Alongside its new Fitbit Air, Google this week announced that the Fitbit app is dead, to be replaced by “Google Health.” If you’d told me this would happen a few months ago, I’d be worried, but the end result actually seems like an overall win for everyone involved. Let’s take a closer look.
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Starting in the very near future, the Fitbit app will officially turn into Google Health. Functionally, there’s not a whole lot changing. The app will utilize Google’s redesigned interface that was first introduced in preview last year, with an AI-powered coach to help you with workouts joining the ever-improving sleep and health tracking.
There are some other welcome updates, too.
Google Fit, a long-neglected experience, will be merged into the Health app, while Google Health on iOS will support tying into Apple Health for pulling Apple’s data into Google’s app. That effectively means you’ll be able to use an Apple Watch with what was previously the Fitbit experience. Plenty are happy with Apple’s offering, but it’s nice to have that added flexibility!
There seems to be a bigger focus on third-party hardware and services here, as Google noted:
Google Health app works with hundreds of your favorite apps and devices, whether integrated through Health Connect, Apple Health or the Google Health APIs, so you’ll be able to see your data in one place like your Peloton workouts or your meals from MyFitnessPal.
That’s really nice to see, as if there’s been one problem with Google’s pivot to Fitbit, it’s been that the focus is very much on first-party devices. You could always connect certain third-party devices – like weight scales – to Fitbit, but it was pretty messy. Even Android’s Health Connect left much room for improvement. Google Health, with new APIs, sets the stage for a truly one-stop-shop health app. With Google Fit no longer in the picture, that actually makes a lot of sense.
It’s not all perfect, of course: Google is ditching a few older features, but at the same time, it’s also seemingly committed to Fitbit’s existing hardware for the long haul.
We’ll, of course, have to wait and see how this plays out. But, personally, I’m pretty intrigued by what I’ve seen so far.
What do you think?
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