Google introduces all-new Fitbit Air; Google Health Coach becomes globally available; Fitbit app now becomes Google Health app
Yesterday, Google officially introduced Fitbit Air, which brings personal health insights and recommendations to everyone.
Fitbit Air
Google claims that the Fitbit Air is its smallest tracker yet and acts as a proactive wellness partner that uses a high-fidelity sensor in a tiny, discreet pebble that enables advanced health and fitness tracking like 24/7 heart rate, heart rhythm monitoring with Afib alerts, SpO2, resting heart rate, heart rate variability, sleep stages and duration, and more.
It features a screenless design built so you can live in the moment. Users have the freedom to explore deep insights from the Google Health app on their phone when they want them, and stay notification-free when they don’t.
It offers up to a week of battery life, while fast charging gives you a full day of power in just 5 minutes. It works with most phones running on Android 11 or higher and Apple iOS 16.4 or higher and requires a Google Account and Google Health app.
Fitbit Air and the Google Health app make activity tracking seamless. It delivers coach-recommended guided workout tips, automatic tracking and detection of common activities, and workout logging, while with the Google Health Coach, you can even snap a photo of your cardio equipment or the circuit training routine on the whiteboard at the gym.
There are different types of band styles available:
- Performance Loop Band- Made from recycled materials, this band is micro-adjustable for a flexible, breathable fit. It comes standard with every Fitbit Air in-box and is available in a variety of shades for a suitable look or pop of colour.
- Active Band- Sweatproof, wetproof silicone is perfect for high-intensity training and can withstand the elements. Its subtle ribbed design adds sporty flair in vibrant hues to match your athletic look.
- Elevate Modern Band- This band transforms your device from a fitness tracker into a fashionable bracelet with classic colours that blend with any style.
There is also a Fitbit Air Special Edition Performance Loop Band (co-designed with Stephen Curry), which comes in rye brown and a pop of game-day orange. It features a unique water-resistant coating and a raised interior print inspired by athletic racing stripes, specifically engineered to increase airflow during high-intensity movement.
Availability
It is available for pre-order for $99.99. It includes a three-month trial of Google Health Premium, giving you full access to Google Health Coach right out of the box. The Google Fitbit Air Special Edition will also be available for pre-order and will go on sale in the US on 26th May for $129.99.
Accessory bands are available for pre-order starting at $34.99.
Apart from this, the company has also announced the global availability of its latest Google Health Coach.
Google Health Coach
Features
Built with Gemini, the coach gives you personalised insights and acts as your fitness coach, sleep expert and health and wellness advisor. It will become available globally as part of the Google Health Premium subscription.
When you first get started, you will have an onboarding conversation to introduce yourself to your coach. You can share your specific goals, details about your daily routine, the type of equipment you have access to, any injuries you’re managing or general lifestyle content. The Coach takes all of these details into consideration to provide tailored guidance and insights.
The company has redesigned the Today tab, which acts as the home for the Coach’s proactive insights. The Coach connects the dots across your shared data ecosystem, including: Fitness and sleep metrics, nutrition and cycle tracking, environmental context like location and local weather and personal medical records.
You can get guidance 24/7 by simply hitting “Ask Coach” at any time. The Coach elevates every corner of the Google Health app:
- The Fitness tab- This is now the home for your “Weekly Plan.” Instead of just tracking steps or workouts, you can get tailored workout suggestions and even create and save entirely custom workouts using natural language.
- The Sleep tab- The Coach helps you better understand your weekly sleep consistency and tracks your actual progress toward achieving better, more restorative rest.
- The Health tab- In addition to viewing a clean snapshot of your key health metrics, you can now ask the Coach to synthesize and provide clear summaries of your personal health records, making complex medical data easy to digest.
Google Health Coach experience includes:
- Most-requested missing features- Cycle Tracking, Nutrition and Mental Wellbeing have all been redesigned for the new Google Health Coach experience and all rebuilt from the ground up, and the Coach can share insights on things like how your cycle phase and symptoms connect to other parts of your health, and provide recommendations to adjust your workout for better recovery.
- Medical record integration- Ability to sync medical records in the US and share them with the Coach to ask questions and learn more.
- Flexible Fitness Plans- Your Coach helps you identify weekly “targets” and a plan that is personalised to you and your goals.
- Step-by-step workout guidance- Dynamic workouts, including rich visualisations and instructions in a streamlined layout for step-by-step exercise logging, featuring automatic progress tracking that evolves with you.
- More refined and accurate guidance- Chats are now more succinct and conversational, better reflecting real-life conversations with a coach.
- Multiple ways to log- Track your data via voice, images or documents- to log complex workouts, upload photos of gym whiteboards or snap photos of meals for nutritional analysis, and understand or summarise files, like PDFs or medical records.
Pricing & Availability
The Google Health Coach will start rolling out on 19th May and will reach 100% on 26th May. It is included with a Google Health Premium subscription (formerly Fitbit Premium), at just $9.99/ Rs 99 per month or $99/ Rs 999 per year.
Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers will now also enjoy Google Health Premium at no extra cost. The Coach is launching first for eligible Fitbit and Pixel Watch users, with support for other devices coming soon.
Google has announced that from May 26, the Fitbit app becomes the Google Health app for both Androud and iOS. All your previous data will be present in the redesigned app.
Fitbit app becomes Google Health app
In the new Google Health app you will find your favourite features: more intuitive layout, customisation of dashboards, synchronisation of data, tracking progress, upload medical records, connect apps and devices, improve cycle tracking and more. The Google Health app will rout as an app update to existing Fitbit users.
The entire app is elevated with the Google Health Coach built with Gemini. You will get timely insights from the coach via the Fitness tab, sleep tab and Health tab. You can make decisions about what data you save and you can delete your data, and turn on and off optional features at any time.
Availability
The Google Health app starts rolling out to all users on 19th May, when you can expects to see a new brand icon and app. The app will automatically update, and existing users will not need to take any action.
