Pixelated - An Iconic Glow-up

Episode Date: May 1, 2026

Welcome to episode 98 of Pixelated, a podcast by 9to5Google. This week, Abner, Damien, and Will all sorts of recent exclusive reporting. From Google's upcoming app icon redesigns for Workspace — and, if Pixel is any indication, far beyond — to the upcoming Fitbit Air fitness band and its Google-ified partner app, there's plenty to talk about. Plus, we look at Samsung's upcoming Galaxy Glasses and wonder just whether they're the right pair for us. Sponsored by Proton Unlimited: Pixelated listeners can save 30% on an annual subscription to the company's suite of privacy-friendly services by signing up using our link. Thanks to Proton Unlimited for sponsoring the podcast. Subscribe YouTube Podcasts Pocket Casts Spotify Apple Podcasts Overcast Timecodes 00:00 - Intro and Google's icon redesigns 20:03 - Samsung Galaxy Glasses rumors 30:43 - Fitbit Air and Google Health leaks Hosts Abner Li Damien Wilde Will Sattelberg Read more Google’s new gradient icons for Gmail, Calendar, Drive, and other apps are radical redesigns Someone recreated Google’s new Gmail, Drive, Workspace icons for you to use early Samsung’s display-less Galaxy Glasses look slim and sleek in first leak Sources: ‘Fitbit Air’ is a screen-less Whoop competitor debuting with ‘Google Health’ subscription This is the Google Health logo that might replace the Fitbit app Listen to more 9to5 Podcasts The Sideload 9to5Mac Happy Hour Electrek Space Explored Feedback? Drop us a line at [e-mail], leave a comment on the post, or reach out to our producer. And for even more Android discussion, dive into the official 9to5Google forums!

Welcome to Pixelated episode 98. 98, wow. I'm your host, Will Saddleberg. This week, Damien and Abner join me to discuss our first leaked look at Google's new gradient icons coming to workspace apps. From the tiniest little touches on each of these new looks to what this says about design trends at large, there's a lot to unpack.

After all that, we look at Samsung's upcoming galaxy classes running Android XR before turning our attention back to Google's leaked woo competitor and asking, is it finally time for the Fitbit brand to die? At least on the software side. It's all coming up right after this word from our sponsor, Proton. Grab your phone and take a look at your app drawer right now. You've probably found yourself relying on these same old apps and services since the Nexus days.

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team, and so, so much more. It's what's best for your current phone, not whatever you were using back in 2013. Upgrade to Proton today and save 30% on your annual subscription by heading to Proton. Dot me slash 9 to 5 Google or by clicking the link in the show notes. That's Proton.combe slash 9 to5 Google. Thanks to Proton for sponsoring Pixel needed. So Google's decided that we need a rebrand for a whole host of our favorite applications, Gmail, calendar drive, all of those out there that we know and love. It's a bold, I think it's a bold re-envisioning of what we've kind of come to expect the past few years.

Absolutely is. Yeah, sources share this with us. And I don't know, if you haven't already seen these already, go check this out on the website because this is a big visual aspect of this pod today, sadly. But yeah, I'm loving the redesign. I think it's a great idea from accessibility. standpoint from the very first very get-go, as it were. So they're finally addressing that big complaint that all the icons are the same. So with the previous generation of icons, there was clearly a mandate that everything should

include all the four colors. But now we are moving away from that in a significant way. So out of what the dozen or so workspace icons that got a redesign and we shared, the only one that has all the colors is Gmail, and that kind of makes sense. We've seen the new Google Home icon. We've seen Google Maps. Those keep the four-color things. That's the Gmail is Gmail.

It's Google. Everybody knows that. But that keeps the main, the four-color motif. But even then, the good thing is that it's primarily red. That is like the takeaway color. And you associate red, Gmail and it works. It absolutely works. I mean, just look, I'm looking at the icons on my phone right now that what Google has had, what, currently currently have. So we have what dry.

Sadly, we don't get to see what find hub might look like, but I kind of think that's going to stay the same. These are mostly like Google workspace applications and the workspace suite. In terms of, in terms of abstract icons, I'm glad that they've gone away from that and they're trying to make things a little bit more, I guess, functional. Would that be the way to describe it will? I'm not sure. I don't know how you lean to it. Yeah. To me it's just you know I like these designs generally

speaking but I don't think Google could have done much that I would have disliked more than the icons these are going to replace. I have always disliked the both you know let's make every icon look roughly the same like for example

docs sheets slides are all like the same idea just blue green yellow with with different lines or boxes. It's like, and then everything is slapped on a white circle, right?

