Fitbit’s new premium subscription service hopes to sway you with personalized data, challenges, and more

Fitbit Premium is a new subscription service that will offer personalized goals, challenges, coaching, and guidance for paid users when it launches in 17 countries this fall. It will cost $9.99 per month, or $79.99 for a year, and it will work with all Fitbit fitness trackers and smartwatches. If Fitbit’s free app just isn’t quite enough data for you, or if you’re just not feeling enough encouragement to stick to your goals, the Premium service may be worth trying out.

Fitbit isn’t exactly new to subscription services. It launched its Fitbit Coach alongside the original Versa in 2018 for $7.99 per month, or $39.99 per year (Fitbit says Premium subscribers will get complimentary access to Coach, which consists of workout videos and audio coaching programs, and current Coach subscribers will automatically be upgraded to Premium for no extra cost).

Premium looks to be aiming higher, and though Fitbit is primarily known as a hardware company, this new software is a way for Fitbit to squeeze some extra money out of customers. Similar to Apple’s strategy of building services that are exclusive to owners of its hardware, Fitbit wants to build a service that keeps users loyal (and paying for services long term.) It’s an especially relevant strategy for Fitbit’s fitness trackers, which tend to offer more incremental updates that don’t always push existing customers to shell out for new hardware.

We haven’t had a chance to try Fitbit Premium yet, but we’ll dig deeper closer to its launch. Here’s what you can expect with a subscription to Premium when it launches later this year:

Detailed health reports: Fitbit worked with physicians to craft a wellness report, generated with charts and graphs by the service, that subscribers can print out and bring to their annual physicals. The goal here is that, thanks to the data collected by the fitness tracker and software, you’ll have an easier, more productive and transparent interaction with the doctor.

Contextual advice: Sometimes the needle on the scale doesn’t tell the whole story. Fitbit’s Premium service, like its free app, can measure all of the basic metrics, like weight and time spent sleeping. But the paid service can contextualize progress in some new, interesting ways. For example, if your resting heart rate drops, that’s a sign of progress, regardless of what the scale might indicate, and the service aims to encourage users with other similar insights. Fitbit also says that the service will dive deeper into features like Sleep Score. That new feature in particular is available for all users, but only Premium subscribers will receive more in-depth data.

Games and challenges: Premium will allow users to participate in challenges and games with other contacts, and notably, they’re highly configurable, so you can set the goal and the specifics for accomplishing the goal. The idea here is to level the playing field among your contacts, especially those who might normally be out of your league fitness-wise. All for One, for example, lets you set a simple goal, like just burning some calories each day or tallying a mile of walking in a day without worrying about the speed.

Premium wellness content: Audio experiences from the likes of Headspace, Daily Burn, and Yoga Studio will make their way to Fitbit’s Premium service, which is great if you need some company while you meditate or work out.

Something that’s not included with Premium is health coaching. This feature will be available in 2020. Through the Fitbit app, you’ll be put in contact with a certified health and wellness coach for personalized advice and guidance. Fitbit hasn’t shared the price for health coaching, though it said that its Premium service will be included with the cost.

Fitbit Premium launches this fall for all of its fitness trackers and smartwatches, and costs $9.99 per month or $79.99 per year.