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Google adds challenges to Fit just in time for New Year's resolutions
It's almost January 1st and you are once again promising yourself that this will be the year you finally get into shape. This time around, Google is looking to help with new challenges in the recently redesigned Google Fit app. The 30-day long events task you with earning points by staying active and will keep you moving enough to meet your New Year's resolution.
'Pokémon Go' starts tracking steps using HealthKit and Google Fit
Pokémon Go players can finally unlock rewards without keeping the app open or using the game's Plus tracking dongle. The Adventure Sync option ties into Google Fit or Apple Health tracking to dole out bonuses based on all the movement players do throughout the day. That should mean earning more Buddy Candy and hatching Eggs, all without even opening the app. Players will still get a push notification for rewards, which should also help Niantic keep more casual fans engaged. A support page for the game explains how to make sure your account is linked, as the feature started rolling out today, arriving first for players at higher levels. Currently, anyone level 35 and above should be good to go, and once the rollout is complete it will be available for all players once they're past level 5 in the game.
'Pokémon Go' will track your activity without launching the app
Pokémon Go has encouraged more than a few people to step up their physical exercise, and Niantic wants to reward that. It's launching an Adventure Sync feature in its augmented reality games (starting with Pokémon Go) that syncs with Google Fit and iOS' HealthKit to translate steps into game progress without having the app open or using a smartwatch. If you regularly go for a run before work, you'll see that reflected in more Pokémon candy or more efficient egg hatching. You'll get weekly milestones, too.
Google redesigns Fit to get you moving
Sitting kills. Specifically, a sedentary lifestyle can kill you. Google and the American Heart Association want to save your life, or at least, encourage you to be more active. The tech giant is giving the Google Fit app its most serious overhaul since it launched in 2014, and the changes will apply to both the phone (iOS and Android) and Wear OS versions. The redesign focuses on movement and cardiovascular health, aiming to show people that it doesn't take a whole lot to meet scientifically determined weekly goals.
Google says crowdsourced data makes for better fitness apps
Google made a serious move into the health and fitness space when it introduced its Apple Health competitor, Fit, back in 2014. Since then, the company has been improving its platform by adding new features to help you keep better track of your daily activities, giving you information on real-time stats, workout logs and goals you've set out for yourself. Naturally, Fit is at its most useful when it has deep access to your personal data, as is the case for most tech products nowadays. This is key not only for the search giant's own apps, but also those from third-party developers that work on Android or are sending info to Fit from an iOS device.
Google Calendar helps with fitness goals by logging workouts
With its Goals function, Google's Calendar finds you space to squeeze in some exercise, but like a lazy coach, it doesn't follow up to see if you did it. Now, it'll take in data from either Google Fit and Apple Health, automatically mark an exercise session as "done" and, depending on your success, suggest different times.
Google Fit gets a colorful redesign and improved goal setting
Google has rolled out a major Fit update with a complete visual redesign, new watch face and features for Android Wear, a new home screen widget, more detailed goal-setting and more. Version 1.57.50 is the company's biggest update to the app in quite awhile, and appears to be a big part of the Android Wear 2.0 overhaul Google promised at I/O last month. The changes are apparent from when you first open it, as the previous, rather sparse home screen now has images, charts and a lot more color.
Pebble smartwatches get a built-in fitness tracking app
If you've wanted to use your Pebble smartwatch as an activity tracker so far, you've had to grab a third-party app -- unlike Apple or Google, you didn't have anything built-in. Well, that won't be an issue after today. Pebble is rolling out a firmware update to the Time, Time Steel and Time Round that introduces Pebble Health, a native fitness tracking app. It continuously tracks your step counts and sleep, like the earlier apps, but you now have coaching (built with help from Stanford University) to see where you need improvement. Your results won't exist in a vacuum, either, since they plug into Apple's HealthKit, Google Fit and (soon) third-party watch apps.
Google Fit gets real-time stats and grabs data from more wearables
Just in time to outfit your holiday workout regimen, Google its updating its Fit app with a few new features. First, the activity-tracking software now provides real-time distance, steps, pace and calorie stats for your running, walking and riding workouts. When you come to a stop for some push-ups, sit-ups or squats, you can use your Android Wear device to keep a tally of your reps before adding the total to your daily activity log. Google Fit also pulls in sleep and nutrition info from other apps and fitness trackers. If you're using MyFitnessPal (and a host of others) to track meals or Sleep as Android, Xiaomi Mi Band, Mi Band 1S, Sony Smartband 2 or the Basis Peak to keep tabs on how well you're resting, you'll be able access those details for a more complete picture of your overall wellness. Looking to give it a shot? You can grab the latest version of the Android app from Google Play right here.
Basis' fitness tracker now comes in titanium, talks to other health apps
As useful as the Basis Peak may be for tracking your fitness, your data has largely been trapped so far -- you couldn't see it outside of Basis' own apps. However, you'll be glad to hear that things are loosening up. An app update rolling out to the Peak today will share the wristwear's activity data with either Apple's Health app or Google Fit, so you get a more complete picture of your health. If you only strap on your Peak when you're running, for instance, you can still merge its info with the walking data your phone collects. It'll also open a "Playground" for testing app features (such as an activity map and a Photo Finish selfie recorder) before they're available to everyone elseShould that not be enough, there's a firmware update coming on May 20th that will add a stopwatch and improve heart rate monitoring.
Google Fit finally estimates how many calories you've burned
No, you're not wrong: Google's activity tracking app, Fit, didn't have a means to estimate burned calories -- or kilojoules -- before today. As Mountain View tells it, all you need to do to activate it is add in your height and gender (weight monitoring already existed) and Fit'll project calories shed and distance traveled in addition to time spent active. How it displays activity history's gotten a bit of a refresh too in addition to a new widget for Android Wear and Android itself that keeps any fitness goal close at hand. The numbers still give a complete picture since heart rate isn't involved, but at least we know Google hasn't forgotten about the app, right?
Withings' Activité fitness watches now talk to your Android phone
If you've been aching to try Withings' Activité fitness watches but couldn't because you don't carry an iPhone, you can relax. The company has announced that both the original Activité and the Pop will support Android as of March 2nd. While the Health Mate app will largely go unchanged, you'll be glad to hear that Withings' data will plug into Google Fit so that you can easily share it between devices. Given that the Pop hasn't reached US stores yet, this is good timing -- you can pick up the new wristwear knowing that it will likely work with your handset of choice. Don't miss out on all the latest news, photos and liveblogs from MWC 2015. Follow along at our events page.
Reuters: more than half of top US hospitals are trialling Apple HealthKit
When Apple announced HealthKit, one of the more interesting features was the ability for Doctors to check your health data remotely. HealthKit has already been trialled with health professionals monitoring patients with Type 1 diabetes, cancer and heart disease. Reuters suggests that these trials are moving away from Universities, and into hospitals. It claims that over half (14 of 23) the "top" hospitals (including eight on the News & World Report's Honor Roll) it contacted were running pilot programs that leveraged HealthKit data.
Google Fit for Android is ready to compile all of your fitness stats
We first heard about Mountain View's activity-tracking plans back at I/O, and now the Android faithful can get their hands on the goods. The Google Fit app, the company's answer to Apple Health, is now available for download, compiling all of those collected fitness stats in the same spot. By leveraging your phone's sensors, the software monitors walking, running and cycling activity, allowing you to set specific goals and benefit from some friendly advice. Fit also plays nice with third-party apps and devices -- and of course, Android Wear gadgets -- so that you can get an overall view of your progress from one place. Strava, Withings, Runtastic, Runkeeper and Noom Coach were specifically mentioned in the announcement and MapMyFitness is opting in as well. What's more, the initiative can be accessed on the web should the need arise (once you've logged in on your phone). Looking to get moving? You'll need a handset running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) or above, but if you meet the requirement, the app is available for download at Google Play.
Meet Adidas' new smartband: the miCoach Fit Smart
It looks like Adidas is ready to launch a new fitness tracker called the miCoach Fit Smart, judging by leaks at the FCC, LegalForce and retailer Keller Sports. Product shots from the latter show a hybrid of Nike's FuelBand and Adidas' own miCoach Smart Run, with an LED dot display like the FuelBand rather than the Smart Run's color LCD display. However, the Fit Smart does retain a more watch-like profile with a new, quick-locking band of some kind. It'll clearly monitor your heart rate as well, perhaps via infrared with the green sensor pictured on the back of the device. The FCC page shows that it'll pack Bluetooth 4.0 LE, aka Bluetooth Smart, to communicate with your mobile device.
Google Fit is Android's answer to exercise and health tracking
Google Fit is Google's new health initiative. It's a service that'll track all your health metrics -- sleep, steps, etc. -- and it's built into the next version of Android. But what does that mean? Well, it means that Google's Android platform is getting the same kind of life-metric tracking that Apple's iOS users are getting in iOS 8 with HealthKit. More importantly, it means that the health devices you're already using will play nice with the myriad Android devices out there. It also means that all your health data ends up in one place, in one app, rather than spread across a variety of software applications. Which app you use, however, is up to you.
Google set to launch a health-tracking platform called Google Fit
Not to be left behind by Apple, Google could soon launch its own health-tracking platform for mobile devices. Forbes reports that the search giant is working on a new service, tentatively called Google Fit, which will pull in data from third-party fitness wearables and health apps and combine them into one central app. It's not known if Fit will be delivered as a standalone app or come embedded inside future versions of Android, but it would likely operate as Google-made version of Apple's HealthKit, a service that lets companies like Nike feed in fitness data, and Samsung's own fitness framework, SAMI. An open platform would also lend itself to running on top of Google's upcoming Android Wear platform, allowing smartwatches and fitness bands to feed data into Fit's open APIs. Mirroring Apple, Google is set to unveil its new health-centric service at its own developer conference, Google I/O, which kicks off on June 25th. It has a lot of wearable talks planned for the event, so we won't have long to wait to learn more about what Google has planned.