At least on Android. I've never liked it. I've always thought it was, it was really, it looked really boring when they first rolled these out. And in the time sense, we have gone through several more iterations

of, you know, material design and Google's design, in my opinion. And I think, you know, we've talked about it. So I feel pretty

confident in saying both of your opinions. Google's design chops have never been better. And I think the icons have always been lacking in that regard. And I'm not in love with these new icons or anything. I'm not like, you know, counting the days till they're on my phone. But I think they're an upgrade. I think they're like, I'm excited for Google to kind of finally lean into unique designs for their icons again because it's, it just, it's going to match their aesthetic, their general

aesthetic a lot better. I think when we look at it as like a product, like the idea of an icon being a minimal thing, I don't know when that became like a style choice. I do kind of like the idea that an icon represents how you would utilize it. So for instance, let's take, let's say the docs, sheets and slides redesigns or potential redesigns because I think they're clearly the most obvious way in which Google is diverting from there. I guess they were from the material era. It's, I guess you can say that the icons have never really aligned with whatever the general language is.

Yeah, they've always been kind of their own, which, which again is why I think they stuck out so hard specifically on Android, right? Like if you're, you know, if you're in Gmail on Chrome and you open the app switcher in the top right corner to jump over to docs or drive or whatever, like you don't think as much about how how because because there's not they're not all white circles it's just a quick menu but and it matches the aesthetic of a browser but on on android it's like well you guys have built like google has built this like you know first it was material you and then onto material three expressive and it's like both of those designs are really smart and fun and poppy

and all of their app icons are like here's a calendar it's a box with a number in it. Like, it never felt like a piece together. It always felt like, oh, like Android is one thing. And then I guess you just run Google apps on top of it. And I do think that like even just from a home screen perspective, right, like having Gmail on your home screen now will feel a little bit more in line with the rest of, with the rest of Android.

I mean, it feels like an Apple approach, doesn't it? And that when you pick up an iPhone, an iPhone, every single icon represents it. So people will know what the I message logo looks like. they know kind of at a glance about these things. And I do think that bringing that over is a good thing for these individual products. Because I guess when we look at it, these are treated as products by Google. You have Drive, which is its own in, like, stories solution that people are used to. Docs, which is probably superseded.

I couldn't even remember the name if it's Word, Microsoft Word, Excel. And what's the presentation software for called Microsoft? whatever it called, PowerPoint. Powerpoint. Yeah, like I think, I think Google maybe was trying to skirt a fine line of, we do offer these, and this is a way of them leaning into, okay, you used to the blue Google Docs icon, it looks like a document, Google Sheets is not a document,

it's a spreadsheet in a different way, it looks like a graph, it looks like a kind of a, I'd call it a minimal graph paper, and then you have slides which, to be fair, kind of just looks like the interface that you get when you're editing a slide, I think it makes sense to make things look like you would utilize them. And why it's taking this long to do so is beyond me a little bit. It's so, okay, so I'll be the nerd here. I'll do it. This is like a, this is a course correction from the last decade plus of, of UI design and

icon design, which, which in the early to mid-2010s, was kind of fueled by a, a, um, nose turning away from schmorphism and, and towards minimal flat aesthetics. You had your, your, Iowa seven's, your, your, uh, Metro,

Microsoft's Metro, which they have eventually had to drop the name of because of a lawsuit. Uh, and like, like, I don't know if Android never went like as flat as I think I, either Iowa 7 or Windows 8 was, But like, you can see it in these icons that they're very much like, they're uniform. They're flat. You know, Google has added some gradients over the last few years, but largely speaking, they have been these sort of relics of what I would say 2010's design looks like.

