Fitbit Charge 5 and Luxe Can’t Sync With Samsung Phones on Android 13 – CNET [CNET]

Fitbit says a fix is coming in early 2023.

The Fitbit Charge 5 and Luxe are unable to sync correctly on Samsung Galaxy phones running Android 13, according to a report from 9to5Google Friday.

Threads on the Fitbit community forum show people unable to sync their Charge 5 and Luxe devices on Samsung Galaxy phones. A Fitbit moderator replied saying, “Our team has identified the root cause of the bug and we are working on a fix, which we anticipate releasing via an app update in early 2023.” At the moment, Fitbit recommends users sync to another phone that can install the Fitbit app to try syncing or setting up a device. 

Samsung and Fitbit didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The wearables industry continues to push impressive numbers, with 41.7 million devices shipped globally earlier this year. Apple remains the largest individual player thanks to its Apple Watch, although its devices only work with the iPhone. This means that both Samsung and Google-owned Fitbit are important players in the Android market in the US. 

With the Pixel Watch, launched in October, Google is starting to slowly integrate more Fitbit features into its own watch. The search giant also partnered with Samsung in 2021 to integrate its Wear OS with the Galaxy Watch series. While Apple enjoyed a healthy 36.1% global market share as of the first quarter of 2022, Samsung and Fitbit sit at 10% and 2.7%, respectively, according to a May report from Counterpoint Research.