Archive for August 5, 2026

Wednesday, August 5, 2026

Fitbit Now Syncs With Apple Health

Juli Clover:

Google Health (previously the Fitbit app) collects fitness, sleep, and wellness data from a connected wearable device. Steps, distance traveled, heart rate, sleep, and more can now be added to Apple Health. As noted on Reddit, some data such as HRV doesn't transfer over.

[…]

Syncing can be enabled after downloading the update by selecting Connections, choosing Apps and services, and then adding Apple Health.

My wife is a longtime Fitbit user. A few weeks ago, some family and friends started a friendly competition to see who could get the most steps. They’re all Fitbit users, too. Then she wanted to start comparing step counts with me, but I have an Apple Watch. I thought this would be no problem because the Health app has a sharing feature, and Fitbit and HealthKit have both been around forever. I was shocked to learn that there has never been any syncing. I don’t really understand the reason for this, as it seems like it would make the Fitbit more valuable.

It looks like the syncing part is now solved, but we still can’t automatically compare our steps. We’ve both tried inviting each other to share step counts and some other metrics multiple times over the last several weeks, and it has never worked. Either the invitation doesn’t arrive or the app just spins forever when trying to accept it.

Previously:

Mail Attempting to Sync Previous Recipients Despite Setting

Jeff Johnson (Hacker News):

Nonetheless, when I send an email in Mail app, from a non-iCloud account to an non-iCloud account, Mail immediately triggers an iCloud connection, as revealed by Little Snitch.

[…]

What could Mail be querying and saving in CloudKit when I’ve disabled Mail in iCloud?

[…]

As you can see in my screenshot at the beginning of this blog post, I have Contacts turned off in iCloud settings, so my Previous Recipients list should not be synced to iCloud. Nonetheless, I followed the commenter’s suggestion of logging in Terminal. I saw log messages that referred to com.apple.mail.recents, which might indicate Previous Recipients and would certainly explain why this happens when I send an email.

[…]

I do object to notifying Apple that I’ve just sent an email. That in itself seems like a violation of my privacy.

The settings are confusing, even more so than with System Preferences. If you go to System Settings ‣ Apple Account, it shows a round rect that says Mail and shows the Mail icon. If you click this, it lets you uncheck Sync this Mac for iCloud Mail. This mirrors the iCloud Mail checkbox that you get when you click See All to see the full list of apps. I don’t like how the top-level name and icon suggest that you’re going to a settings sheet for the Mail app, but then it actually gives you iCloud settings.

Importantly, there’s also another Mail checkbox in that list. It’s easy to miss because, first, why would you expect to see two Mail checkboxes?

And, second, it’s not obvious that there are actually three lists: a bunch of “favorite” system apps, in non-alphabetical order, for some reason including lesser ones like Freeform and Image Playground; followed by a second list of system apps in alphabetical order; and then a third list of alphabetical third-party apps.

Mail is in the second list, along with (to me) other top-tier apps like Books and Maps. Anyway, this second Mail checkbox controls the syncing of non-mail Mail data such as rules and smart mailboxes. But not, apparently, according to Apple, the previous recipients.

Previously:

Telegram Temporarily Removed for CSAM

Hartley Charlton (The Verge):

Apple briefly removed Telegram from the App Store on Monday night after a review found content that violated its guidelines against child sexual abuse material (CSAM), but restored the app a short while later, according to Reuters.

It seems like this was a symbolic gesture. Removing the app didn’t affect any of the customers who had already downloaded it. Probably none of them saw the image. And restoring the app doesn’t mean that it’s completely free from CSAM—probably none of the major platforms is. It just means that Telegram did the obvious thing after the violation was reported, which presumably they would have done, anyway.

Jeff Johnson:

They removed an entire app for ONE app user???

And before even contacting the developer? Telegram banning the account is what actually prevented users from potentially seeing the CSAM. Apple’s action seems like either a mistake or trying to send them a message.

I would note, by the way, that the Telegram app was apparently never removed from the Mac App Store. Which goes to show how little Apple cares about the Mac App Store.

Telegram:

I’m sure this stance will be applied equally to all other apps in the store, in the future right? @Apple

Pavel Durov (Telegram, MacRumors):

Because Telegram quickly removes illegal content from public groups using all kinds of moderation tools, the attacker had to resort to a technical trick. He inserted AI-modified illegal content by editing an old message in an active group chat. As a result the content was effectively hidden from the group’s members, preventing them from seeing/reporting it.

The attacker was a takedown extortionist: someone who demands ransom from group owners in exchange for not targeting their communities. These extortionists use automated accounts to plant illegal content in public groups and then report it directly to Apple, attempting to trigger the removal of legitimate communities whose owners refused to pay them.

[…]

Extortionists have found a way to manipulate Apple into overreacting. Apple removed Telegram from the App Store before contacting us. This creates a potential systemic risk for every mobile app that hosts user-generated content. If an app used by more than a billion people can be removed from the App Store without prior warning, any app can be.

Marcus Mendes:

During the time the app was unavailable, many speculated that the move was politically motivated, or perhaps in response to the recent discovery that Telegram has allegedly been using an obfuscated private UIKit API to animate its emoji picker.

It’s sad but kind of hilarious that both of these so disparate theories were considered possible. Durov really does have political enemies, and Apple really does seem to have it out for Telegram. But, also, using private API to animate emojis totally seems like something that Telegram would do and that Apple would overreact to.

Previously: