The Fitbit App Is Turning Into an AI-Powered Personal Health Coach

Fitbit smartphone application has undergone several overhaul in the past two years, and now there is another Big to come in October, launching the new Pixel Watch 4 watch announced as an opt-in review (an open beta version), the design focuses on the personal health trainer powered by Google, built with Gemini.

The entire application was rebuilt from zero with the new AI coaching feature. Andy Abramson, director of product management at Google, says that the redesign also offers easier application, better data visualization, improved synchronization between portable devices and (finally) a dark mode. These are all suggestions from allegedly common user of existing Fitbit customers.

Photography: Julian Chokkattu

This personal health coach function is only available for Premium Fitbit subscribers. The idea behind the assistant – who does not have quite a personality or even a name – is to allow users to ask for anything and anything on health and physical form and receive personalized advice thanks to the 24/7 health data collected by your Fitbit Wearable or Pixel watch. During integration, the coach will ask you questions so that he can better understand your preferences and equipment, but it is a conversation that will evolve continuously.

When the coach presents your data with ideas, such as your sleep score from the previous night or the most recent training data, you can start a conversation and the data will be integrated into the coach’s responses. This conversation could then include the adaptation of training sessions for the week if your sleep score was not great. If you just don’t feel up to it or if you are under the weather, simply say to the coach, and this will make adjustments to the training plan and even follow how you feel after a while.

With the kind permission of Julian Chokkattu

These conversations look like the discussion window when you talk to Gemini, and the answers can be verbal. Rishi Chandra, vice-president of health at Google, said that society had to balance a border between too short responses and were not insightful and extremely long responses. Currently, you can only type for the coach, but the experience is still in an overview. Chandra claims that the company explores multimodal interactions – think of sending a video of your hotel gym equipment and the demand for training recommendations – and potentially integrate Gemini Live for a more real conversation experience.

A large part of the new Fitbit application experience also focuses on personalization. The focus metric at the top of the home page, which shows you your performance for the day, can be personalized to show the data you prefer. Likewise, if the coach serves you a training plan for the week, just start a conversation to make adjustments. The coach also examines your performance on a weekly basis rather than one day, giving users more flexibility to achieve their goals. (This includes the cardio loading function last year on the Pixel watch.)

The coach will be able to draw into your Fitbit historic data, as long as she goes up. There is a notes coach section that allows you to see everything you’ve ever said to the coach, and you can delete them at any time. Google must always follow the separation commitments of the established data when it has acquired Fitbit, which means that your health data cannot be used for Google ads and is stored separately from other Google data.