Xbox Fitness Now Syncs With Microsoft Health

When the Xbox One launched nearly two years ago, it came with a service known as Xbox Fitness. It featured exercise routines from top-tier trainers like Jillian Michaels and Shaun T. Employing the Kinect sensor, it tracked player heart rate and gauged the number of calories burned. In addition to this it would give user feedback on their training performance.

Now the service is extending itself outside the Xbox One. Much like Xbox Music syncing with OneDrive, Xbox Fitness will now sync data with Microsoft Health. What this means is, you'll be able to access your exercise data across devices via the Health dashboard.

So if you're one of the lucky few who owns a Microsoft Band, you can choose to exercise in a gym, and perhaps take the work out home with Xbox Fitness. All the data is synced to one central location that's accessible on the Web or through cross-platform apps.

Thanks to an update to the Xbox Fitness app that is now available, there's no set up required and the Xbox Fitness app will help you create a Microsoft Health account if you don't have one.

It seems like a smart move what with Microsoft preparing to launch Health internationally. Throw in the fact that the Xbox One has been effectively decoupled from Kinect, makes this all the more astute. Furthermore, with Jawbone, Google, Fitbit, Goqii, and Apple among others making up a crowded health and fitness space, allowing usage across devices should help strengthen the Redmond-based company's efforts.