And this is sort of a, these are not all the way back to go look at the earliest Android icons or early, you know, back when it was still called iPhone OS icons, right? Like this is not all the way back towards the YouTube icon on an iPhone being a television, like an old television. But it's somewhere in the middle. I think it's a healthy balance of modern design with gradients and poppy colors, but at the same time also sort of trying to resemble the either look of an application, as you can see with like slides or sheets or, you know,

compared to docs sort of keeping the original icon that it has had for a while, just freshened up. Or the, you know, Meets always, I guess, had a video camera, but it looks a little bit more realistic now. Forms is huge, I think. Like all of these, I mean, even calendar, it just looks like it's actually flipping

as opposed to just being a box. You can see it on other platforms, other operating systems too, but this is sort of the current trend of, let's find a middle ground between these two extremes and see if that's sort of the future. You know, maybe that's,

the next decade of design and then 2035 will roll around. We'll be tired of this and get something new. I wonder personally if some of this design is derived from the fact that Gemini needs to be stand apart from all of their icons, like icons, say, on your home screen or your desktop, whatever happens to be, because it's almost like Gemini's Google's, it is their premier product, and it started to blend into those other app icons that all have to use the four, I guess, is it four colors or five colors in some instances?

Yeah. It definitely feels as though that's the way. I don't know. I've read into that wrong, Abner, I don't know how you would read into it. The common theme, these are all workspace icons and the ones like meet and chat dropping the colour, I do wonder if this going solo color is just a workspace-specific decision.

Then again, if you really think about it, workspace makes up most of the apps that people use regularly. But again, like that chap, that meat dropping the colors is really something. Like that so much so that why is the meat icon now yellow? I don't really know why. The chart one, green hangouts, that makes sense. But I do wonder if it's just specific, like if Google is just dropping these colors specific to the workspace.

But again, we'll have to see what other. icons outside of this end up pursuing. But colors aside, I think my favorite change that all Google icons should hope to adopt is just like just more unique distinct icons shapes. Because calendar is just delightful. It's going back to the original one that's been present for years. It is frippable.

It's just fun. Live even. I think that's the starkest one. It's really, I don't know, drive. It makes sense. It represents drive. It's clear. So, yeah, Google Keep.

I like Google Keep. It's a simple icon. But, yeah, I think this is a very welcome direction that I hope other Google apps start taking, that just unique shapes will go a long way. And gradient itself, like the gradient as Damien was willing to add, like, a fifth color most basically. And I think that's going to play out well.

Yeah. Yeah. So I think our home screens are going to get a bit more fun. And that's such a welcome thing. I think, I mean, when you look at it from a, from a design perspective as well, I do wonder how much of certain pixel application icons that have been added recently. So screenshots, journal. Journal.

I was just about to say this, Damien. Yeah, these feel like almost, I don't want to say rebuttals, but they kind of are. They kind of feel like Google has, yeah. Yeah, I would like the journal icon, you could, you could slap the journal icon in this image we have of the collection of workspace apps. And other than the fact that it's not a workspace app, I wouldn't blink. Like it fits exactly with this design. So on that, we haven't actually talked about that. But yeah, so the pixel icons, their motif is blue.

that's the overarching that's the mandate it's blue like we've seen the new now playing icon this slide gradient watch my pixel journal as we said

so yeah there is a clear motif there that's being enforced and I mean I the brew like pixel blue I don't know if I'd associate

pixel with blue but that's I guess the color they've chosen but yeah so it's good regardless like they are well just pixel blue but then all the messaging icons are also blue contacts messages phone so yeah a bit a bit more a bit more to go I mean I mean it definitely screams more of like I know as ridiculous as it sounds because these icons differentiate themselves and as I say separate these options and services that you use within Google product ecosystem.

It's kind of, because they are different, it almost screams cohesiveness and we're going to be moving in one direction now as opposed to why don't we make them all look the same because that gives the illusion off. We're all working together and these products and services are all under one banner. I don't know. I think we're probably overagging how much of differences is going to make to people's lives, but I imagine there's going to be a lot of people could complain. Things have changed too much.

Yeah. But I do like the fact that someone who's going to be. going to pick up their next pixel or they pick up a, if we ever get to see an Android laptop, these application icons might be there. And you're instantly going to know, okay, that looks like a chat bubble that I'm used to. The Google voice icon hasn't changed drastically. I think it's kind of a nice middle ground of re-envisioning, but keeping things the same so you know it. Docks, sheets and slides are instantly going to stand out. My only trepidation is that Google tasks is a checklist. I guess it's a checkmark. Are people going

instantly see that straight away? Yeah, that's the weakest one. That's absolutely the weakest one. Beyond that, I think it's, I mean, my beloved Google keeps getting a new icon, which I love. Anything to keep Google keep in the limelight is good by me. But yeah, I'm fascinated to see if Google starts to roll this out to more applications. But I do genuinely think there's something to learn from this. Before we move on, let me, Let me ask you both this. If you could pick one icon that is not obviously included in this workspace group, so any Google app, what would you want to see redone in this style?

