Why do they even bother? This is going to hit the front page of every health/fitness/cycling/running blog site, there will be a big stink for a few weeks, then Withings will quietly (or loudly, "we've heard you!", as if they were listening in the first place) get rid of it. And they'll waste all this time, money, and customer goodwill for nothing, because no one could have possibly seen this backlash coming.

Doesn't matter to me, neither their POS blood pressure cuff nor their scale will sync to HealthKit anyway (oh, how I've tried), I'm not losing anything. So stomping my feet with "I'm never buying another Withings product!" won't make any difference, I was not going to buy their POS products again anyway. :-)

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moduspol an hour ago | parent | next [-]

I dropped my Withings stuff after constantly dealing with inconsistent syncing behavior. I got a body fat percentage weight scale and a blood pressure cuff from essentially no-name brands on Amazon, and both sync instantly every time. The blood pressure cuff doesn't even require me to have the app open on my phone.

Tough to beat compared to Withings' system, which seemed to rely on everything going to the cloud, then going back to your phone, THEN Apple Health, if you're lucky. With each of those steps being on whatever interval it decides.

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js2 18 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This change sucks (but as a long time Withings user doesn't affect me... for now), but I haven't had trouble with either the scale or BP cuff syncing to Apple Health. I don't have any suggestions besides double-checking the Withings app has permissions to write to HealthKit. I don't see any settings in the Withings app itself besides a prompt to check "Settings > Privacy > Health > Withings App".

Sorry if this isn't helpful.

Aside: all BP cuffs and their apps sorta seem to suck when it comes to sync. I also have an Omron. At least mine measure accurately. Make sure to validate yours with your GP.

	▲	PaulHoule 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		... the process of validating the accuracy of my home BP monitor reminded me of the Physics 510 lab I did in graduate school! Omrons do their primary job well but you run into the "IT is where great brands go to die" phenomenon that you run into everywhere -- like the stay I had at a Hilton where the staff was great but between bad wiring and bad React apps the IT experience was shoddy... Staff would be held accountable if they did a bad job but problems with IT are treated like the weather, something nobody can do anything about.

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nunez 17 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Because people will pay; that's why.

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notatoad 14 hours ago | parent [-]

Will they though? I can get a brand new scale for less than $99 that has apple health integration.

Maybe some brands can command a $99 annual fee, but has withings got some loyal fan base? Seems unlikely for a third-tier fitness gadget company.

	▲	afavour 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Will enough people pay, is the question. Yes, they’ll lose some sales. But if they make it up in subscription fees they won’t care.

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joquarky 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Apology ads are the bees knees these days, so that checks out.

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nikanj 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Because the expected lifetime value of the $40 scale sold just shot up to well over $200. If 50% of customers stop buying the $40 scales and the other half start paying $99 annually, this is an absolutely no-brainer from a revenue perspective

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wat10000 18 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Will they get rid of it? It seems more likely that they'll do damage control to wait out the news cycle (the official comment on the linked post is an excellent example of corporate deflection) and change nothing.

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Hamuko 19 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I used to have issues with my Withings scale not syncing to HealthKit, but I just checked and it had all of my weightings in there just fine. Can't even remember the last time I checked the Withings app.

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mattmcknight 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

they work great, who needs healthkit? been using them for 10 years without it.

	▲	brookst 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		If all you want is the one mesasurenr, no reason to use HealthKit. If you want to graph resting heart rate against steps per week over a year or two, that’s when HealthKit adds value. Or if your blood pressure cuff and scale are different brands and you want to see combined data.

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slantedview 15 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> Why do they even bother?

It's what they were taught in business school.

	▲	lancewiggs 15 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Not at a good one.