March 25, 2024
What is Health Connect and How is it Different from Google Fit?
Both are Google products, but by 2025, Health Connect is to completely replace Google Fit as the tool for sharing of user data between Android apps. The timeline of change, the main differences between the two products, the list of supported data types, and data migration instructions are outlined in our post below.
Short History of Google Fit
Released in October of 2014, Google Fit is an activity tracking app - present in both Google Play and App Store - and offers step counting, goal setting, and tracking of other parameters such as nutrition, sleep, body measurements, vitals, and cycle. Also, Google Fit initially offered integration with a wide range of third-party apps on Android phones, allowing users to import or export their health and fitness data as they pleased. In 2022, however, Google announced that the Google Fit Android API is depreciated and will be turned down by the end of 2024, meaning that all apps that have been using Google Fit for syncing user data will lose this ability.
Short History of Health Connect
In the same year of 2022 Google made another announcement: Health Connect was being developed to act as the central hub, enabling users to channel their health data between apps. As of March 2024, Health Connect is in beta, and available in Google Play. It first came preinstalled on newer Pixel phones, then starting with Android 14 - became part of the operating system, meaning that users cannot uninstall it from their devices (it can still be disabled). Health Connect provides an API for reading and writing of user health data, and seamlessly supporting interoperability between Google Fit, Samsung Health, Fitbit, Health Diary, and other apps.
Health Connect is Different from Google Fit in the Following Ways:
- It is device-centric (rather than Google account-centric), and all data is stored locally on the smartphone (rather than in the cloud), encrypted for additional security;
- Users cannot really see their data in Health Connect, but once the feeds are set up, some other apps (including Google Fit and Health Diary by MedM) can be used to view the collected data;
- It enables users to manage their fitness and health app connections and associated data in a single control center, choosing which apps can supply data, and which can read, display, and store it;
- Newly connected apps can only see 30 days deep into data history;
- It is not an app in the traditional sense: it can be downloaded from Google Play, but will not appear among other apps, and needs to be accessed from Settings;
- On the Health Connect dashboard users can see apps which have recently accessed the service.
List of Data Types Supported by Health Connect in 2024
Currently there are over two dozen data types supported by Health Connect: Active Calories Burned, Basal Body Temperature, Basal Metabolic Rate, Blood Glucose, Blood Pressure, Body Fat, Body Temperature, Body Water Mass, Bone Mass, Cervical Mucus, Cycling Pedaling Cadence, Distance, Elevation Gained, Exercise Session, Floors Climbed, Heart Rate, Heart Rate Variability, Height, Hydration, Intermenstrual Bleeding, Lean Body Mass, Menstruation Flow, Menstruation Period, Nutrition, Ovulation Test, Oxygen Saturation, Power, Respiratory Rate, Resting Heart Rate, Sexual Activity, Sleep Session, Speed, Steps Cadence, Steps, Total Calories Burned, Vo2Max, Weight, and Wheelchair Pushes.
How to Migrate from Google Fit to Health Connect for MedM Users
Health Diary by MedM is an award-winning holistic health monitoring diary and vitals tracker app that can automatically collect 20+ measurement types from 800+ Bluetooth-enabled medical devices by 150+ brands. The Health Diary is built to support users in reaching their health & wellness goals, managing chronic conditions, and improving their quality of life. For all MedM users who have been syncing their health data with Google Fit, we recommend to first migrate all of their existing data from Google Fit to Health Connect, and then to switch their MedM app data sync from Google Fit to Health Connect. Here is how to achieve this:
- Download Health Connect from the Google Play Store on your Android phone;
- For quick access to Health Connect add it to the System App Bar (which is opened by swiping from the top down on Android devices);
- Open Health Connect and select “App permissions”;
- Select Google Fit and choose the data you want to read or write to Health Connect and tap “Allow”;
- Open the app menu in MedM Health Diary -> select Data Sync -> select Health Connect -> tap the up or down arrows next to the data types you wish to export to or import from Health Connect;
- Once redirected to the “App access” screen in Health Connect – grant all required permissions to MedM by selecting the data types to be read or written, and then tap “Allow”.
Please note that data syncing with Health Connect is a premium feature that is only available to registered users with an active MedM subscription. Please see our User Manual for more information on setting up data sync with other connected health ecosystems.
