Samsung Health guide: Everything you need to know

Samsung Health gives users the full picture. Samsung’s fitness app lets you set goals, see stats, track steps, and so much more. Plus, it’s accessible across screens of every size, from your wrist to your phone to your smart TV. Find out everything available in the app and what sets it apart in our Samsung Health guide.

Samsung Health is a health and fitness app that encourages users to set goals and stay active. Available on your Android or iOS phone, the app tracks activity data with significant health impacts helping you gain insight into your wellbeing. It is also the go-to fitness app for Samsung wearables and other devices. 

Samsung Health isn’t necessarily the most complex or data-heavy app available, but it’s a solid platform for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. It teams up plenty of tools to help you manage everything from stress and sleep to food and fitness, and organizes all of your data on an intuitive interface. It also offers a well of resources, including fitness coaches, mindfulness exercises, and a community of like-minded users.

Also read: The best fitness apps for Android | The best fitness apps for iOS

What does Samsung Health track?

Samsung Health tracks a lot of the health and fitness basics. Users can record a number of different workouts, plus track steps, active minutes, heart rate, and sleep. Depending on your device, Samsung Health can automatically track your sleep or let you manually add sleep data. Some compatible devices can even track SpO2 levels, snoring, and ambient noise levels while you sleep. The app can also help you track weight, water intake, and calories. It won’t be the most advanced calorie tracking you can find, but it can certainly function as a food diary if you want to keep everything in one place.

Additionally, the Samsung Health app helps users keep tabs on their ticker with heart rate tracking, stress data, and, depending on the device, blood glucose levels, blood pressure, and blood oxygen. Last but not least, the app will also track women’s health data, including cycles and symptoms. It is really a catch-all for users’ most important health data and a great tool for managing your overall health. 

Read more: The best fitness trackers you can buy

You can sign in to Samsung Health with your Samsung account. If you don’t yet have a Samsung account, you will need to create one to use the app. Once you’ve downloaded the app and you are prompted to sign in, tap Create account and fill out the necessary details to create a Samsung account.

Once you’re signed in, there are four main tabs in the Samsung Health app: Home, Together, Fitness, and My Page. Here’s what each tab offers.

• Home: This tab is the home base of the Samsung Health app. It is where users can set and track goals and find all of their current health metrics. Scroll the Home tab to view your stats or to manually add data, including weight, periods, or food and water intake. If you scroll down to the bottom of this tab, you can tap Manage items to add or remove specific measurables from your home screen. 
• Together: The Together tab is where you can enter challenges and compare your data to other Samsung Health users. You can also invite and connect with others to keep friends motivated on their own health journies. 
• Fitness: Tap on the Fitness tab to jump into a 15 min workout video, listen to a sleep story, or read up on PMS. This tab houses an extensive library of exercise and wellness resources, including workout programs, videos, content from Samsung Health TV partners, and tools for mindfulness and women’s health. 
• My page: This tab is where users can edit their Samsung Health app profile. Add your gender, height, weight, and birth date to calculate important values like calories burned and heart rate ranges. You can also set your typical daily activity level on a scale of one to four. Beyond your basic profile, the My page tab provides big picture data like weekly summaries, personal bests, and earned badges.

You can access an overflow menu from any of the tabs above by tapping the three horizontal dots in the top right corner of your screen. This menu includes four options additional options: 

• For you: For you is where you will find weekly summaries of your tracking results including activity and sleep data.
• Promotions: Under Promotions you will find marketing plugs and current deals for other Samsung products. 
• Notices: Notices is where you will find updates from the Samsung team including changes within the app and information about Samsung Health content.
• Settings: Like a typical settings menu, here you can access account details, manage notifications, review your privacy settings, and more. 

Setting and tracking goals

Users are encouraged to pursue a variety of wellness goals in the Samsung Health app. The most prominent goal is a target for active minutes per day. Every minute of light, moderate, or vigorous activity counts towards this goal, including tracked steps, sports, and workouts. Additionally, users can also choose a target for daily calorie intake, steps, body composition, water intake, and sleep tracking targets.

