Back in August this year, Google announced that it was working on a new personal health coach for Fitbit users, powered by Gemini, and said it would arrive later this year.
The company promised that this new AI coach would support a variety of features, including creating personalized fitness plans, offering advanced sleep tracking, and providing answers to a wide range of health questions.
Now, Google appears to have kept its promise as the new experience is rolling out as a Public Preview "starting tomorrow and over the next week" for eligible Android Fitbit Premium users in the US. iOS users will get access soon.
When the preview starts rolling out tomorrow, you first have the option to engage in a five to ten-minute conversation with the coach to help them understand your goals. You can do this with voice or text, and the more information you provide, the better it can fine-tune your plans.
The personal health coach is integrated into a redesigned app that has several tabs. The "Today" tab is meant to show you metrics and timely insights when you wake up or after a workout. There"s also a Fitness tab that lets you follow your weekly progress and track core metrics like your weekly cardio load. Other tabs include "Sleep" for quality insights and "Health" for monitoring vitals like heart rate variability.
When it comes to sleep, the coach aims to connect your data points for you. You can ask for a detailed analysis with questions like "Why did I wake up feeling tired today?". It can provide personalized recommendations on how to get more deep sleep, identify patterns in your sleep quality, and even compare your sleep data against other people in your demographic group to give you some context.
The AI is also capable of helping you prepare for medical appointments. For instance, you could brainstorm with the coach and ask, "I have my annual check-up, what are some good questions to ask my doctor?".
Since this is a "brand new experience" according to Google, you should expect some quirks. Plus, the company claims you should expect "regular improvements and communication" as it refines the service based on user feedback.