Oh, that is a... What are you looking forward to, I suppose? Let's say the style's coming to everything. What are you looking forward to? Oh, that's a tough... That is really tough. I want to see what Google TV does. That's one of my two big ones, because TV right now is just...

It's just a rectangle. Maybe the phone app... Maybe the phone icon that's on pixel. I mean, it's very classic, but I don't mind that. Yeah, it's a tough one. I'd like to see good. For me, I always thought the pixel needed about the camera icon. Yeah.

It's photos for me. I've never liked the photos logo. I've never really understood why it's a pinwheel. I don't think there's a good reason beyond, I think it's like some sense of nostalgia, but that's not what I think. Now, I don't think though they would go away from the pinwheel icon as we can, you know, because like, otherwise I think they might have gotten rid of the light bulb for Google Keep and they kept that as the element.

So I'm sure that's sticking. But I don't know. I would love to see Google maybe. And I don't just want it to be a generic like picture of a designed picture of a flower, which I feel like is what the, you know, every other gallery out is. But I'd love to see them actually think about what photos is today and compared to when it launched. and how they could remake that. Okay, so the Chrome icon,

you can absolutely imagine what the gradient version of it is going to be. They're just going to remove the boundaries, make it more of a swell. I don't think they would go away from that. It's just iconic. YouTube music. Yeah, YouTube music grew big ones.

It looks like a record, doesn't it? It looks like a vinyl record, but I think a lot of people don't necessarily know that. That and remove the bloody white border. It's so point of a perfect circle. I call, oh, I hate it so much. I'm not in that level of hatred. I think it could be a little bit clearer,

but at the end of the day, I don't know how they would do it without just putting a musical note and then just returning the Google Play music icon, which a lot of people are really... It's just silly, it's silly because, like, Chrome doesn't have a white border on Android,

so like, why does he... Like, they're both circles. I don't get it. Yes. I mean, I guess they're trying to separate it from YouTube somehow. Different teams, I'm sure. too. Yes, but this definitely feels like a very big change to how we're going to see things.

And I think for the most part, it's going to be beneficial because that four-col, I can understand why Google wanted to have this cohesive four-color, like icon lineup. But in practice, it just doesn't work. And I imagine from an accessibility standpoint, it's pretty darn awful to have all things looking fairly similar and having a boxy aesthetic with various. Colors, but yeah, I guess we'll wait to see when this happens. We have no idea when this is going to roll out. Hopefully in the next few weeks, we might get Google getting a big announcement of this and maybe we'll see some more applications. As I say, we've got our fingers crossed. We see a YouTube

music redesign. But there is also, I know that somebody's already made an application icon pack that you can potentially test that out, but I don't think it's quite the same as seeing these in general. It's a bit of a cheap knockoff. But yeah, let's get into something really cool, though, because we've actually managed to see through leaks, potentially what Samsung's next galaxy glasses are going to look like. I mean, we're expecting them to be called galaxy glasses. They could be called something completely different. But these look almost exactly the same as any other meta or, like, glasses and smart

glasses that we've seen before. Wayfarers, Samsung logo on the side. I mean, it's by the numbers. I don't know. Is it something that you've either even interested in in terms of like wearables at this point? Yeah, so this is the stepping stone to the spray ones. I do think audio-only glasses have a place. But yeah, these are very straightforward by the numbers, honestly.

And this kind of took you guys this long to do this. But I hope the charging case is cool. Do you know what? It's not great when that's your take is like, I hope the charging case is cool. What stands up to me straight away is I feel like whether or not these are going to be better than what, and this didn't mean to rhyme, is better than what META can do,

is that having that huge Samsung logo on the side or a Samsung logo on the side instantly devalues these as a pair of wearables to me, like a pair of glasses. Rayban has a prestige. I've worn Raybans for a long time prior to META getting involved with them and making a smart glasses option. They have their own privacy issue,

that I guess we could get into a full podcast series about. But seeing a Samsung logo on a pair of glasses, to me, it just doesn't do it. It does not do it for me. I hope that they have some partners for this. They do. I'm sure they'll have someone like Gentle Monster. I know they're a Korean-

In Warby Parker, I believe, too. Right. But like to me, okay, the Samsung logo stuck out to me too, Damien, I agree with you. And I'm just realized now it's because every pair of glasses I've ever owned has whatever brand, the logo is on the end.

