Google Health ends the Fitbit we knew, but maybe that's not a bad thing

In addition to its new Fitbit Air, Google announced this week that the Fitbit app is dead and will be replaced by “Google Health.” If you had told me this would happen a few months ago, I would be worried, but the end result looks like an overall victory for everyone involved. Let’s take a closer look.

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In the very near future, the Fitbit app will officially become Google Health. Functionally, there are not many changes. The app will use Google’s redesigned interface that was first previewed last year, with an AI-powered trainer to help you with workouts, joining the ever-improving sleep and health tracking.

There are other welcome updates as well.

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Google Fit, a long forgotten experience, will be merged with the Health appwhile Google Health on iOS will support linking with Apple Health for entering Apple data in the Google application. That effectively means you’ll be able to use an Apple Watch with what was previously the Fitbit experience. Many are happy with Apple’s offering, but it’s nice to have that extra flexibility!

There seems to be a greater focus on Third-party hardware and services here, like Google noted:

The Google Health app works with hundreds of your favorite apps and devices, whether integrated through Health Connect, Apple Health, or Google Health APIs, so you’ll be able to see your data in one place, like your Peloton workouts or your MyFitnessPal meals.

It’s really nice to see, like there’s been a problem with Google’s pivot to Fitbit, it’s been that the focus is very a lot on own devices. You could always connect certain third-party devices, like scales, to Fitbit, but it was quite complicated. Even Android’s Health Connect left a lot of room for improvement. Google Health, with new APIs, sets the stage for a truly comprehensive health app. Since Google Fit is no longer in the picture, that actually makes a lot of sense.

Not everything is perfect, of course: Google is abandoning some old features, but at the same time, it also seems committed to Fitbit’s existing hardware for the long term.

Good, of course, I have to wait and see how this develops.. But, personally, I’m quite intrigued by what I’ve seen so far.

What do you think?

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