Google’s fitness app makes the long jump to iPhone

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Google Fit has activity rings similar to an Apple Watch.
Google Fit has activity rings similar to an Apple Watch.
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Google’s rival to Apple Health just made the hop across platforms. Google Fit can now be installed on an iPhone, making it easier to participate in challenges with Android users.

Even better, the software can connect with the Health app to pull data from an Apple Watch.

Tracking your health with Google Fit for iOS

“When we launched the new Google Fit last year, we translated the science behind physical activity into two simple and smart activity goals: Move Minutes and Heart Points. Now, we’re bringing the Google Fit app to more people,” said Defne Gurel, the software’s product manager, in a blog post.

Move Minutes track how often the user is active, while Heart Points indicate how intense the activity is. These are similar to the Activity Rings on Apple Watch.

Synchronization… sort of

Google Fit synchronizes with Apple Health, so data collected through Sleep Cycle, Nike Run Club, Headspace and other applications counts toward Move Minutes and Heart Points. This includes information gathered from an Apple Watch.

However, the synchronization doesn’t go both ways. Information the Fit app collects isn’t shared with Health. So anyone who uses a Wear OS smart watch won‘t see their activity show up in Apple’s software.

Speaking of tracking, data collected through this software will surely be sold to advertisers, as that’s Google’s business model.

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