Fitbit App Gallery Guidelines

Last revised on August 10th, 2020

Fitbit encourages developers to create original content that will delight users and help them achieve their fitness goals. Applications and clock faces (collectively, “Apps”) that you create can be submitted for use on the Fitbit platform. To share your creations, you may submit your Apps for review.

All Apps, whether submitted for private use or submitted for public availability in the App Gallery, must follow the guidelines below in order to protect our users, you, and Fitbit. These guidelines may change over time and the determination of whether an App complies with these guidelines shall be at Fitbit’s sole discretion.

Apps that are submitted for publication to all users are subject to review by Fitbit--approval of your App is at Fitbit’s sole discretion, but if your App is not approved Fitbit will use reasonable efforts to provide an explanation to you. Fitbit reserves the right in its sole discretion to remove or suspend any App from the Fitbit platform, including Apps that are not shared publicly. You and your App must comply with the Fitbit Platform Terms of Service and Fitbit App Distribution Agreement, which include the terms under which you can access Fitbit’s developer tools and APIs, distribute your App on the Fitbit platform, and use of data from Fitbit and Fitbit users. If we have to suspend or remove your App, we may prohibit you from further developing for the Fitbit platform.

Your Content

Intellectual Property

You represent and warrant that your App will not infringe, or encourage or induce infringement of, the intellectual property rights of others, including without limitation any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright and other proprietary rights.
In our sole discretion, we may remove your App from the Fitbit platform if we receive notification that it infringes the intellectual property rights of others.

Fitbit Trademarks and Brand Assets

Your App must comply with Fitbit’s Trademark Policy and the Brand Guidelines provided in the Developer Portal.
Don’t use our logos or badges, in whole or in part, in your app icon, as part of your company logo, or to market your company.
Don’t use Fitbit or “bit” in the name of your app or your developer/company name.
Don’t pluralize the Fitbit trademark, use it as a verb, or abbreviate it.
Don’t use any Fitbit trademarks in a way that implies you or your app is sponsored by or affiliated with Fitbit.

Explicit or Abusive Content

Apps that contain or promote pornography are prohibited. This includes sexually explicit or erotic content, icons, titles, or descriptions.
Your App may not contain content that is vulgar, obscene, hateful, or otherwise objectionable.

Violence and Bullying

Depictions of gratuitous violence are not allowed.
Apps must not contain materials that threaten, harass, or bully other users or groups of people.

Prohibited Content

Your App may not include content that defames, slanders, disparages, demeans, harasses, or advocates against any person or group of people based on their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, sexual orientation/gender identity, or other characteristics.

Impersonation or Deceptive Behaviour

You may not pretend to be someone else or represent that your App is authorized by or produced by another person, company, or organization if that is not the case.
Your App may not mimic functionality or warnings from the operating system or other Apps.
Your App may not contain false, fraudulent, or misleading information in any content, title, icon, description, or screenshots.
Developers may not divert users or provide links to any other site that mimics or passes itself off as another app or service. Your App may not have names or icons that appear confusingly similar to products, features, services, or apps made available by Fitbit.

Illegal Activities

Your App must comply with all applicable laws and cannot perform or permit any illegal activities. For example, your App cannot enable the sale of prescription drugs without a prescription.

Gambling

Your App must not contain content or services that facilitate online gambling, including, but not limited to, online casinos, sports betting and lotteries, or games of skill that offer prizes of cash or other value.

Personal and Confidential Information:

Your App may not, without authorization from the user, collect, access, store, publish, or disclose any person’s personal or confidential data, such as Fitbit activity data, payment information, government identification numbers, driver's and other license numbers, non-public contacts or any other information that is not publicly accessible.

Children

Your App may not be directed to children under 13 years of age, nor may it knowingly collect information from children under 13 years of age.

Health and Medical

If your App uses sensitive health information; provides medical diagnosis of disease or other conditions, or aids in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease; or is otherwise a health or medical related app, it may be subject to additional review.
If your App requires any regulatory or legal approvals, you are responsible for obtaining those approvals and/or clearances.
You are responsible for substantiating any health or medical claims in your App. Fitbit is not responsible for any claims you make or advice you provide in your App, nor is Fitbit responsible for obtaining or validating any regulatory or legal approvals that may be required for your App.
Fitbit may require additional documentation regarding your App, and you will provide such documentation upon request.

