3 Minutes
For months, Fitbit’s future has felt like a quiet rumor more than a product roadmap. Now the picture is sharpening fast. Google confirmed last October that new Fitbit hardware was on the way in 2026, but the company kept the details under wraps. According to a new Bloomberg report, that mystery device is not a smartwatch at all. It is a screenless Fitbit band, built to take on Whoop head-on.
And there is already a very public test driver. NBA star Steph Curry, who serves as Google’s Performance Advisor, appears to have been wearing the device in plain sight since January. He teased it on Instagram in March, showing off a light gray fabric band with orange accents and no display anywhere on the wrist. His caption called it “the first of its kind,” with a promise that it was “coming soon.”
That sounds like marketing speak. But the wear time tells a different story. Droid-Life reviewed footage of Curry over the past few months and found the band on his wrist during warmups, at the All-Star Game, and throughout March. The only time it seems to disappear is during actual games, which makes sense if the NBA has rules that keep it off the court. Either way, this has gone far beyond a one-off teaser.
A Fitbit built for the wrist, not the display
The concept is simple, and that is exactly why it may work. Bloomberg says the band will rely heavily on the phone for most of the experience, while more advanced health insights will sit behind a Fitbit Premium subscription. That is the same broad model used by Whoop, where the hardware stays minimal and the software does the heavy lifting.
Droid-Life also spotted what looked like a redesigned Fitbit app running on a Pixel phone during one of Curry’s workouts. The interface reportedly showed live cardio load, heart rate, calories burned, and elapsed time under a “Sport” activity label. Current Fitbit software does not normally offer that kind of real-time view without GPS involved, which strongly suggests Google is building fresh software around this new band rather than simply repackaging old features.
That matters. A lot.
Google has spent the past couple of years nudging Fitbit away from the smartwatch race and back toward its original identity as a fitness tracker brand. A screenless band focused on recovery, sleep, training load, and long-term health trends fits that strategy almost perfectly. It is less about checking notifications and more about reading your body.
No launch date has been announced yet, but the pieces are starting to line up. Between Bloomberg’s reporting and Curry’s long public run with the device, Google may be closer to unveiling its next Fitbit than anyone expected.
Comments
Reza
Is this even true? Phone-dependent tracker and behind a Premium paywall sounds like Whoop 2.0. But how accurate without a display, and will teams even allow it during games? curious
atomwave
Wait seriously? Fitbit going screenless and using Curry as a test pilot is wild. Could be brilliant for recovery nerds, or just another subscription trap... if the app does all the heavy lifting, battery and sensors gotta be top notch tho
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