Greater than a decade since its debut and 5 years after Google acquired it, the Fitbit app is formally rebranding as Google Well being. As a part of the transition, Google additionally introduced plans to sundown the 12-year-old Google Match app later this yr, although particulars about migrating consumer information to Google Well being will likely be launched within the coming months.
Google launched a dramatic redesign of the Fitbit app last year in public beta, centered round a brand new AI-powered Well being Coach chatbot that may present steering on something and all the pieces out of your well being to health, even parse your medical information. Now, the Health Coach is officially exiting beta. Fitbit customers will see an app replace on Could 19 that rebrands the Fitbit app into Google Well being.
“The funding we have been making the last few years is actually designed for this one second,” Rishi Chandra, Google’s vp for well being and residential, tells WIRED.
Regardless of the app’s title change, Chandra says the Fitbit model remains to be very a lot a part of Google’s playbook: The corporate introduced the primary new Fitbit in three years, the Fitbit Air, which you can read more about here. Designed as a screenless well being tracker that is ultra-lightweight and cozy to put on, it debuts alongside the brand new Google Well being app with simplicity at its core. Anybody—a child, grownup, or an aged individual—can simply perceive the information the gadget produces.
“That tying collectively of this wearable know-how with the teaching expertise is what’s been lacking for the longest time, so candidly, we have been ready for the Coach to be prepared earlier than we launch new {hardware},” he says. “Now now we have the Coach, it is best to anticipate to see extra {hardware} coming.”
The Google Well being app is designed to be the one-stop store for all of your well being and health wants. It helps Health Connect and Apple’s HealthKit platform, which means anybody with an Apple Watch can use the Google Well being app to parse their information. Should you purchase the brand new $100 Fitbit Air, Google plans to make it so the gadget’s information might be considered in Apple Well being as properly, although this may not be accessible at launch.
The app means that you can add medical information—you may seek for your physician’s title or deal with and log in to the supplier’s portal, which can imply historic and future information will sync to Google Well being. Plus, you may log something you need by means of the Well being Coach, whether or not that is what you ate for lunch to trace diet, or if you happen to broke your leg and wish to reconfigure your weekly health routine. Chandra says the app is designed to be shareable, permitting you to share well being information with household, associates, or a doctor.
