Google Redesigns Fit, Adds New Features
- by Kelli Lowe
- in Health Care
- — Aug 22, 2018
Google is revamping its fitness platform ahead of a potential smartwatch push this fall.
"We've worked with the American Heart Association and the World Health Organization to understand the science behind physical activity and help you get the amount and intensity needed to improve your health", Google's Margaret Hollendoner writes.
Technology firms have become increasingly health-conscious in recent years, with fitness tracking apps, wristbands and smartwatches growing in popularity.
Google says the new activity goals are based on AHA and WHO's activity recommendations. And if you happen to hit the gym without your phone or a watch, you can add the activity in after and Google will estimate how many of those Heart Points you've earned.
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Just to make sure the user isn't JUST moving, the new Google Fit also focuses on Heart Points. To improve its official Android health and fitness app, Google has redesigned Fit from the ground up. Speaking of those goals - there's a visible component to meeting them that includes closing activity-tracking rings, as users of Apple Watch are already familiar with.
Google has begun rolling out what it says is the biggest update to Google Fit since its launch in 2014, taking the lid off a redesign of the Google Fit app for Android and the Fit section inside Wear OS. In addition to new health and fitness tracking, Google Fit has been updated with an all-new design and UI as well. Moderate activity, like fast walking, will earn you one point per minute, while more intense stuff like running or kickboxing will net you two points per minute. The app has also been upgraded with data on more than 120 other activities.
If you don't use Google Fit for your fitness tracking, worry not as the app also integrates with nearly every other popular fitness app out there like Strava, Runkeeper, Endomondo, and MyFitnessPal.
To reach the AHA and WHO's recommended amount of physical activity, it takes just half an hour of brisk walking for five days a week. The interface pictured above on an iPhone is part of the Wear OS app.
