Andy Walker / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google has introduced Well being Join, its bid to enhance well being information sharing between apps on Android.
- Well being Join will let customers retailer their personal health particulars and permit authorized companies to entry this information.
- This could possibly be a significant breakthrough for these juggling information from a number of trackers and well being apps.
Well being and health monitoring will get tough for those who soar between platforms and apps, nevertheless it appears Google is conscious of this challenge and may have already got an answer nicely within the works. At I/O 2022, Google unveiled Well being Join, an app, service, and API that’ll enable shoppers extra management of their well being information.
See additionally: Every part we all know in regards to the Pixel Watch
Well being Join: How does it work?
Developed alongside Samsung and launched on the Play Retailer this week, Well being Join helps Samsung Well being, Fitbit, and Google Match, though none are lively on the app on the time of writing.
The service acts as a intermediary, permitting customers of supported platforms to sync information to Well being Join. It’ll then allow different apps and companies entry to that information because the person needs. In concept, which means that for those who personal a Samsung Galaxy Watch however need to use Fitbit’s app for monitoring and evaluation, you might do exactly that.
Some information streams initially supported by Well being Join will embrace day by day actions and vitamin, physique measurements, menstrual cycle monitoring, and sleep. It additionally helps extra specialised information fields, together with physique temperature and blood oxygen ranges.
Naturally, there’ll seemingly be some limitations. For example, whereas the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 has a physique composition monitor built-in, the Fitbit app has no approach to show these metrics. We think about customers must follow their {hardware} maker’s devoted app in these cases. Nonetheless, Well being Join may seemingly resolve the issue of some trackers not supporting well being apps, and vice versa.
These questioning Google’s information practices may not really feel snug with retaining their well being and health information in a central hub. Nevertheless, in keeping with Google, the info is saved offline and guarded by a set of recent permissions to for delicate information.
It’s unclear which {hardware} makers will undertake Well being Join, however the likes of Withings and platforms like MyFitnessPal may implement the service sooner or later sooner or later.
For now, if you wish to give a sparse early entry model of Well being Join a go, seize it utilizing the obtain button under.
