Google rebrands Fitbit app as Google Health, brings AI coaching to India

The changes arrive at a time when competition in wearable health is moving beyond sensors and into software, where interpretation and recommendations are starting to matter as much as raw data.

Fitbit becomes Google Health

The most immediate change is the rebrand. Fitbit, at least on the software side, is now becoming Google Health, with a redesigned app that brings together fitness, sleep, and health metrics into one place. The ‘Today’ tab is no longer just a summary of numbers. It mixes key metrics like steps, readiness, and sleep with contextual updates that explain what is happening. A circular weekly cardio score sits prominently at the top, showing progress against targets, while tiles for steps, readiness, and sleep provide quick snapshots.

But the bigger change is how the app behaves as you scroll. Instead of static charts, it reads more like a feed. It tells you how you slept, highlights whether you met goals, and nudges you on what to do next. In one example, the app points out improved recovery after additional sleep and suggests continuing with a planned run. That kind of interpretation appears throughout the experience.

Sleep tracking has also been expanded in detail. The app now breaks down sleep into stages such as REM, light, and deep sleep, alongside indicators like restlessness and interruptions. Google says its updated machine learning models improve sleep-stage detection accuracy by around 15 percent, especially in capturing interruptions and transitions.

Fitness tracking is also moving toward guided usage. The app supports structured workouts with timers, exercise visuals, and cardio load metrics. After a session, users can rate effort levels, and the system feeds that back into readiness and recovery scores. This ties different parts of the app together more tightly than before.

Logging has become more flexible as well. Users can log activities, weight, hydration, or meals not just manually but through conversation, voice, or images. One example shows a meal photo being analysed to estimate calories and macros, while another shows workouts being logged directly through chat prompts. All of this makes the app feel less like a passive tracker and more like an active layer that interprets your data throughout the day.

AI health coaching comes to India

Google Health keeps the basics free, but puts most of the “smarts” behind a paywall. Without a subscription, users still get standard tracking like steps, heart rate, sleep data, and access to the redesigned app with its dashboards and trends. The premium tier, however, is where the experience changes. Google Health Coach, which runs on Gemini, sits inside the paid plan and handles personalised guidance, adaptive workout plans, deeper sleep analysis, and conversational insights. Features like advanced coaching, proactive recommendations, and some of the more detailed interpretations of your data are tied to this subscription, priced at Rs 99 per month or Rs 999 per year. In practice, the free version tracks what you do, while the premium version tries to tell you what to do next.

Built on Gemini, the coach sits across the app rather than inside a single section. It pulls data from sleep, activity, recovery, and user inputs to generate responses that are meant to feel situational. Instead of generic prompts, the system reacts to what has actually happened. The tone is noticeably conversational. In one example, the app acknowledges a disrupted night’s sleep, recognises recovery after additional rest, and nudges the user toward completing a planned workout. In another, it summarises a run, explains its contribution to weekly goals, and ties it to broader fitness progress.

The coach can also adapt plans dynamically. If a user is travelling, injured, or short on time, it adjusts workouts accordingly. It can suggest lighter sessions, change focus areas, or recommend recovery strategies. The same applies to sleep and nutrition, where the system identifies patterns and suggests adjustments.

Google is also expanding feature coverage within this layer. Cycle tracking, nutrition logging, and mental wellbeing tools are now integrated into the same experience. Users can upload meal photos for nutritional estimates, track hydration and macros, and get insights that connect these inputs with sleep and activity data.

For existing Fitbit and Pixel Watch users, these changes will likely feel like an upgrade in how their data is presented and used. For new buyers, the decision may come down to whether they want a system that not only tracks activity but actively comments on it.