Dangerous or Harmful

Your App may not harm, interfere with the operation of, or access in an unauthorized manner any Fitbit networks, servers, or other infrastructure.
Your App may not transmit or link to viruses, worms, defects, Trojan horses, malware or any other items that may introduce security vulnerabilities to or harm the Fitbit platform or services, Fitbit devices, other user devices, or other apps.
Apps that collect information (such as the user's location or behavior) without authorization (e.g., spyware) are prohibited.
Malicious scripts, password phishing scams, and any other means of circumventing security measures are prohibited, as are Apps that cause users to unknowingly download or install apps or software from sources outside of the Fitbit App Gallery.
An App downloaded from the Fitbit App Gallery may not modify, replace or update its own code using any method other than the update mechanism provided through the Fitbit App Gallery.

Copycats

You may not copy existing content from the Fitbit App Gallery except as explicitly authorized by Fitbit.
Your App should be different from existing content and offer significant new value compared to existing Apps.

Technical Requirements

Your App may not:

Terminate unexpectedly.
Cause the Fitbit app to terminate unexpectedly.
Cause the Fitbit device to reboot.
Use any API that is not explicitly documented by Fitbit. If an API requires user authorization, you may not use the API without obtaining such authorization.
Abuse resources such as battery, network, CPU and memory.
Take longer than 5 seconds to start.
Block for more than 1 second. Network interactions should be represented to the user via a loading indicator.
Your App must work on all combination of Fitbit apps and Fitbit devices that are advertised as supporting Apps (including making sure that your App works with iOS and Android versions of the Fitbit app).

Design and UX Requirements

Your App must be capable of functioning on the user’s wrist-worn Fitbit device via a user interface that combines a physical buttons and/or touchscreen.
If your App requires a connection to the user’s phone, you must clearly indicate to the user when the phone is not available. Your App must support disconnection and reconnection during use.
All Apps (except games and clock faces) must follow the Fitbit Design Guidelines. Fitbit may reject content that does not use standard design components or that uses components in non-standard ways.

Description and Support

When submitting your App to the Fitbit App Gallery, you must:

Accurately describe your App’s purpose and functionality. If you are requesting special permission, such as access to a user’s activity data, you must tell the user the purpose of these permissions and how such data will be used, and you may not use the data for any other purpose.
Provide a link to a Privacy Policy if you collect, access, transmit, or store any user data.
Provide a way for users to contact you.
Provide accurate screenshots within the description of your App.

Fitbit Requirements

After you sign up as a developer, we may use your Fitbit email address to contact you, and you shall use reasonable efforts to respond to a request from Fitbit’s team within 3 business days.

You authorize Fitbit to use the name and screen captures of your App to promote Fitbit products, the App Gallery, and your Apps.

Spam

Do not post repetitive content.
Do not use irrelevant, misleading or excessive keywords in the descriptions, titles, or metadata for your App.
Developers must not attempt to change the placement of any Apps in the Fitbit Gallery or manipulate any product ratings or reviews by unauthorized means, such as fraudulent installs, paid or fake reviews or ratings, or by offering incentives to rate Apps.
Apps that are created by an automated tool or wizard service may not be submitted to the Fitbit App Gallery by the operator of that service on behalf of other persons.
You may not post an App where the primary functionality is to: (a) drive affiliate traffic to a website or (b) provide a view of a website not owned or administered by you (unless you have permission from the website owner/administrator to do so).

Ad Policy

We do not authorize advertisements within the Fitbit App Gallery or within your App, except that you may advertise within your App for other Apps that you have published and made available in the Fitbit App Gallery.

Paid, or Subscription based content

Your App may require a paid (or unpaid) subscription or activation to unlock some content or features; provided that the need for such subscription or activation is clearly communicated within the description of your App and that your App is correctly configured as “Paid” within the Gallery App Manager.
Once an App has been published as “Free” within the Gallery App Manager, it cannot be subsequently configured as “Paid”. However, a “Paid” App can be made “Free” so long as payment is no longer required.
Your App’s settings page within the Fitbit app may not be used to collect payment information, nor may the App’s settings page, or gallery description link directly to a website to collect payment information.
Your App must display a popup message upon first installation, indicating it is a “Paid” App, the cost, and trial duration, if any.