proprietary API that you need special licenses to integrate with. So it could come later.

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    What if I link my FitBit with Google Fit account - like it specifies here?
    – Dashamlav
    Mar 21, 2019 at 18:36
  • @Dashamlav There's a decent chance that will work. Pokemon Go links with Google Fit, so if your FitBit reads into that app, it could work like a tunnel to bring the distance over to Pokemon Go. I can't say it definitely will work, but it's worth a shot. Otherwise, you'll just have to carry your phone on your walks. Just having it in a pocket is enough for Adventure Sync.
    – Kadima
    Mar 21, 2019 at 21:22
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    I will try it out and post the result that I get.
    – Dashamlav
    Mar 22, 2019 at 1:31
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    @Dashamlav Transferring data from FitBit to Google Fit doesn't count for Pokemon GO. The data need to be directly recorded in Google Fit to count as steps for the game.
    – Xander
    Mar 22, 2019 at 8:03
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    @Xander I have not used the FitBit Plus app linked above as it is invite-only, but syncing the regular FitBit app with Google Fit via an app called Fit-To-Fit does actually work in Pokemon Go. I have confirmed this via hatching eggs and finding candies after walking with just my FitBit (and syncing). Do you have documentation from Google that their Google Fit app can differentiate between synced data and data that is directly recorded?
    – raumkrieger
    Mar 22, 2019 at 15:37
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After posting this question, I went ahead and purchased couple of devices as I wanted to find a working solution for this issue. I got:

  1. FitBit Inspire HR
  2. MI Band 3. I somehow couldn't find US version of the website. This is the Indian version. I ordered the band from Amazon.

I have Google Pixel 3 XL as my phone.

I did tests at my end and found got the following results:

  1. First, I started with FitBit Inspire HR fitness tracker. I had to download the FitBit App onto my phone. Since FitBit App syncs data to FitBit App, and does not sync data directly to Google Fit, I had to download a third-party app called Fit-To-Fit from the Play Store. As mentioned in one of the comments above, the Fit-To-Fit app syncs/copies the data from the FitBit App to Google Fit. Now, since the data has been synced to Google Fit, one would expect that Pokemon Go would add the data to the game. But that wasn't the case. Pokemon Go only takes data from Google Fit that is directly sensed/added by Google Fit app. It will not sync the data that is added to Google Fit via third-party applications. So, using FitBit was a big failure.

  2. Then, I used MI Band 3 as my primary fitness tracker. MI Band requires us to install an app called MI Fit to setup and sync the data. But, what I found here was that MI Fit application had built-in sync feature to Google Fit. In other words, one needs to connect our Google Fit account to MI Fit app and the data will be added to Google Fit and MI Fit simultaneously. But, this also did not solve the problem as even though the data was added to Google Fit by MI Fit app, Pokemon GO did not detect these miles/steps. So, this was also a failure.

Thank you @Rapitor for the source. He has mentioned this link in his answer.

It is understandable why Pokemon Go did not add data in both the cases (especially with MI Fit app directly syncing data to Google Fit). For Pokemon Go, MI Fit is also a third party app even though it directly adds data to Google Fit. So, I reckon, any fitness tracker that uses a proprietary app to sync data between the tracker and the phone, will not work with Pokemon Go. That is why I want to test out with a Google Wear OS watch, which add data directly to Google Fit. I am pretty sure this will surely worked as the data is directly added to Google Fit only since the watches are running Wear OS, but I have some doubts since Wear OS has not had a major change since a very very long time.

In the end, what I have been doing since then is that I am not wearing any fitness tracker, and I have been taking walks keeping my phone in pocket/bag. I am able to get miles added to the game even without running the game in the background. Most of you might already know this, but Google Fit automatically detects the steps even when you have not opened the app, or have any fitness tracker connected. So, if you are trying to cover miles while walking, and have this sinister plan in mind to add all those to the game so that the eggs can hatch, then make sure you have your phone in your pocket with the mobile data and location services switched on/enabled.

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  • Thanks for your research efforts. Assuming permissions are allowed, Google Play Services is responsible for tracking movement and sending data to your google account where Google Fit (service) can then process and push to Pokemon GO. Basicaly, this is a passive location tracker, and Google Fit (app) does not have to be installed. An active tracker - apps like Google Fit, MapMyRun, or similar - should be more accurate, but just verify that it will sync to Google Fit (service).
    – Jerry
    Apr 20, 2019 at 11:08
  • That's a good thought. We will have to test it out.
    – Dashamlav
    Apr 22, 2019 at 19:50
  • Would appreciate seeing your results! My few tests indicate that passive tracking sometimes fails completely, so I would rather use active tracking.
    – Jerry
    Apr 23, 2019 at 13:36
  • I have a MI Band 3 and use it with Pokemon Go and Adventure sync. On my Galaxy S8 it showed steps in Pokemon. On my new S10 it does not. It does, however, track all the distances. Since Adventure Sync was introduced I've got about 1,500km in the Pokemon account, but I hardly ever actually play. It's all from actively playing Ingress, and it works like a charm. Just the step counter in Pogo is showing 0, but it definitely sees the distance, collects loads of candy and breeds eggs.
    – simbabque
    Jun 10, 2019 at 16:26
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What you can do is connect fitbit with google fit. That way your Fitbit data will be synced to google fit and via proxy synced to pokemon go.

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