In its newest well being push, Google is ditching screens and betting arduous on the AI teaching options in its latest wearable. The brand new Fitbit Air is a slim, screenless band with a detachable sensor with the only job of accumulating well being knowledge within the background, eradicating the distractions of notifications, apps and stats.
Learn extra: Fitbit Air, Redesigned App and an AI Coach: Google Is Overhauling Its Health Ecosystem
This back-to-basics transfer echoes the earliest Fitbit devices, however with a really totally different finish sport. The place these first bands solely counted steps, the Fitbit Air feeds a much wider stream of biometric knowledge into Google’s evolving well being ecosystem that appears to be more and more centered on AI.
At $99, the band is simply the ticket to get you within the door. The principle occasion is Google’s not too long ago launched Well being Coach, a part of the Google Well being Premium (previously Fitbit Premium) service. Google consists of three months free with each Fitbit Air buy, clearly banking on customers getting hooked on the teaching, coaching plans and deeper sleep evaluation unique to the premium tier, which runs $10 a month or $100 a 12 months. What Google appears much less wanting to promote: You should utilize the band with out a subscription and nonetheless get the core health-tracking expertise.
Health Coach is an AI-powered chatbot constructed on Gemini that interprets uncooked knowledge into customized steerage, adaptive exercise plans and restoration suggestions.
The technique additionally extends past Android. As a result of the Fitbit Air and its companion app assist each iOS and Android, Google is utilizing the machine as a Malicious program of types to carry its AI well being coach to iPhone.
Information of the launch comes alongside a broader rebrand, as Google phases out the Fitbit name in its app in favor of Google Well being — a part of a push to unify its wearables, companies and AI. The Fitbit branding sticks round on {hardware} for now, however the end line for the Fitbit identify is in sight.
It is also a strategic guess on the place the market is headed. Screenless units just like the Whoop band and Oura Ring have carved out a rising class of wearables targeted on steady put on, sleep monitoring and long-term well being traits somewhat than the in-the-moment performance of a smartwatch. The truth that the Fitbit Air might be paired with a tool just like the Pixel Watch additional suggests Google sees the 2 as complementary, not aggressive.
The Fitbit Air has a detachable sensor beneath the band.
What does it observe?
The Fitbit Air covers the core well being metrics you’d anticipate, together with 24/7 coronary heart price monitoring, coronary heart price variability, SpO2 (blood oxygen stage), temperature variation, sleep monitoring and evaluation, cardio load, coaching readiness, steps, distance and irregular coronary heart rhythm notifications for atrial fibrillation detection. It additionally consists of computerized exercise monitoring that you could verify later within the app. The machine is water resistant as much as 50 meters.
One caveat: The Fitbit Air makes use of an older sensor setup than the present Pixel Watch 4, which features a multipath optical coronary heart price sensor and a far-field temperature sensor. The Air sticks with extra conventional sensors, which may restrict accuracy, particularly in peak coronary heart price zones and for extra superior insights, like menstrual cycle monitoring.
Google’s teaching superpowers
Google Well being Coach, and the long-term well being insights, are the primary cause you’d purchase this band. The coach pulls collectively health, sleep, coronary heart price and menstrual cycle knowledge to construct coaching plans that adapt to real-time efficiency and schedule. It units weekly targets and might recommend exercises (which embrace video examples), regulate suggestions primarily based on restoration and might use your personal knowledge to sign when to push and when to relaxation. This consists of haptic Good Wake alarms that use your sleep knowledge dynamically to wake you at an optimum level in your sleep cycle.
Well being Coach has been in beta since October of 2025 and is rolling out in a staggered launch alongside the Fitbit Air.
Three telephone screens displaying Google Well being Coach diet and health logging.
Battery life
One of many clearest benefits of going screenless is battery life. Google says the Fitbit Air lasts as much as every week on a single cost. (We’ll have to check to see how this holds as much as our real-world testing.) And it could possibly additionally cost from zero to 100% in 90 minutes.
That does not fairly match the Whoop band’s two-week battery life, but it surely’s a severe step up from the roughly 36-hour battery cap you’d get from its display-totting siblings, just like the 41mm mannequin of the Pixel Watch 4.
The Pixel Watch 4 (pictured) can be utilized alongside the Fitbit Air.
iOS and Android
Not like the Android-only Pixel Watch, the Fitbit Air works with each Android and iOS, which is extra consistent with different Fitbit units. Which means you will get the Google Well being Coach even when you’ve got an iPhone, although it is unclear if there are any benefits to utilizing the Air on Android versus iOS.
Design and match
I have not seen the Fitbit Air in particular person but, however primarily based on the specs, it follows a well-recognized screenless design. Just like the Whoop band, the sensor module might be eliminated and swapped between totally different bands. Not like Whoop, which affords alternate mounts comparable to a sports activities bra and even a Whoop thong, Fitbit is sticking to wrist-based equipment. Which will change later primarily based on suggestions.
The Air helps a spread of interchangeable bands in several supplies. Choices embrace the Efficiency Loop for on a regular basis put on, the Lively Band for exercises and the Elevated Fashionable Band for a extra polished look. Bands begin at $35 and are available in 4 colours: Obsidian, Fog, Berry and Lavender. An orange and grey Stephen Curry Particular Version can even be out there in restricted portions.
Fitbit Air Efficiency band in: Lavender, Obsidian, Berry and Fog.
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The privateness dilemma
The shift towards Google Well being branding is now prompting renewed scrutiny, significantly as the corporate explores letting customers import medical information to the app. As a part of its 2020 acquisition of Fitbit, Google agreed to maintain Fitbit well being knowledge separate from its promoting enterprise for 10 years.
Google says knowledge collected by the Fitbit Air and different Fitbit units won’t be used for promoting, however specialists have famous that even anonymized well being knowledge can usually be traced again to people, and that when knowledge is collected, the way it’s used years down the road relies upon fully on insurance policies that may change. For anybody contemplating handing over their well being knowledge, it is value studying the effective print and keeping track of how these insurance policies evolve over time.
The Fitbit Air detects exercises mechanically and shops them within the Google Well being App.
Fitbit Air pricing and availability
The Fitbit Air launches Might 7 for $100 at Google.com and within the Google Retailer app, with in-store availability at bodily retail places starting Might 26. Accent bands begin at $35.
Three months of Google Well being Premium are included with buy, after which the subscription mechanically renews at $10 a month.
CNET will likely be testing the Google Fitbit Air over the approaching weeks, so verify again for our full evaluation.
