Google Adds Health Guardian Features to Fitbit Air, Expands Workout Detection to 100 Activities

Google announced new features for Fitbit Air and the Google Health app on Thursday. As per the Mountain View-based tech giant, the additions are aimed at helping users make sense of their activity and wellness data with less manual effort. The company is bringing expanded automatic workout detection and new tools to monitor longer-term health trends. Additionally, users will also be able to experience improvements to its AI-powered Health Coach in the Google Health app.

New Features for Fitbit Air, Google Health App

In a blog post, Google revealed that it has introduced more than 55 features and fixes since launching the Google Health app and Google Health Coach. The latest changes focus on health monitoring and automatic activity tracking.

Among the most notable additions is the Health Guardian suite, which is rolling out to Fitbit Air users. They can access the tools with a Google Health Premium subscription later this month. The company claims its suite can help users spot trends and make lifestyle adjustments earlier.

Once it is available, Fitbit Air users will be able to set up blood pressure and insulin resistance trends in the Google Health app. Those who meet the required monthly wear conditions will receive a report at the beginning of each month. As per the company, Health Coach can then help users interpret changes in these patterns, adjust fitness plans and receive personalised lifestyle and wellness guidance.

The company, however, cautions that these features are not intended to diagnose or treat medical conditions.

Apart from this, automatic activity detection is being upgraded for the Fitbit Air, as well as Pixel Watch 3 and later models. The update is scheduled to roll out later this month and is claimed to identify workouts more accurately. This includes instances when users forget to log them manually.

Workouts that meet the user's minimum duration threshold, set to 15 minutes by default, and maintain an elevated heart rate can be logged automatically. They will also receive a summary in the Google Health app within 30 minutes.

Google has described the updates made to Fitbit Air and the broader Google Health ecosystem as an attempt to connect wearables with health and wellness tools that work in the background.