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The Fitbit Ionic’s first major update adds new apps and watchfaces

The Fitbit Ionic’s first major update adds new apps and watchfaces

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Finally, a Flipboard Fitbit app

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Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Fitbit is releasing the first major update to the Fitbit OS software on its flagship Ionic smartwatch today, bringing a host of new apps and watchfaces to the fledging smartwatch platform.

Leading the charge are 14 new apps from major companies that have been designed specifically for Fitbit’s platform: Surfline, Clue, Game Golf, Hue Lights, Walgreens, Nest, Yelp, Flipboard, The New York Times, TripAdvisor, Uber, United Airlines, British Airways, and Lyft. Some of those apps (like The New York Times, Yelp, and Hue Lights) will be available starting today, but the majority are slated as coming “before the end of the year” or in January.

Fitbit has also designed three new watchfaces for the Ionic that are bundled with the new update: levels, threads, and mountainscape. Additionally, there’s a new Fitbit Leaderboard app, which lets users compare their fitness stats against friends and family directly from the Ionic.

Along with these official Fitbit apps and watchfaces, the company is adding a new spread of curated user-created apps to the Ionic, some of which the company is previewing here. (It must be said that they look more than a little like ported Pebble apps, which makes sense given Fitbit OS’s Pebble-based heritage.)

Lastly, Fitbit is adding a new early access testing program for the Ionic called Fitbit Labs, which will allow users to test out “experimental apps and clock faces.” The program launches today with two apps: a Fitbit Pet watchface that’s a little like a Tamagotchi, and an app called Think Fast that looks to test mental sharpness. Three more apps — a mood-tracking watchface, a tennis-tracking app, and a treasure-hunting game — are also slated to roll out in for Fitbit Labs testers later this month.