One strength of the Samsung Health app is the variety of options users can access for viewing their tracked data. From the Home tab, tap on any of the categories (exercise, sleep, heart rate, etc.) to open a new screen with a more extensive breakdown of your results. Then in the top right-hand corner, tap the calendar or bar graph icon to see your results over the past week, month, or year at a glance. 

Unlike other fitness apps likes Google Fit or Apple Health, Samsung Health doesn’t offer integration with many third-party apps, which Samsung refers to as “connected services.” The exceptions are the popular running and cycling app Strava and the wellness platform Technogym. 

Many fitness and health devices are compatible with Samsung Health, including a number of Samsung smartwatches. To view the complete list of compatible devices within the app, tap More (the three vertical dots in the top right corner of your app screen), then tap Settings. Scroll down to and tap Accessories and browse the devices listed in each category.

Here are the trackers, smartwatches, and accessories compatible with Samsung Health:

You can also access Samsung Health on your compatible TV to see data and workouts on the big screen. This is a favorite feature for at-home workouts. Log in to your TV with the same Samsung account as used for the Samsung Health mobile app, and link the two together on the Samsung Health TV app.

The Samsung Health app on your smartphone

Installing the Samsung Health app on your phone will offer the best user experience. It’s easiest to view detailed information on a bigger screen than those of smartwatches and fitness trackers. In addition to Samsung phones, you can add the app to an Android 8.0 or later phone or an iPhone 5 or above with iOS 9 or above. Apple iPads and the iPod Touch are not supported. 

What’s missing from Samsung Health?

Based on users’ reviews, the biggest shortcomings of Samsung Health are the removal or downgrading of existing features. Most recently, Samsung redesigned the heart rate data display, removing the continuous heart rate line graph that many users preferred. In 2018, Samsung removed integration with third-party apps as well as temperature and humidity tracking. 

As mentioned above, the Samsung Health app no longer syncs with many third-party services. Compared to fully integrated competitors like Google Fit or Apple Health, this is one of the app’s biggest shortcomings. Athletes looking to link their Samsung Health account to more powerful or niche apps, like Runkeeper or Headspace, will be disappointed. 

Some of the specific tracking categories in Samsung Health also have a few shortcomings. When adding food to calorie tracking, there is no option for scanning barcodes or for inputting personal recipes. Sleep tracking doesn’t allow users to add in split sleep times or naps. When tracking runs, the app doesn’t provide a number of miles per week. It also doesn’t allow you to create interval workouts. These are all minor critiques, however, as overall the tracking is fairly robust. 

Also read: Fitbit vs Garmin — Which ecosystem is right for you?

Overall, Samsung Health is a solid fitness app and a good option for Samsung wearables. It tracks and organizes plenty of data to help users build healthy habits and get a handle on their fitness. The frankly absurd number of workouts and the community-building challenges are both aspects of the app that make it stand out. However, the market for fitness apps is competitive, and the app’s lack of third-party integration might be enough to steer some users elsewhere.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Can Samsung Health sync to Fitbit?
A: Unfortunately, as of now, the Samsung Health app can not be synced to Fitbit. 

Q: How do I update Samsung Health? 
A: To see if your Samsung Health app needs to be updated, find the app in the Google Play or App Store. If the options listed below the app name are Uninstall and Open, you are already running the latest version of Samsung Health. If instead of Open, the second option is Update, tap to begin updating your app to the newest version. 

Q: How do I turn off Samsung Health? 
A: To disable Samsung Health on your smartphone, find the app in the Google Play or App Store. Tap Uninstall, then tap to confirm the action. If you don’t want to uninstall the app and simply want to turn off auto-detect for workouts, you can do so in the settings menu within the Samsung Health app itself.

Q: Is Samsung Health free? Are there any hidden subscriptions or fees involved with using it?
A: The Samsung Health app is completely free. However, some of the resources available through partner services, such as Calm, may require subscriptions or fees.