Google Fit: Activity Tracking

Google LLC

About this app

Get to a healthier and more active life with the new Google Fit!

It's hard to know how much or what kind of activity you need to stay healthy. That's why Google Fit collaborated with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Heart Association (AHA) to bring you Heart Points, an activity goal that can help improve your health.

Activities that get your heart pumping harder have tremendous health benefits for your heart and mind. You'll earn one Heart Point for each minute of moderate activity like picking up the pace when walking your dog, and double points for more intense activities like running. It takes just 30-minutes of brisk walking five days a week to reach the AHA and WHO's recommended amount of physical activity shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, improve sleep, and increase overall mental wellbeing.

Google Fit will also help you:

TRACK YOUR WORKOUTS FROM YOUR PHONE OR WATCH

Get instant insights when you exercise and see real-time stats for your runs, walks, and bike rides. Fit will use your Android phone's sensors or Wear OS by Google smartwatch's heart rate sensors to record your speed, pace, route, and more.

MONITOR YOUR GOALS

See your daily progress on your Heart Points and Steps goal. Meeting your goals all the time? Easily adjust your goals to keep challenging yourself to achieve a healthy heart and mind.

MAKE ALL YOUR MOVEMENT COUNT

If you walk, run, or bike throughout the day, your Android phone or Wear OS by Google smartwatch will automatically detect and add your activities to your Google Fit journal to ensure you get credit for every move. Want extra credit? Turn up the tempo on your walks by starting a paced walking workout and stepping to the beat. Enjoy a different type of workout? Select it from a list of activities like pilates, rowing, or spinning, and Google Fit will track all the Heart Points you earn.

CONNECT WITH YOUR FAVORITE APPS AND DEVICES

Fit can show you info from many of your favorite apps and devices to give you a holistic view of your health, so you'll never lose track of your progress. These include Lifesum, Wear OS by Google, Nike+, Runkeeper, Strava, MyFitnessPal, Basis, Sleep as Android, Withings, Xiaomi Mi bands, and more.

CHECK IN AT ANYTIME, FROM ANYWHERE

See a snapshot of your activity history across Fit and your integrated apps in the redesigned journal. Or, get the full picture in browse, where you can find all of your health and wellness data.

KEEP A FINGER ON THE PULSE OF YOUR HEALTH

Breathing is one of the simplest ways to reduce tension and relieve stress. With Fit, checking in with your breath is easy—all you need is your phone camera. As well as your respiratory rate, you can measure your heart rate to get a better understanding of your body’s wellbeing.

Learn more about Google Fit and see a list of supported apps at: www.google.com/fit

Ratings and reviews

Google Fit is the most bug-filled app I have ever seen Google produce. It has *serious* issues. There is a toggle for tracking my activity, but whenever I flip it, it immediately flips right back. What on earth? I tried contacting Google's customer support, but they couldn't help because they said that no one in customer support is familiar with Google Fit. Being able to turn on/off activity tracking is a crucial feature of the app, and it doesn't work and they don't seem to care.

I like that it is free but that's about all of the pros. As for cons, you have to have your phone on you at all times unless you are linking a device, at which point you'd probably be using the device's app. How it's held/worn seems to change tracking accuracy. The step count is wildly inaccurate. The app under counts drastically on the treadmill and over counts a bit when walking on pavement. There is no way to modify the stride length or do any sort of calibration

No web access to data. Every "improvement" to the app makes it more weird, confusing, and less informative. It's fine as a hub that connects the other apps - because other apps are actually usable for the data. Google needs to make all of this content available on the web, then maybe "google fit" could be something other than a data synchronizer. Though...they get and can sell the data, so I guess whether we like the interface or not isn't really important to them.

What's new

• Measure your heart rate and respiratory rate using just your phone camera (selected devices)
• Turn up the tempo of your walks with paced walking in Workouts
• Find all of your health and wellness data in the Browse tab
• Minor bug fixes and UI improvement