Farewell Fitbit? It looks like Google is killing the Fitbit brand — but not everywhere

Fitbit as a brand is coming up to its 20th birthday, but it may not be around for much longer. New imagery seems to suggest that the iconic Fitbit branding might be replaced with new, Google-centered branding (via Android Authority).

But it seems it won't be disappearing all at once, and may be hanging around in certain places.

Fitbit Premium is seemingly being replaced by Google Health Premium

This news comes from 9to5 Google, who spotted an unfamiliar logo on an international Google Store website. Found below a Pixel Watch 4's entry in the shopping basket is the option to add "Google Health Premium", along with a new icon that looks like a heart drawn in paintbrush strokes. The logo is in the familiar Google Play colors, and is clearly intended to match Google's app theming.

That isn't all 9to5 Google found. It also discovered mentions of Google Health Premium on the Apple App Store, of all places.

As you can see, it's nestled comfortably into the Fitbit Premium tiers, though, upsettingly, seems to come with a price hike for the annual payment, compared to Fitbit's previous offering. Of course, there's no indication these are the final prices.

These hints do suggest that Google is looking to replace the Fitbit app with a Google-themed one, and if the logo and pricing information is starting to leak out, a full rollout and announcement may not be far away.

In fairness to Google, the app situation has always been a little odd. Since Google bought Fitbit, it's been running the Fitbit and Google Health apps at the same time. That worked fine when the two companies were producing separate hardware, but as soon as Google started making the Pixel Watch, which runs using the Fitbit software, it became clear the situation was becoming a little confusing.

If this really is the precursor to Google folding Fitbit's software into Google Health, then a unified ecosystem branding will make more sense overall.

However, it may just be a software change, at least for the moment. A lot of Fitbit buzz right now centers around the Fitbit Air, a Whoop competitor that seems to be just around the corner. If Google is retaining the Fitbit name, it seems to be just for hardware. Fitbit hardware may well soon run on the Google Health app.

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None of this is confirmed yet, but it does seem as if this is the likely outcome.