Two years and six months after Nike(s nke) released an iPhone(s aapl) companion app for its Fuelband accessory, it was finally ported to Android(s goog). The app, called Nike+ FuelBand, became available Tuesday for download on Google Play.
In April, it was reported that Nike fired the majority of its Fuelband development team. Although Nike made a statement pledging to continue supporting and selling the FuelBand SE fitness tracker, released in November 2013, it was widely assumed that the news implied Nike was not going to release future versions or continue development. Taken in addition to Nike's historically close relationship with Apple -- the company was introduced as a partner for HealthKit during the 2014 WWDC keynote -- it was easy to assume Nike had no plans to develop an Android version of its FuelBand app.
Nike's Fuelband activity tracker requires a computer to sync physical activity data, and previously, was only supported on iOS and Windows(s msft) computers. So there were few consumers that couldn't use the FuelBand because they did not own the appropriate device -- if they didn't have an iPhone, there was a good chance they used a Windows PC. Whether the app coming to Android will convert potential customers who were otherwise on the fence remains to be seen.
According to the Google Plus page, the app works with any Android phone running Android 4.3 or above -- unlike Nike+ Move for the iPhone 5S, FuelBand doesn't need any built-in sensors -- but the app is optimized for popular flagships: The Galaxy S4 and S5, the HTC One, the Moto X, and the Nexus 5. If you've got one of those devices and you want to pair it with a FuelBand SE, pick up the app from Google Play.