You don't have the logo on the outside of glasses. You have the logo on the inside. And I understand that Samsung is, these are, these are, to Samsung, these are a wearable, a gadget.

But if I were to buy them, they're my glasses. Like, I don't need to, like, walk around everywhere. Like, regardless of what I'm using them for,

if I'm even just, like, you know, going, going to the movies, like, I don't want to be like a walking billboard on my face for Samsung. Like,

that's ridiculous. Okay, there's one thing that I will say this potentially, and I just literally just come to my brain right now, I guess that could be good for people's privacy. I see the Samsung logo, you know there's a camera in the glasses. I feel like the camera's more obvious. Do you think the camera's more obvious? I feel like they're not as obvious. Seeing the meta glasses in person, they're not as obvious as I expected. That's not.

I think that especially the clear version, there's a clear pair, isn't it? I don't think you can really tell as much with those because this is obvious. I feel like maybe it's obvious. So this guy's a nerd. He's wearing a pair of Samsung glasses. Like maybe that might give it away straight away. But I don't know. Do we need these to be obvious, I guess?

Like, is there an expectation of privacy in a public space with something that's a camera like this? Or is it? I think they need, I think the fact that their smart glasses needs to be obvious when they're recording is what I would say. Like I, I know. I know it'll have an LED. I don't think. I don't know. I have very strong feelings.

about the idea that, you know, we're, I already feel a little bit like public privacy, to your point, Damien has, has diminished far beyond what it, what should be expected. I mean, like, I feel like once a month, I see a tweet going viral, um, of somebody just filming two people who are not even like,

in the center of like a public swear or something, just like being like, look at these two people doing this thing that like, I'm gonna make fun of even though it's not, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, that is sort of like, It's always been that way online, but I feel like it is very prevalent specifically on Eamon Musk's Twitter. Like it is it is more so than it used to be. And and to that point, like these like early smart classes have developed a reputation.

Like there was that viral story was like a month ago, about two months ago, something like of, I think it was a woman on a New York City subway just like, I think punching and then breaking the glasses of someone who was like trying to stealth record her. So, like, you know, these companies do have that in mind, I'm sure, which is maybe part of why the logo's there. However, I also just think Samsung probably just wants their logo to be on the glasses because they want you to, they want you to advertise that these are Samsung glasses. I mean, they look pretty run of the middle, though, don't they? They don't look anything spectacular. Other than the fact that the temples are a little larger than what you would usually expect, like, but even then, like, compared to some smart glasses, these look pretty, the temples look pretty slim. I, they are not like immediately like, oh, those are smart glasses the way, you know, even just two or three years ago, you know, you could always tell. Yeah.

Well, I mean, I don't know. Are you guys excited for this? So do you, I know that you are a little bit like me. Abna where it's like, this is a stepping stone. I don't think I want to even bother testing or using a stepping stone day to day. I want the, I want to go straight from zero to 100. I want the LED in the lens straight away. I don't care about a camera and being able to talk to Gemini until I can.

No, I only use Google Glass briefly after its heyday, but point of view, world-facing cameras are truly something to experience. They are so convenient, especially when you're doing something, an activity, so you can just take a picture without taking out your phone. So for me, that is why I will be getting these first generations, even personally, because I just miss that world-facing camera. To me, that's convenient enough. And I think the second use case is using them as a booth with headphones

so that you just don't have to put anything in your ear. I'm curious to see what that looks like made full-time. You don't have to put anything here. Yeah, it's just already there all the time. And a third, I think, Gem-I commands will, well, I think Gemini commands would be interesting if they're always there. But yeah, I think those are my three big use cases.

And on the camera discussion, I know I've said this before, but I think everybody's just pointing their phones everywhere. People are holding their phones up. You don't know if they're recording. You really don't know if they're recording what you're doing. I really don't. I think the hump to normalization for grasses is going to minimize.

