Google announces screenless Fitbit Air and new Google Health app

In short: Google is launching a new screenless Fitbit Air for $99.99 and is replacing the Fitbit app with a new Google Health app that can include an AI Health Coach.

What happened

Google introduced the Fitbit Air, a small “puck” that slips into different wrist bands and has no screen. Think of it like a fitness tracker you wear for sensing, not for checking the time. Google says the Air lasts about a week on a charge, and it can store up to a day of data even if your phone is not nearby.

The Fitbit Air includes sensors for heart rate, movement, blood oxygen (SpO2, a rough measure of oxygen in your blood), and skin temperature. Google says its heart rate sensor is not as advanced as the one in recent Pixel Watches, so it may be less accurate during intense workouts. It can vibrate for alarms, but it will not buzz for phone notifications like a smartwatch.

Google also said the Fitbit app will be renamed Google Health in an update coming in the next few weeks. The paid plan, Fitbit Premium, will become Google Health Premium, priced at $10 per month or $100 per year. Premium adds an AI Health Coach chatbot that can answer health and fitness questions using your own data, and it can log food from a photo.

The Fitbit Air launches May 26 and is available for preorder now. It costs $99.99 and includes a band and three months of Google Health Premium. Google Fit, Google’s other health tracking app, will shut down later this year, and users will need to move their data to Google Health.

Why it matters

This is Google pushing health tracking toward “always on” wearables that are easier to wear all day, including while sleeping, since there is no screen and fewer reasons to interact with it. It also puts more personal health data into a single Google app, with Google saying it will not use that data for ads and will only use it for AI training if you turn that on.

Source: Arstechnica