Google announces Google Fit update, includes new sleep tracking details
- Google introduces new Google Fit features for Android, iOS and Wear OS devices.
- The new Google Fit home screen offers a more comprehensive overview of your health data.
- It also includes new sleep tracking details, social sharing features, and redesigned tiles for the Wear operating system.
If you’re using a Wear OS smartwatch, Google Fit is likely one of your favorite fitness apps. It’s pretty bare, however, and is often criticized for not having as many features as other fitness apps on Android. Google is now taking a step in the right direction by adding a number of new features to the app on Android, iOS and Wear OS.
You can find the big changes on the Google Fit home screen for Android and iOS. Previously, the homescreen only offered a basic overview of your daily activities, with the focus on your steps and heart points. Now the app shows you current training units, detailed heart rate data, weight and blood pressure trends. This should keep you from looking for that data on another page.
Next, sleep tracking. Google Fit’s previous sleep tracking details were pretty bare again, but thankfully that is changing. You can now see your sleep and sleep time, sleep phases (light, deep and REM), the percentage of sleep efficiency and the sleep heart rate. You’ll still need a Google Fit compatible wearable to keep track of this data, but at least the app will show this information in one place.
Google Fit on Wear OS is getting some nice upgrades too. The workout tile on Wear OS smartwatches now has a link to your recent workouts. This way you can get into a familiar workout without wasting a lot of time. And during your workout, you can now see a lot more information on a single scree. Google showed an example of a Wear OS watch showing distance, duration of activity and pace on a screen.
The weather tile under Wear OS now also shows more relevant information. Aside from a slight visual update, the weather tile now shows precipitation and weather warnings. Again, the old tile was too simple, so this is a welcome change.
The Breath Tile now allows you to select faster guided breathing exercises. It also shows a summary of your heart rate changes during your breathing exercise and a summary of the sessions you have completed over the past week.
According to Google, the new Google Fit features will be available on devices in the next few days. We don’t have an exact rollout date, so you may need to be patient as Google is happy to postpone rollouts for app updates.
Want to learn more about Google Fit? Read our in-depth guide here.