It's going to fall. I just think cameras everywhere. Once you really think about it, I'm sure everybody is to record it hundreds of times a day because people are just holding their phones up and you never know. But I think that sucks. Like that's all that's... It does.

It does. I see what you're saying, but I just, you know, That doesn't mean I need to be like, let's bring more of this on. And I'm not saying like ban these or something. If anything. Yeah. Like what happens if the opposite happens? Like, okay, so these things have a light on it.

What if they're like people's familiarity with the light on glasses gets them to be put in phones? Like I know like Jinjipan, they enforce this, the camera click sound. what I can definitely see another somebody doing that like enforcing yes your phone has to have a light on it when it's recording that's yeah that's the that's what I would like like that that is my preferred like I think I think Japan on this policy has this figured out fairly well in terms of at least making it like very obvious when somebody around you is taking a photo of you and I think if we're if we're entering this world I would love to see that

you know, if not legislated, then certainly like sort of enforced by the industry, but I don't think the industry is going to enforce it. And I definitely is very little. I don't think Congress has gotten a lot done this term, but I don't think this one will be high on their priority list. Yeah, like if I can see the obvious backlash to it. If no, if not everybody's at the same time. Yeah. Yeah.

So it's just buy the other thing. I don't know. I guess it's a tricky subject. I mean, I mean, okay, so putting all of this aside, because there's not like an easy, obvious answer to this. It's just sort of thinking out loud about it. To get back to your question, Damien, of like, am I going to pick these up? I need to be because, and I know you wear glasses every day too, Abner, but because I am a glass is where I would like, I'm a little bit more skeptical about like adopting these because it's not just like replacing a watch, like with a smart watch. Yeah, it's, it's more. It's, it's, yeah, my vision is horrible.

It's like three feet in front of my face, it's blurry. So, you know, it is important for me to, to, I guess what I would say is I would want to see something. I need to see the feature that makes me go, yep, I need these on my face. And, and, but I don't take, I'm not a huge photographer. Like, I, it, for me, I don't think it is. I'm a horrible phone photographer. I just don't take my phone out and I'm doing stuff. A world facing camera will make it second nature.

But what am I, what am I take? Like, I only, 90% of the photos I take right now are of my cats. Like, I don't like, it's, it's just going to make it faster to take photos of my cats. I just, for me, the camera's not, I just don't see spending this money on a slightly more convenient camera. That will also not be as high quality as the camera in my pocket. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we don't know yet the full specifications for these.

I'm intrigued to see what happens with it. But I guess we'll probably find them out, find out more information the next few weeks. By the looks of these leaks happening, it seems that the launch seems pretty imminent. Maybe we'll hear or see something at I. Or I'd like to see Samsung talk about it. And if not, unpacked for sure. Yeah, definitely. But let's get into, we'll go back full circle to potential logo rebrands.

This ties into Google Health. We've seen a potential new logo rebrand that, I mean, we're saying it might potentially replace a Fitbit application, but tell me a little bit about this, Abner. So, yeah, a few things. So we know Google has been teasing a screenless Fitbit tracker. We reported that it is going to be called the Google Fitbit Air. Straightful enough name, Air, it's always popular.

and it's going to have a Google Health Premium subscription. So right now it's called Fitbit Premium, and I assume that means there's a Google Health app unless Fitbit does Fitbit app with Google Health Premium that I wouldn't put them. They might do that, of course. But I don't know. I think what we originally reported was that it's clear that Fitbit is staying for the hardware,

but it looks like it's going away for the software. And I think since now we've that seen this icon, this heart-shaped icon in the four group colors plus a gradient, yeah, I think it's like there's shades of Google fit in it, and I think it makes more sense for the Fitbit icon today. Yeah. Yeah, the Fitbit icon just really is it's the old low, LED lights from the original fitbit, isn't it?

It's supposed to be an arrow. It's supposed to be an arrow. Like the dots... Well, it's terrible. It doesn't look anything like an arrow. It's an arrow? Yeah. Like the dots on the light are bigger. Yeah.

No, I see... But this is not like when you notice the arrow and the FedEx logo. This is like... It's like, I guess it's pointing to the right if I swind, but I mean, I mean, either way, it's... This is a dated logo that...

