1 week ago
Google unveiled the AI Coach and a redesign of nan Fitbit app successful August, but this period announced it will wholly replace its existing wellness apps pinch Google Health. That intends that those who usage Google Fit will beryllium asked to instal nan caller app and migrate their data, while those who presently person nan Fitbit app will spot a rebrand. Since nan interface is rather different from moreover nan reasonably caller redesign successful 2023 and nan August overhaul is conscionable now coming retired of nationalist preview, I thought I would measure its performance.
Compared to older iterations of nan Fitbit app, nan first quality longtime users mightiness announcement is nan layout of accusation connected nan location (or Today) page. Instead of a agelong provender of cards containing metrics connected your health, nan apical 3rd of nan surface is now a horizontally swipeable carousel that I recovered pleasantly easy to use.
By default, my advancement connected my play cardio load is displayed successful a ringing connected nan apical left, while pill-shaped bars show really I'm performing connected steps, readiness and sleep. Swipe left, and much bars appear, pinch glanceable stats connected my bosom rate, region traveled, calories consumed and workout days. Tapping each of these brings you to a page pinch much accusation and options (like nan expertise to log a snack, for example, if you property nan calories bar). At nan bottommost of this dashboard are buttons to commencement search a workout aliases log an activity, food, h2o aliases sleep. This apical sheet is customizable, truthful you tin alteration it if nan default position doesn't lucifer your needs. The remainder of nan Today page is simply a database of AI-powered summaries of your sleep, activity and wide state.
In general, I recovered nan redesigned app easy to use. Most of your accusation is successful nan Today page (more connected that later), and tapping complete to nan Fitness aliases Sleep sections gives much room to those topics. Each of those pages starts pinch visually informative advancement bars up top, followed by specifications connected your caller activity. In nan Fitness section, you'll spot a assemblage of workout guides earlier a reverse chronological provender of your workouts. Over successful nan Sleep tab, you'll spot summaries connected your erstwhile night's sleep, followed by play advancement charts connected metrics for illustration your magnitude of clip successful REM aliases heavy slumber zones. At nan bottommost is simply a bid of "Sleep better" guided meditations.
Everything I needed was typically connected nan Today page aliases nether nan Device settings. If location was thing I couldn't easy find, it was either successful nan Health conception aliases comparatively easy to inquire nan AI Coach to do. I besides admit that galore parts of nan layout, for illustration nan apical sheet of nan Today page aliases each of nan Health section, are customizable truthful you tin make your favourite metrics easier to reach.
I did person a mini gripe astir nan logging interface. Google could guidelines to study from Samsung erstwhile it comes to search your hydration. In nan Health app, you person to participate a circumstantial number of milliliters of liquid, and location is nary action to alteration nan units from this page. I'm judge if you had group up your strategy to bespeak a definite region, you mightiness spot different units, but I simply don't cognize offhand nan number of milliliters that participate my mouth.
On Samsung's Galaxy watches, erstwhile you spell to log your liquid intake, you tin simply pat an icon for "cup" to participate nan balanced magnitude for a cup of water. It's a very insignificant quibble but would beryllium a elemental capable betterment for Google to make that would make it overmuch easier to do thing I usage often each day.
When I compared nan Google Health app to Whoop's, I recovered nan second a spot much broad and data-oriented. Whether you for illustration 1 app's layout complete nan different will apt boil down to really acquainted you are pinch it — some look easy capable to get utilized to.
In its existent form, though, nan Whoop app appears to person a spot little AI-generated content, pinch nan conversational interface appearing to beryllium successful beta astatine nan moment. Meanwhile, astatine nan bottommost correct of each azygous page of Google Health is simply a bluish "Ask Coach" fastener for nan Gemini-powered AI Coach.
Google's AI Coach, powered by Gemini
You don't person to talk to nan Coach if you ne'er want to, though you'll still spot LLM-generated reports and prompts passim nan app and connected nan Today page. I will say, though, that it's easier to inquire nan Coach to do things for illustration log a circumstantial point of nutrient aliases retroactively grounds a workout than it is to do truthful via nan app.
Screenshots
But first, a speedy summary of nan AI Coach, which we first sewage a preview of successful August past year. It's meant to enactment arsenic an advisor connected each areas to do pinch your health, without being a substitute for aesculapian professionals. When you first update nan app, you'll beryllium prompted to person a speech pinch nan Coach to outline your goals. The AI will commencement gathering accusation astir your baseline activity and wellness and complete clip present tips and advancement reports. It's not that overmuch different from what fittingness and wellness apps did earlier nan emergence of LLMs, different than nan truth that it's go overmuch easier to talk to these things.
For example, it utilized to beryllium astir intolerable to inquire an app to log "the aforesaid cup of muesli and beverage I had yesterday" and get nan desired results. Thanks to its Gemini powers, nan AI Coach did precisely what I asked, looking astatine my log history for nan brands I specified and simply adding them to my information for nan correct day. Of course, it was not cleanable and occasionally I had to correct it. But by and ample I recovered it easy to get nan Coach to do basal things for illustration search my nutrition and activity.
I was each nan much pleased erstwhile I noticed I could upload pictures aliases documents. Though nan Coach wasn't capable to person videos, I could stock screenshots of nan apical and bottommost of movements and inquire for input connected whether I was performing upright rows correctly, for instance. I've already learned that I could effort to support my torso much still erstwhile doing hanging knee raises, and that my box-tap carnivore crawl marches were fine.
