Fitbit messaging: How to receive messages and send replies from your Fitbit

Messaging on Fitbit devices may be rudimentary, but it's still extremely useful. Here's how to use it.

Published on February 7, 2024

Fitbit’s early smartwatches lacked some “smart” elements like messaging, but in 2018, the company addressed this by rolling out messaging capabilities to the original Versa and Ionic. Now, messaging support through quick replies and voice replies has become standard on several Fitbit devices. In this how-to guide, we’ll take you through how to set up messaging on your Fitbit, how the feature works, which devices support it, and more.

Fitbit messaging: How does it work?

Fitbit’s messaging features remain relatively rudimentary but still quite functional. Unlike Wear OS, Fitbit users can’t type out lengthy replies on their devices. The devices lack dedicated keyboards. Instead, Fitbit uses quick replies, letting users swiftly respond to messages through preset text or emojis. Fitbit also supports audio-to-text replies, but only a few devices sport this feature. You can also connect Fitbit to iPhone and reply to messages sent from an Android phone.

How to activate message replies on Fitbit

Now that you know how Fitbit handles messaging, you must know what you’ll need to use it. For starters, Fitbit’s messaging system is entirely reliant on notifications. You can’t initiate a message on a Fitbit, but you can respond to messages received via notifications. If you don’t enable notifications, you won’t be able to use Fitbit’s messaging features.

How to activate notifications on your Fitbit:

1. Open the Fitbit app on your phone.
2. Tap the Devices icon at the top left of the screen.
3. Select your device.
4. Tap Notifications.
5. You can select primary apps for Text Messages, Calendar Events, and Emails on this page. You can also choose the apps for which you wish to receive notifications by tapping App Notifications.

Fitbit will display notifications for all apps that support notifications on Android, but only some apps support quick replies. These are apps that support in-notification replies on your phone. So, any app that can reply from your phone’s notification shade should work with quick replies. These include WhatsApp, Google Messages, Facebook Messenger, Slack, and other chat apps. Some social networking apps, like X (formerly Twitter), also support the feature.

Quick replies are automatically activated for supported apps. If you receive a notification from a supported app, you can select between five default responses, several emojis, or use a voice message to reply directly from your Fitbit.

For unsupported apps, you’ll still have the option to open the app on your phone by tapping open on the Fitbit notification.