That means nothing. thing to most people. And yeah, I agree with you, you know, wholeheartedly, Abner. This is like, this is a no-bra, like replacing Fitbit, the Fitbit branding in software is a no-brainer. There's, make this about, I think it's smart to kind of keep it on the, you know, athlete-focused side with something like the Fitbit air, they're, their Roop competitor that we've talked about. But, you know, I think on the software side, if you are making an app that is going to support both, Fitbit products, but primarily your pixel watch that you want people to, you want the vast majority of customers to buy. It makes sense to have the software Google focused and Fitbit works

with it and not the other way around. Yeah. I mean, when the re-acquisition was 20-20, wasn't it, for Google Fitbit, kind of makes sense that the slowly start to phase this into certain software elements to be housed by Google. But am I right in thinking there was some sort of like data contingency plan. Like they had to they had to keep the data for Fitbit owners for a certain period of time.

Something like that. Some international like your rate mandated that, but again, it's been six years. Yeah. I mean,

this definitely feels like the perfect opportunity for Google to push this out as like a product to people who are maybe heavily invested in Pixel still want to use their Fitbit and maybe we'll potentially

get a pixel watch or have a family member of Pixel Watch like on the line. But like, does this affect how people view the Fitbit application? Does that get like kind of amalgamated in? I don't know. Like, how would it?

I guess this is one of the things that Google needs to do more Paris. People do love Fitbit brand. So that it would be the obvious concern I have for the transition. The affinity with Google Health. It's, I know, Google Health is just, I mean, all Google products and services are named

this way, the thing it does. But there is such an affinity from Fitbit that I do think, I do hope that they're not shooting themselves in the foot with this because, yeah, Google Health. Yes, it says what it does.

But people love their Fitbit. It's 15 years of Fitbit or whatever. I hope they talk differently. Or is this did people like, people did love Fitbit? Like I just, to me, I guess like

Google has sort of I don't I'm not going to say they mismanaged the brand but they they they sort of didn't do anything to invest in the brand it's very nestee where I'm like I don't even think I understand why you kept this as a separate brand

because it's like well yes they have warm feelings so same with Fit but I feel like it is not as I they love it in the way they loved the iPod where it's like but the iPod's not around anymore and nobody nobody talks about how the app on your phone on an iPhone is called music and not iPod, right?

Like, I think it's the same idea here, except on an even grander scale, because I'm not, Fitbit was no iPod. I'm sorry to Fitbit. Um, you know, it's to me, I think, again, it's sort of, if you keep the Fitbit hardware around and then it, they're just like, by the way, this sinks with a, this sinks with Google health. The app is called Google Health now, but it's still, the hardware is still called Fitbit. I think that's enough for people who do love this brand to be like, okay, well, the thing I like is still around.

It's just that the software is named differently. And really quick to circle back around, Damien, I looked it up. So the purchase was completed at the beginning of 2020, very start of 2021. And then in September of 2022, they announced that Fitbit would have to, Fitbit users would have to migrate to using Google accounts by 2025. they then extended that to early 2026 as a final extension. So this is like clearly, you know, they've finished the migration as of like two months ago.

We're now going to get this like rebranded app. I think it like all lines up perfectly. Yeah, that kind of makes sense. And then it does look like obviously we've talked about it in a previous podcast. We're potentially going to get new hardware. We now know the name of the, the WIPP competitor. How do we feel?

I mean this looks like it's going to debut with this subscription and this is what is it Fitbit, Fitbit Air? Fitbit Air. How do we feel about that name? Do you think that makes sense? I kind of feel like, I don't know, to me it feels like an airline. Like if this is a Fitbit product and you're not going to name it like pixel band or something, then yeah, I think Fitbit Air is totally fine.

I think this is the first piece of hardware since the Fitbit A is LTE, right? So first new piece of, which is, which in and of it, itself is pretty odd, but at the same time, I guess it's a good shot in the arm. No one's intended there, but for like this fitness wearable. I mean, it kind of makes sense that Google would debut two products at the same time and be like, hey, it's still part of the lineup. I don't know. I mean, what do we think about everything else that they're doing with this potential piece of hardware that we've had a very, very brief glimpse at courtesy of Steph Curry? I don't think it's a Wu competitor. I think that's, I don't think Google.

