On Android, there are dozens of fitness apps you can use to track your steps, goals, and exercises throughout the day. Google’s new Health Connect app promises to sync fitness data from various Android apps, including Fitbit, Samsung Health, and more.
In recent years, Google and Samsung have been collaborating closely on projects related to fitness and wearables, with the latter company contributing to the development of Wear OS 3, which remains surprisingly unique to the Galaxy Watch 4. At Google IO 2022, the two companies are teaming up once again to create “Health Connect,” a service and accompanying developer API on Android that’s designed to make your fitness data more portable.
In short, the fitness apps will be updated to share their data with the Health Connect app on your phone. Once saved to Health Connect, any other fitness-related apps (to which you give permission) will be able to read that data and potentially use it to get a more complete picture of your day.
For example, maybe you have a Samsung phone and you like to use the Samsung Health app, but your tracker is made by Fitbit. In theory, Fitbit could soon save data from your wearable to Health Connect, and Samsung Health could read and save it back in your day.
In addition to its own apps, Google Fit and Fitbit, Google has already announced Health Connect partnerships with a handful of other apps, including Samsung Health, Leap Fitness, MyFitnessPal and Withings. But that’s just the beginning, as any aspiring Android developer can make an app requesting permission to read or write physical activity data to Health Connect.
At launch, Health Connect is designed to cover a few key metrics about your health and wellness:
- Activities such as running, exercising, or sleeping
- body measurements such as weight and metabolic rate
- cycle tracking for menstrual cycles and ovulation tests
- Nutrition information such as your water intake and food data (calories, sugar, etc.)
- To sleep details including length and type
- vital parts such as blood glucose, body temperature, and blood oxygen levels
Of course, your health data is incredibly private, so Health Connect is designed to protect your health information. Health Connect easily shows you which apps are currently allowed to read each individual metric of your fitness data, and you can easily revoke access to any of them. Beyond that, your health information is protected from potential attackers since it’s encrypted on your device.
Health Connect is now available in early access through google play store, for devices running Android Pie or newer. For now though, none of the advertised partner apps appear to have been updated to connect yet. Instead, it currently seems more geared up to be a developer playground than a fitness data sync package, but there’s no harm in installing it early to be ready.
This article and its headline have been corrected to read “Samsung Health”, not “Samsung Fit”.
More from Google I/O:
FTC: We use automatic affiliate links that generate income. Plus.
