More than a decade since its debut and five years after Google acquired it, the Fitbit app is officially rebranding as Google Health. As part of the transition, Google also announced plans to sunset the 12-year-old Google Fit app later this year, though details about migrating user data to Google Health will be released in the coming months.
Google introduced a dramatic redesign of the Fitbit app last year in public beta, centered around a new AI-powered Health Coach chatbot that can provide guidance on anything and everything from your health to fitness, even parse your medical records. Now, the Health Coach is officially exiting beta. Fitbit users will see an app update on May 19 that rebrands the Fitbit app into Google Health.
“The investment we’ve been making the last few years is literally designed for this one moment,” Rishi Chandra, Google’s vice president for health and home, tells WIRED.
Despite the app’s name change, Chandra says the Fitbit brand is still very much part of Google’s playbook: The company announced the first new Fitbit in three years, the Fitbit Air, which you can read more about here. Designed as a screenless health tracker that’s ultra-lightweight and comfortable to wear, it debuts alongside the new Google Health app with simplicity at its core. Anyone—a kid, adult, or an elderly person—can easily understand the data the device produces.
“That tying together of this wearable technology with the coaching experience is what’s been missing for the longest time, so candidly, we were waiting for the Coach to be ready before we launch new hardware,” he says. “Now we have the Coach, you should expect to see more hardware coming.”
The Google Health app is designed to be the one-stop shop for all your health and fitness needs. It supports Health Connect and Apple’s HealthKit platform, meaning anyone with an Apple Watch can use the Google Health app to parse their data. If you buy the new $100 Fitbit Air, Google plans to make it so the device’s data can be viewed in Apple Health as well, though this won’t be available at launch.
The app allows you to upload medical records—you can search for your doctor’s name or address and log in to the provider’s portal, which will mean historical and future records will sync to Google Health. Plus, you can log anything you want through the Health Coach, whether that’s what you ate for lunch to track nutrition, or if you broke your leg and want to reconfigure your weekly fitness regimen. Chandra says the app is designed to be shareable, allowing you to share health data with family, friends, or a physician.
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