Fitbit Edge Ships Without NFC, So No Tap-to-Pay on the Wrist
The Fitbit Edge does not include an NFC chip, so it cannot handle tap-to-pay contactless payments. Engadget reported the omission and Google's explanation for it. Google said fewer than one percent of Fitbit Charge 6 owners reported using NFC, and that this is why the feature was left out of the Edge.
NFC, or near-field communication, is the short-range radio behind contactless payment. It only works when a device is held within a few centimeters of a terminal.
The Fitbit Air also lacks NFC. The Edge carries a 1.34-inch AMOLED display. Google's own product materials describe it as the company's all-new smartest fitness tracker ever, and say it offers a week of battery life from a single charge and access to Google's most advanced health tools. Google opened pre-orders for the Edge at $179.99 on the Google Store, and said it would be available at retail starting October 27.
The omission is a change within the Fitbit line rather than a uniform policy. The Charge 6, Charge 5 and Charge 4 include NFC, as do the Sense, Sense 2, Versa 2, Versa 4 and later editions of the original Versa. All Pixel Watches come with NFC. Buyers who want a wrist-based payment device from Google can therefore choose a Pixel Watch or an older Fitbit model, while the Edge and Air offer no such function.
Payments on Fitbit hardware have also moved to a different service. Google shut down Fitbit Pay in 2024 and replaced it with Google Wallet, which is now the only tap-to-pay service usable with Fitbit devices. On the NFC-equipped models, Google Wallet is the route for contactless payment. On the Edge, there is no route at all.
In my view, the decision is a familiar one for anyone who has tracked wearables across several hardware generations. An NFC radio takes board space, draws power and adds certification and software work, so a manufacturer has to judge whether the feature earns its place. Google's sub-one-percent figure, which applies to Charge 6 owners, is the company's own measure of how many people used the feature. It suggests Google judged demand too thin to carry into the Edge. The tradeoff is clear. Buyers who pay by wrist will need another device, while buyers who prioritize battery life and health tooling get a tracker built around those priorities.
The broader context here is that wearables are being shaped by a narrowing set of use cases. Fitness metrics, sleep tracking and battery endurance are the functions the Edge is built to emphasize, and tap-to-pay is now a secondary feature that depends on the model. For the developers and enterprise teams who build against these platforms, NFC availability is a per-SKU attribute rather than a property of the Fitbit brand, and Google Wallet is the only payment path left on the ecosystem.
