Google Fit is Google's answer to Apple's Health app. It uses the sensors built into your device to automatically track activities like walking, biking and running. You can also use it to keep track of your fitness goals and weight-loss progress over the past day, week and month. The Google Fit app is available as a free download in the Play store. It also comes preloaded on Android Wear watches and can be accessed from Google's website. It's quite simple to set things up. After you have downloaded the app on your mobile device, you must agree to Google's Terms of Service, hit Next and grant Google access to activity information and location history.
The location data lets you see your progress throughout the day and the location of where you exercised. For example, mine tells me that I took 2, steps around am while walking in New York. To set it up on the Web, go to the Google Fit website , select your Google account and agree to the company's Terms of Use. Google's default goal is set at one hour of activity each day, but that may be too much or too little depending on your fitness level.
This can be customized by clicking on the Menu button it's that icon with three vertical dots in the top right corner of the screen , selecting Settings and tapping Daily Goals. Here you can change your daily activity and daily steps goal. Doctors recommend adults walk at least 10, steps per day. Now that you have set up your account and changed your daily goals, it's time to make things a little more personal. Once again, click the Menu button and select Settings.
Scroll down and you will see an area to enter your height and weight; if you continue scrolling you will find options to switch between different measurement units. Many fitness and health devices are compatible with Google Fit, most of them being Wear OS smartwatches. Google Fit is the default fitness app for Wear OS devices unless a company includes its own fitness app , so you can expect to use Google Fit if you pick up a Wear OS smartwatch.
Here are our favorite Google Fit-compatible devices:. We expect this to change in due time, as Fitbit is now owned by Google. You can learn more about that here. However, as mentioned, the company also recently bought Fitbit, which already has a stellar fitness application. We have no idea, and it sounds like Google is still figuring that out, too. For the time being, Google Fit and Fitbit will continue to coexist. Yes, Fitbit plans on launching a Wear OS device in the future.
The question is, what fitness app will it use? The main aspect missing from Google Fit is any kind of social platform. Other popular fitness apps, like Fitbit or Strava, emphasize community.
Being able to reach out to a community of like-minded people to help you along your fitness journey can be extremely helpful in certain situations. Strava focuses more on activity progression and staying up to date on how your friends are performing.
None of that is available in Google Fit. Also read: Fitbit vs Garmin — Which ecosystem is right for you? The app also lacks any training programs. The closest thing Google Fit offers is customized links to workout videos on YouTube. You can do this with weight, heart rate, Move Minutes, and Heart Points, but not with exercises. Some of these things would be excusable if there were a Google Fit website that gave users more options and features some apps push the more advanced features to the web to keep the mobile apps cleaner.
Unfortunately, Google shuttered the Google Fit web interface in February , so the app is all you get. Overall, Google Fit is a solid start to what could one day be a powerful fitness application. Also, Move Minutes and Heart Points are genuinely useful metrics that will undoubtedly help people get and stay healthy.
This could be doing some yoga or going out for a stroll. How many minutes you choose to move is determined by you. It's set as a default to 60 minutes a day, but you are able to bump this up or reduce the amount.
The next way to measure your activity goal is through something Google is calling Heart Points. Google Fit will award you points for more intense sessions of physical activity and when you're really getting that heart pumping.
So we're talking going for a run or a cycling for instance as examples of ways to earn those Heart Points. Running will award you 2 points for every minute you are run for while for every minute you cycle, you'll bag 1 point. For smartwatches, this will tap into your heart rate sensor to detect when you're picking up the pace. On your phone, it'll use the combination of the accelerometer motion sensor built into your handset and if available GPS data to predict the intensity of your movements.
Google has drawn on help from the American Heart Association to ensure that you earn enough Heart Points to meet its weekly recommendations for physical activity. Along with new features, Google has sought to make its Fit app easy to use and easy to find the data you care about.
Here's a breakdown of the key Google Fit phone app features you need to know about. To keep track of your progress ticking off those move minutes and heart points Google has its ring-based UI sounds familiar? As you use Google Fit more, it'll adjust your goals depending on the activity you log. So if you push a little harder, it may give you a higher total of move minutes or heart points to amass during the day.
As of its latest update, Google Fit has the ability to map your workouts automatically, pulling data from any wearables you might be using, across both the Android and iOS version of the app.
You can see these routes in the Journal more on that below , and tapping on them will let you see full information and details, including an expanded map. However, if you'd like to start tracking an activity from within the app, that's possible, too.
This will no doubt be a really important one for a lot of people. From the Home screen you should see an icon with a cross on it. Hit this button to bring up additional options to add blood pressure readings, weight, activity and to start tracking a workout. There's a whole host of activities that can be tracked from aerobics to windsurfing. Some of these activities are of course better suited to a wearable of course. So tracking from a phone for certain activities will only offer information such as time and a tally of Heart Points.
But for activities like running and cycling, it'll also map your routes. As long as you've enabled Google Fit to track your location as mentioned in the setup process. Step 2 : Select to track workout. There's a dropdown menu to select your activity. If you pick an activity that is based outdoors, that will pull up a map to indicate it will track your route. There is also the option to manually add an activity on Fit, which requires doing what we described above and selecting the Add an activity option.
You can find the same extensive list of activities to choose from and you'll be assigned Move Minutes and Heart Rate Points for that activity. You can also make a note of the duration, add notes, calories burned, steps and distance in KM. Alongside from the Home tab in the Google Fit app is where you'll find something called Journal. This is the place where all of your workouts can be viewed. That's whether they've been tracked from the app or a connected wearable device or added in manually.
You can also see any routes you've taken, to explore the details of your workout. A recent update has also added sleep tracking to Google Fit, meaning that users can give the app access to sleep data being collected by any third-party apps their using. If you're an iPhone user, your Bedtime data alone could give you a sense for how you've been sleeping.
When you set the app up, simply allow Fit to have access to your sleep data, and you'll start seeing your sleeping time in your Journal.
If you'd like to change this at any time, on iPhone you can head to the Health app to do so. Just go to the 'Sources' tab, select Google Fit and turn 'Sleep Analysis' on or off according to your preferences. In a recent update for Google Fit, Google has added a Dark Mode, to switch up the look of the app and make it easier on tired eyes. Step 1 : To activate this mode, go to your Profile screen, then tap the gear icon to access your settings.
The top option is 'Theme' - this is where you can choose between 'Light' and 'Dark'. Step 2 : Select 'Dark' to enable Dark Mode and enjoy the fresh coat of paint the app receives. Moreover, you might find that it's easier to look at in dim conditions, and can actually be less of a drain on battery life, too. Google offers the ability to let you keep a closer eye on your Move Minutes and Heart Points on your phone by adding support for a Fit widget.
From here you can also see additional details on steps, calories burned and distance covered. As Apple doesn't support widgets on iPhones, this is an Android-only feature we're afraid. Step 1 : Press down on your phone's screen and you should see Widget appear among a trio of options. Step 2 : Tap Widget and you'll be able to scroll through all available widgets where you should now find the new Google Fit one. You have your pick from the full widget with additional details or simply having the Move Minute and Heart Point widget.
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