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 12 months, although particulars about migrating consumer knowledge to Google Well being shall be launched within the coming months.
Google launched a dramatic redesign of the Fitbit app final 12 months in public beta, centered round a brand new AI-powered Well being Coach chatbot that may present steerage on something and every little thing out of your well being to health, even parse your medical information. Now, the Well being Coach is formally 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 previous couple of years is actually designed for this one second,” Rishi Chandra, Google’s vice chairman for well being and residential, tells WIRED.
Regardless of the app’s title change, Chandra says the Fitbit model continues 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’ll be able to learn extra about right here. Designed as a screenless well being tracker that is ultra-lightweight and comfy 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 particular person—can simply perceive the info 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 we now have the Coach, you need 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 Well being Join and Apple’s HealthKit platform, which means anybody with an Apple Watch can use the Google Well being app to parse their knowledge. For those who purchase the brand new $100 Fitbit Air, Google plans to make it so the gadget’s knowledge could be considered in Apple Well being as nicely, although this would possibly not be out there at launch.
The app permits you to add medical information—you’ll be able to seek for your physician’s title or deal with and log in to the supplier’s portal, which is able to imply historic and future information will sync to Google Well being. Plus, you’ll be able to 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 when you broke your leg and need to reconfigure your weekly health routine. Chandra says the app is designed to be shareable, permitting you to share well being knowledge with household, mates, or a doctor.