competing there. It is not the M.O. to like target high, high intensity accruits and stuff. That's not their bread and butter. It's Fitbit is a mainstream thing. I don't, I don't think it's properly real competitor. I just don't. I think Google's competing to the mainstream audience, not that high athlete stuff. Yeah, but then advertising it with arguably one of the best NBA plays is a bit weird, isn't it? But then I guess he's a pixel ambassador, so the crossovers makes it even more, all the more strange. Yeah, that's true. I know he uses a fold. I don't think I've ever seen him in a pixel watch. Yeah, that's a good point, actually. That's a good point. Maybe that meant that he was the perfect candidate for this, if he's not willing to wear a smart watch of any kind. Which again,

that is an audience. That is an audience, people who will not wear a smart watch. Yeah. Yeah. I think is like a sensible i i think they are at least in some level competing with whoop even you know and we'll have to see how it the metrics it can collect how the entire experience is how whoop-esque it is but at least the design is obviously very whoop uh you know inspired uh and i think if you are looking at the smart watchless fitness tracker market it, right? I mean, you have Garmin at the high end. Those are basically smart watches. They are smart watches, but they're not, you know, running Android at the extreme high end. And then otherwise, it's like, yeah, like the charge six is still around for Fitbit, but like usually

if people are not buying like a generic insert smartwatch here, regardless of what the, what it is, they are buying a whoop. Like if they really want to go that direction, I think Woop is the top not smartwatch fitness tracker right now. So I think it does make sense for Fitbit to be like, okay, this is where the market has shifted. This is where those, you know, the Fitbit enthusiasts you're talking about, Abner, that have nostalgia for this brand.

I think they have, a lot of them did move to whoop. And I, it's smart for Fitbit and Google to try to get them back. Yeah. I definitely think this is a, whether or not it is a direct, an actual direct competitor,

or if it's like a sideways play, because I do genuinely think that this all, all hinges on the Google Health integration because I guess that gives you the opportunity to migrate to a smartwatch if you want it and I do think that is very sensible from Google to do that because there's no other... I mean I guess Samsung would be the only obvious brand

that would do something similar. They have. They do have one. I don't think it's a mass pocket thing. The thing I would say about the band and we mentioned Charge 6 just a bit, but going from a pixel watch to something like the charge 6, the feel is drastically different. It's so much more minimal.

But then again, I'd say that when people put something on their wrist, they want it for notifications. I do think it's good that they can experiment with this phone factor under the Fitbit branding. It kind of doesn't diminish what they're doing with the Pixel watch. Because if you had a pixel band, people like, why the hell do I need this? I think with Fitbit they can get away with it more.

A pixel bad. Absolutely, we need notifications. You need more smart stuff. Yeah, and how do you sell it as a non-WROS powered product? I think that would be very, very difficult for Google to do. I mean, I'll be intrigued to see how this works. Is it running on a version of some form of WareOS somehow? Low energy version or a minimal kind of siloed version of WareOS.

But I guess we'll hopefully find out very, very soon because it seems as though these information has come thick and fast. But yeah, I don't know if you guys have any extras that you want to talk about with the Fitbit Air, if you have any expectations. I just want to circle back around really quickly to that the binding commitment about keeping user data separate, because I also found this. So they said that to the European Commission in 2020, 10 years is what they said. They would not, they would keep Fitbit user data separate from Google systems and not use said data to target Fitbit users within the European economic area with advertisers for at least 10 years. I'm quoting from a Virger article from 2022. So maybe they don't launch this in Europe. I don't know.

We'll have to see, or maybe they've found a loophole. Or maybe they just don't care anymore. They're just going to run with it. But I am curious to see how that shakes out. Yeah, yeah. I'm interested to see how this plays are. I'm excited to see what this piece of hardware is

because I said, we don't have, we don't get Fitbit hardware very often. And so any new form of Fitbit is great, as I say, as an alternative to the kind of smart watches that we're all used to. Yeah, I think on the horizon,

IOS coming thick and fast, I'm sure we'll have more information about other things that are happening around Google. There's a lot going on at this time of year, which is kind of par for the course. I just want to say thanks for joining me, guys. I always will chat into you about everything from the weather to Google

to everything else in between. And icons has been a big kind of focus point for us today. Yeah, cheers for joining us guys, and hopefully I'll speak to you soon. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to Pixelated, a 9-to-5 Google podcast. If you enjoyed the show, we ask that you rate and review it on the podcast platform of your choice

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