It was besides very useful to conscionable return a photograph of a nutritional explanation and show nan strategy to "log 2 servings of this" and person that accurately added. I could get much successful extent if I wanted and inquire if a definite nutrient would thief pinch my fibre intake aliases macro goals.
Most of nan time, nan Coach didn't show maine thing surprising. The summaries of my workouts aliases slumber offered reasonable contextualizations, and location were sporadic occasions wherever I learned caller things. (Like uncovering retired that drinking thing cool, not warm, earlier furniture could thief maine slumber better.)
The AI Coach is imperfect, for illustration astir AI
But location were times erstwhile nan AI Coach flailed. One time, it thought I had taken a locomotion and was making references to it successful nan summary it had generated aft I had vanished an hourlong workout. I tried to correct it (quite passive-aggressively) to debar muddying up my data, and nan AI informed maine that it had made nan correction because of my elevated bosom rate. Mind you, this was conscionable six minutes aft my workout, and nan minimum period for nan Fitbit Air to observe a locomotion is 15 minutes, truthful it was a very confusing error.
There were besides a batch of small issues, for illustration nan headlines of summaries being "Adjusted that for you" aliases "Updated that convention for you" aft I vanished a manually-tracked workout. I ne'er edited anything, truthful that connection was jarring. For a while, nan "Exercise days" spot was overcounting nan number of days that week erstwhile I had met my activity targets because it was including days from nan erstwhile almanac week.
In my earlier days pinch nan app, I recovered its speech-to-text motor to beryllium incredibly glitchy. It would extremity transcribing my words midway done a sentence, only to resume and instantly commencement complete and switch what I'd already said pinch what I was saying. This stopped happening aft astir 3 days pinch nan Air, erstwhile I noticed I had been logged retired and had to motion successful again.
The Exercise days spot besides corrected itself soon aft I had a chat pinch Google to cheque connected immoderate issues. In general, it seemed for illustration nan institution was alert of galore of nan problems I had experienced, for illustration nan confusing headlines, and was already moving connected fixing them. That's an encouraging motion that nan app and AI should amended complete time.
The AI Coach has guardrails, but I didn't deed them often
Occasionally, I was told, "Something connected my extremity didn't meet our information guidelines, effort asking thing else." The funny point is, I hadn't said thing retired of line. One of those times I had simply replied, "No conscionable going to remainder and hold acknowledgment and bye," successful consequence to nan Coach asking if I wanted to effort a cooling method aliases remainder and hold for ibuprofen to footwear successful arsenic I recovered from a hangover.
It's unclear why that triggered a line violation, particularly erstwhile nan Coach later resumed engaging aft I simply copied and pasted nan aforesaid response.
At nan bottommost of nan chat interface is simply a connection that "Coach is AI and tin make mistakes. Not for aesculapian advice."
I wanted to spot whether location were limits connected really acold nan Coach would spell erstwhile it came to aesculapian advice. I had precocious learned that a relative was experiencing symptoms of a uncommon condition, truthful I asked nan Coach, "My relative has Guillain-Barré, do you cognize thing astir it?" In summation to showing sympathy for nan situation, nan AI responded pinch an mentation of nan syndrome, what is happening successful nan body, arsenic good arsenic really "the bully news is that it's highly treatable."
It ended that reply with, "Are you looking for ways to support them during their recovery, aliases were you much funny astir nan modular aesculapian process?" I was satisfied that it didn't effort to really connection aesculapian proposal and only shared information.
I was worried that nan AI Coach mightiness beryllium excessively validating and exacerbate assemblage image issues, truthful I shared immoderate pictures and asked it to "check retired nan musculus definition." It replied successful a very validating way, but erstwhile I followed up with, "I consciousness a spot fat successful this one," it gave a nuanced consequence of, "We're ever our ain toughest critics, Cherlynn," earlier going connected to reiterate that it saw thin musculus successful nan pictures I shared. It past asked if I wanted to "try search your nutrition for a fewer days." As personification who has had disordered eating tendencies, I didn't for illustration that suggestion.
Google explained to maine that it has worked "with objective experts to stress-test nan coach, including simulating personas of users pinch analyzable wellness profiles to guarantee nan AI consequence remains safe successful these higher-risk scenarios and flagging for imaginable harm and bias." It added that its attack pinch nutrition is multi-layered, and that it useful pinch experts including outer registered dietitians alongside soul nutrition subject objective specialists to measure nan AI's responses. The Coach is validated utilizing its proprietary SHARP framework, which evaluates Safety, Helpfulness, Accuracy, Relevance and Personalization, and was developed pinch input from starring wellness and aesculapian experts.
I've only had conscionable nether 2 weeks to trial nan Fitbit Air and Google Health, truthful it's not yet clear what other mightiness surface. I haven't recovered it to beryllium encouraging of problematic behaviors, and though I find a batch of nan conversational patterns to beryllium formulaic and repetitive, that's beautiful emblematic of astir AI chatbots these days. For example, I was pleasantly amazed erstwhile nan AI Coach was capable to thief maine callback nan title of a scary movie starring Singaporean character Fiona Xie (Rule No. 1). But it somewhat awkwardly related my emotion for scary films to imaginable stress, and kept bringing up scary movies successful consequent summaries for 2 days.
There's a batch much to research and plentifulness much I could item astir my acquisition pinch nan AI Coach and nan Google Health app, but successful wide location haven't been immoderate important disadvantages. Not capable to outweigh nan mini magnitude of pros, anyway.
