Put on OS Weekly
My weekly column focuses on the state of Put on OS, from new developments to the newest apps and options.
Google’s new AI private well being coach will put your well being, sleep, and exercise knowledge by means of a Gemini blender and spew out customized coaching recs. Pixel Watch 4 and Fitbit watch homeowners will get to strive it out in October, however this AI instrument has unearthed an previous bone I’ve to choose with Google: why cannot new Pixel and Fitbit watches exist on the identical time?
Across the Pixel Watch 3 launch, Engadget requested Google if we might ever see a “Fitbit-branded smartwatch” once more. Google mentioned Pixel Watches are its “subsequent iteration of smartwatch for Fitbit” and that Fitbit {hardware} would concentrate on “minimalistic, long-lasting trackers” just like the Encourage 3 transferring ahead.
You possibly can nonetheless purchase the 2022 Fitbit Sense 2 or Versa 4 and feed Fitbit’s new AI with HR, sleep, stress, and cardio load knowledge. A Google spokesperson instructed me that the latest and greatest Fitbits “give the non-public well being coach essentially the most data to work with.”
Nevertheless, the spokesperson would not touch upon whether or not these previous Fitbits would offer the “full” teaching expertise. Apart from the Pixel Watch 4 having extra correct knowledge with dual-band GPS and newer HR/sleep algorithms, solely the newest Pixel Watches will import the AI coach’s customized exercises onto your wrist for steering.
Google has each proper to push its Pixel Watches as the perfect smartwatch expertise for athletes. Nevertheless, I nonetheless suppose this technique excludes many individuals who’d love a Fitbit coach however favor a basic Fitbit watch.
Why the Fitbit AI coach sounds so intriguing
After telling Gemini your present exercise targets, the Fitbit AI well being coach will generate coaching plans with weekly benchmarks to hit. You will obtain a exercise plan tailor-made to your distinctive targets and health degree, which adjusts mechanically primarily based in your sleep high quality, cardio load, and different components.
On high of that, you’ll be able to ask Gemini for recommendation on sleep, coaching, or well being and have it “analyze your traits” to supply a customized reply, as an alternative of the generic response most health chatbots give.
Better of all, you’ll be able to merely clarify that you simply’re not feeling properly or have an damage, and the AI will shift your coaching plan accordingly, comparable to swapping an hour of HIIT to half-hour of yoga due to excessive sleep debt.
Smartwatches with customized exercise solutions are uncommon. Garmin watches have each day instructed exercises and customized coaching plans. What might give Fitbit an edge, nevertheless, are these “real-time check-ins and changes.”
My Garmin Forerunner 970 can modify my exercise solutions if my cardiovascular or muscular load is simply too excessive. However its algorithm cannot detect issues like illness, an damage, or being pregnant that stop you from following its plan; nor are you able to simply change out a selected exercise if you happen to’re busy.
To have the ability to inform Fitbit, “Are you able to push my monitor exercise to Friday and provides me a straightforward run for at the moment?” and have your schedule replace in seconds feels dynamic sufficient to justify the subscription price, if it really works as marketed.
Picture 1 of 3
Google does not have a lot AI health competitors. Garmin Join Plus and Strava’s Athlete Intelligence incorporate your exercise stats into chatbot summaries, however Strava’s Runna plans and Garmin Coach haven’t any equal method to “speak” to them or swap to a brand new exercise rec simply.
Samsung reportedly plans to launch an AI Well being Coach this yr, which might incorporate your Galaxy Watch 8 well being knowledge and physician’s suggestions for healthcare steering, facilitated by a chatbot. The stakes are decrease for Google’s fitness- and wellness-focused AI, which might make it simpler to tug off.
That is why Fitbit’s private coach appears so promising, and why it is a disgrace extra folks will not get an opportunity to strive it.
Some folks simply do not need a ‘smartwatch’
Fitbit used to dominate wearable gross sales charts, however fell behind as folks shifted away from Cost-style health bands to smartwatches and cheaper health watches. It was final ranked tenth on Counterpoint’s gross sales checklist in 2022, down from seventh in 2021. These days, Huawei, Xiaomi, Apple, and Samsung take practically two-thirds of whole gross sales (per IDC), whereas Garmin has crept into fifth.
I am not saying it might be straightforward for Fitbit to compete with these worldwide manufacturers. However Garmin does properly promoting painfully costly watches to athletes on the power of its coaching suggestions and watches that final for weeks per cost. Fitbit watches goal a distinct demographic, however with comparable perks.
Fitbit’s private well being coach might trip the wave of AI reputation, however the ChatGPT crowd it could resonate with could use iPhones or a distinct Android model, and would not strive a Pixel Watch linked with Pixel telephones as readily as a standalone Fitbit.
A number of of my prolonged relations use an iPhone and a Fitbit, or did till they stopped making new Fitbits. I do know they’d take pleasure in speaking to a “smarter Siri” about dropping pounds or newbie exercise routines, however they would not purchase a brand new telephone or a tiny Fitbit Encourage band to strive it, nor commerce per week of battery life away for apps.
Likewise, most of my native working membership members put on devoted health watches that prioritize longevity. The Pixel Watch 4 may work for runners as a result of its speedy charging might high off the used battery whereas they bathe, however I do not know what number of of them might be prepared to lose that comforting battery buffer.
If Google offered a Fitbit Sense 3 or Versa 5 that bought the Watch 4’s new well being sensors, higher GPS accuracy, and satellite tv for pc SOS paired with per week of battery life, each informal and critical athletes would commerce away the opposite Pixel Watch 4 perks for that. Google would get much more Fitbit Premium subscribers, each Android and iOS.
Since that is unlikely to occur, we’ll see if Google’s Pixel exclusivity gambit pays off and extra athletes change to Pixel telephones for these AI teaching insights.
