Fitness tracker smart watches that work well without a smartphone app?
A family member of mine recently got a cheap smart watch online. They weren't planning to use it with a phone app for privacy/security reasons. They thought using it without a phone would be fine, since they just wanted it for the time and for the health features like steps, blood pressure, blood oxygen, sleep tracking, etc. and didn't need to see their texts or other notifications on the watch.
Unfortunately, when we tested the watch, we found that basically all of the features required connecting to a shady no-name company's app. You couldn't even set the time! You can't set the time on a watch without an app!
Also, the watch was a bit bulky for their wrist, and they would prefer a slimmer one.
People of Tildes, do you know of any smart watches that allow you to use the health tracking features without ever connecting to a smartphone? If so, are there any that are slimmer instead of being bulky?
Pretty sure Garmin's watches can be used without a phone if so desired. My Fenix 6s definitely lets me look at activities etc on the watch itself but I never tried using it entirely without the app (I wanted notifications to come through and to be able to upload activities occasionally).
If you haven't already come across Gadgetbridge then consider this as a halfway step between apps that might make off with your data and no app at all. It's compatible with a lot of devices so there's a chance it might even work with the watch they already bought (otherwise it's an option to consider when investigating other watches).
+1 for Garmin. The app shouldn't be required (unless they've changed it very recently with the newest models).
If you want the fitness data on something other than the watch, you can just connect it to a PC via USB and copy the data files straight from the watch.