TL;DR
- Google is rebranding the Fitbit app to Google Health and officially launching the Gemini-powered Google Health Coach beyond its public preview program.
- The coach uses the SHARP framework to provide adaptive fitness plans, conversational logging, and medical record analysis for premium subscribers.
- New machine learning models have increased sleep stage accuracy by 15%, enabling better nap detection and more detailed sleep score breakdowns.
Alongside the launch of the Fitbit Air, Google is officially overhauling its health ecosystem by rebranding the long-standing Fitbit app as the all-encompassing Google Health app. And alongside this redesign, Google’s Gemini-powered Personal Health Coach in the Fitbit/Google Health app is graduating from public preview under a new name: the Google Health Coach.
Built with Google’s advanced Gemini AI, Google Health Coach abandons generic advice in favor of conversational, personalized guidance. After extensive testing with over 500,000 public preview users who submitted over a million pieces of feedback, the graduated coach delivers highly adaptive weekly fitness plans.
For instance, if you are traveling and lack gym access, or if you need a workout that avoids pressure on a sore knee, you can simply use the “Ask Coach” feature to adjust your schedule dynamically.
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To ensure reliability, Google developed the coach using the SHARP evaluation framework (focusing on safety, helpfulness, accuracy, relevance, and personalization) and collaborated with experts, including Stephen Curry.
Frictionless logging is a major highlight of the new app. Users can track their health via text, conversational voice commands, or even by uploading photos of their meals. If your wearable missed a quick activity, you can verbally tell the coach, “I just took a 5-minute walk mostly uphill,” and it will automatically record/reconcile the data with your context.
The new Google Health app acts as a centralized hub designed to make sense of fragmented health streams. It reconciles data from hundreds of third-party apps and devices, and allows users to prioritize which data sources they prefer. Crucially, the app allows Google Health Premium subscribers to securely import and visualize personal medical records (launching initially in the US and Japan). With this context, you can then ask the coach questions like, “What’s my cholesterol, and how can I improve it?” The AI will summarize your lab trends and offer personalized wellness suggestions based on your unique medical history.
Sleep analysis is getting a significant technical upgrade. Powered by new machine learning models, sleep stage accuracy has improved by 15% in the Google Health app. Thanks to this, the coach can now accurately detect naps as short as 20 minutes and features a highly transparent Sleep Score. This score breaks down exactly why you might be feeling tired, with the coach providing insights like how your low daytime step count made it harder to sustain deep sleep.
Google Health Coach pricing and availability
Accessing the Google Health Coach requires a Google Health Premium subscription (formerly Fitbit Premium), priced at $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year. This subscription is also included in Google One AI Pro and Ultra plans across over 30 countries.
Google says Health Coach will exit the preview program on May 19 and become available globally then. So you’ve got to wait roughly two weeks if you aren’t already testing it.
Screen-free fitness tracker • Google Health Coach • Affordable price
The Google Fitbit Air is the company’s first screenless fitness band.
The Google Fitbit Air combines Fitbit’s trusted health tracking with Google’s smarter insights in one app. It works with both Android and iPhone and brings fitness, sleep, medical records, meals, and hydration tracking into a single, easy-to-use health hub.
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