Google will apparently unveil a new health-related platform of its own at Google I/O in late June, following the failed Google Health initiative from a few years ago, Forbes has learned. The new service will be called Google Fit, and will allow smart wearable devices to connect to Android handsets and tablets to collect health and fitness data via various apps.
Google Fit would thus compete with Apple’s HealtKit platform and Health app that were announced at WWDC 2014, but also with Samsung’s recently unveiled Sami health platform.
The publication says that Google Fit will “aggregate data through open APIs instruction sets that allow apps to share information, and will also announce partnerships with wearable device makers at its I/O conference.”
It’s not clear at this point whether Google Fit will be one of the main new features of the upcoming Android update – which may be a major one according to some recent revelations – or whether it will work with older Android OS versions as well.
However, Google Fit should work with Android Wear-powered wearable devices, which should be demoed at Google I/O 2014 too – but with other wearables as well – to collect health information.
While Google is yet to confirm Google Fit, the company has scheduled various wearable-related sessions at I/O, including a “wearable computing with Google” session on the first day and a “designing for wearables” session on Day 2. Also on Day 2 a session on “Android and cloud” could reveal more details about Google Fit, as the health platform would also be tied to Google’s cloud-based services, according to a source familiar with the matter.
