Google’s Health Connect beta is here to cut down your health app confusion
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Google is one step closer to building a fitness empire as the Health Connect platform enters public beta.
A collaboration between Google and Samsung, Health Connect first appeared in May with the aim of, according to the developer team (opens in new tab), providing a better understanding of a person’s health through a platform that aggregates health data from multiple sources into one location. To make this happen, Google is also standardizing data sharing to make it easier for fitness apps to talk to each other. This way, third-party developers are no longer forced to establish and maintain multiple API connections for their apps.
For now, Health Connect only works with 10 health and fitness apps (opens in new tab) including Fitbit, MyFitnessPal, Peloton, Oura, and Tonal. You can download the beta app (opens in new tab) now from the google play store, but there will be no app icon on the home screen. To access it, you need to find Health Connect in your Android phone’s Settings menu.
Interconnectivity
When launching the platform, you will be prompted to allow the supported third-party apps to access their fitness data for Health Connect. There are also detailed controls for fine-tuning what each health app shares. In our testing, we plugged in the Peloton app and saw that you can offer data about your heart rate, but not provide information about total calories burned. You can withdraw data sharing at any time or delete everything you have collected. And select features found in other apps work together through Health Connect. For example, you can sync MyFitnessPal with Peloton and get “credit” for the latter’s training plans.
Google states that its platform supports more than 40 different data types, which it displays everywhere six categories (opens in new tab): Activity, Body Measurement, Cycle Tracking, Nutrition, Sleep and Vitals. It lets you monitor how much consistent sleep you’re getting and even your basal metabolic rate, based on the information you enter.
We reached out to Google to see if the company could tell us when Health Connect will officially launch. So far nothing, not even a rogue leak, has hinted at a release date. When Health Connect is released, we believe the platform will be a game changer. With health and fitness apps, people often have to jump from app to app to get the full picture. Under a Google-colored banner, we could see this clumsy process fade away.
Support is missing
Since Fitbit is one of the first 10 supported apps, we were surprised to see no support for fitness trackers or smartwatches. This is especially odd considering that Google recently launched a new Pixel Watch (which has been discovered to be a bit… too generous with reporting how many calories people burn). Device support may come in a future update, but nothing is official at this point.
However, we recommend getting ahead of the curve if the platform supports something like the Pixel Watch or Oura bezel. Be sure to check out our list of the best fitness trackers of the year to find the right equipment for you.