18 Nov 2022
Google’s Health Connect launches to the public in beta mode
BY Frances Marcellin
Google’s Health Connect is now accessible to the public in beta mode and can be downloaded from Google Play. The app’s development started earlier this year in a tie-up with Samsung, with early adopters such as MyFitnessPal, Oura and Peloton. Today there are more than ten apps available, adding the likes of Fitbit, Google Fit, WeightWatchers, Lifesum and Samsung Health to the collection.
According to Google, it is now easier for developers to share apps and data with Health Connect as they no longer have to create multiple API (application programming interface) connections.
“Now, with Health Connect, building an integration with a new app is as simple as reading in new data from Health Connect, rather than building a whole new integration,” Google said in a blog post.
Health Connect – which will be expanding to compete against Apple Health – currently supports more than 50 data types, such as exercise, sleep, heart rate and blood pressure. Now if a user completes a Peloton workout, it will register the data into all relevant apps, such as Oura.
“With the new Health Connect API, users will have a comprehensive set of controls to manage their health and fitness data across apps,” said TaeJong Jay Yang, EVP and head of health R&D team at mobile eXperience business, Samsung Electronics, earlier this year.
With users’ permission – which can be managed in one place rather than through multiple apps – developers can securely read from and write data to Health Connect. “Users will have full control over their privacy settings, with granular controls to see which apps are requesting access to data at any given time,” said Google. “The data in Health Connect is all on-device and encrypted. Users will have the ability to shut off access or delete data they don’t want on their device, and the option to prioritise one data source over another when using multiple apps.”
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