Last August, Google Fit was completely revamped with the Material Theme and a focus on two new metrics. The health and activity tracking application is now coming to iOS with full Apple Health integration.
This new Fit is focussed on “smart activity goals” that Google created with the American Heart Association. Move Minutes are earned whenever you’re physically active — walking, yoga, chores, etc. — with a minute recorded after 30 or more steps.
Heart Points are aimed at capturing more moderate activity, like a “brisk walk that’s over 100 steps per minute.” More intense workouts will garner two points/minute, with both metrics represented as rings arround your profile image in the Home tab. The app lists step count, calories, and miles underneath, with more detailed daily graphs below.
Google Fit will also adjust goals based on your current progress, with assistive notifications providing encouragement. Behind the scenes, Fit works by pulling step and distance information from Apple Health to calculate Move Minutes and Heart Points. This includes data collected by your iPhone or paired Apple Watch. Meanwhile, Fit will pull stats directly from connected Wear OS devices when available.
The Journal tab provides a historical overview of activity. Since Google Fit connects to Apple Health, it can surface and collate data from other synced apps like Nike Run Club and Headspace. This chronological view can list sleep, walking, and workouts from wearables.
Other activities include yoga and even breathing sessions, with each listing featuring an icon, distance, and Move Minutes/Heart Points earned. Each entry can be tapped to provide more details, and notes where the data was derived from.
A FAB in the bottom-right corner allows users to manually record activities, while the Profile tab allows you to manage sync, your daily activity goals, and other app settings.
Google’s fitness app is an aggregator of health data rather than a creator. For now, Google is just taking that data to calculate Move Minutes and Heart Points, which might be a better measure of activity than just step count. However, the promise of Google Fit — and the company’s up-and-coming health effort — is using that data to provide unique insights.
The app coming to iOS is likely the start of that future, but the insights are not here yet for most users. Google Fit is available on the App Store today.
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