Re: What can't you do on Android WITHOUT a Google Account set up in the OS?

Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:

VanguardLH <V@nguard.lh> wrote:
>

When I did have the app, I never had to activate the device.  I just
paired the device to the app, and that was it.

 
You can't pair to the app without a Google account.  'Sign in' is the
very first screen.

Probably because Google decided to require registration of the devices,
and the app is of no use unless it gets paired to a device.  Seems
overreaching to require registration of the devices that the user paid
for.  This is not the situation where the devices are Google's property.
But their app is.

Google completed the $2.1B acquisition of Fitbit back in the start of
2021, but haven't required switching from a Fitbit account to a Google
account until 2025 (which is now).  2 years after acquisition Google
decided to discontinue the Fitbit smartwatches.

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/why-google-quietly-discontinuing-fitbit-170315663.html

So, what of the $2.1B is left for the Fitbit product line?  Just the
health trackers?

Despite now mandating a login to a Google account to just install the
app, users are complaining the app doesn't stay logged in.  They have to
repeatedly re-login.  With all the troubles reported with the
Google-ized app, seems Google is also trying to kill off the rest of
their $2.1B outlay by killing off the other Fitbit devices in making
them too difficult to use with the app.  Of course, fucking up the app
only affects those that feel compelled to use the device with an app.

I got spared the mandatory login requirement.  Fitbit decided to up the
minimum supported Android version, and I wasn't buying a new phone just
to satisfy their moving requirements.  The Fitbit device still works all
by itself.  When I buy a toaster, I don't need an app to use it.  I
never used the app other than to play with it at first.  Interest waned,
and I uninstalled it.  Later when I decided to trial it again, oops,
latest version no longer compatible with my old phone.  Oh well, no loss
to me, anyway.