Just installed the phone app. Less a "comprehensive view", and more of a pedometer with graphs. You can manually add activities but the only options are: Walking, Running, Biking, Other. And even then, you can only record duration. I suppose there is hidden integration with the wearables, but why can't I manually input the data?
> If I can't record squats, then what's the point?
The point is to be one front end to "[a]n open platform that lets users control their fitness data" and "lets developers build smarter apps and manufacturers focus on creating amazing devices." [1]
> You can manually add activities but the only options are: Walking, Running, Biking, Other.
The backend is aware of more activity types [2], so I suspect its either getting the right UX for that is the issue, or that developing the what to do with other activities to make the data meaningful that is holding back putting more into the app UI.
[1] https://developers.google.com/fit/ -- the page that, for me, comes up as the first web (not news) result for a Google search for "Google Fit".
Such a let down. I was hoping they would do something I could use.
There are surprisingly few, if any at all sites/apps fulfilling my very modest basic criteria.
-weight log
-calorie log
-gym and cardio progress log and plan
-not using Liberian units of measurements.
GDoc spreadsheet still seems like the best option.
--
Don't they do any market research at all at Google? No one interested in tracking anything will find this useful. Even the people only using a pedometers won't use it. This is a horrible interface getting that one number tracked that they are interested in.
Now I'm upset. So much money to spend and one lackluster product after another.
I think anyone that is even a little bit serious about their particular exercise/activity will not use this. I cycle and run. I record everything in Strava. Most of my friends do too. I can't really see a reason to use this. Counting steps does not seem to be very useful.
Were people asking for something like this, or is this Google responding to Apple's HealthKit?
I understand the need to offer competing products on their own platform, but I've come to doubt the long term usefulness/support of products in that second category.
I was thinking the same thing. Perhaps the cost of being late for "the next big thing" tomorrow is much greater than the cost of developing platforms for a variety of different niches today
Fit was announced at Google IO, about a fortnight after Healthkit was first announced - I assume that it was not in response to Healthkit, but a similar idea at the same time.
That's my main problem with the fitness app industry at large. They are much more focused on steps, running and calories than actual fitness.
And don't get me wrong, cardio works to a good extent. For most of sedentary folks, doing anything will be better than doing nothing, and their fitness level will improve.
But real fitness is about a lot more: strength training, interval training, sports, etc. Bodyweight workouts and HIIT are a much better return for your effort than "just tracking". And so will shifting your diet towards something like paleo or low-carb, instead of just tracking calories.
Part of my frustration with the fitness ecosystem is what made me start up http://8fit.com. It's a mobile app that offers HIIT do-it-at-home workouts and low-carb meal plans.
We don't track your steps. We don't integrate fancy wi-fi scales or wearables. But you know what? If eff-ing works, and our 60k-strong userbase loves the hell out of it for the results they're seeing.
True, but be careful to not fall into the other extreme.
There was a time when I was lifting 3 times a week, every week, bench pressing 100kg, etc. And I tried to ride a bike uphill (pretty long ride) and nearly puked my guts out.
You need both strength and endurance. And some fine motor skills, like playing ping-pong or throwing a frizbee.
And some R&R interspersed in there, regularly, otherwise you'll collapse from stress sooner or later.
It's probably impossible to have a perfect exercise regime and live a modern busy life, but the bottom line is - diversity is good.
I just installed this. I had been logging steps on my Android watch for the past few months, replacing my old Fitbit. I've been looking forward to Google Fit for a while so I can more easily examine all that step data and visualize it.
However, as soon as I got it installed, all my previous months' data was simply gone. Not imported into Google Fit, but just gone.
Fitbit wasn't perfect, but it was better than this.
I'm hoping they can incorporate something for weight lifting too. It'd be awesome to chart your growth in a more intuitive way rather then just using Excel.
I have no real judgment about fitness apps, watches, etc., but I am curious about why so many people use them?
If one doesn't have health issues and/or not a professional athlete - why would one want to keep track of fitness so closely?
I just go out and get exercise and enjoy myself and all this fitness app stuff seems like a distraction. Plus, I really don't want to destroy expensive stuff while I'm mountain biking out here in CO just to see my heartbeat.
Is it just an obsessive hobby done out of curiosity or is there some reason I should use a fitness app instead of simply enjoying myself on my bike, hiking, etc. and focusing on that instead?
Again, nothing against those who use these apps and devices, I guess I just don't understand the obsession.
> If one doesn't have health issues and/or not a professional athlete - why would one want to keep track of fitness so closely?
The majority of Americans are overweight -- which is a health issue, and addressing that health issue is one of the major reasons people use fitness trackers.
> I just go out and get exercise and enjoy myself and all this fitness app stuff seems like a distraction.
Lots of people don't enjoy exercise, especially people trying to establish a pattern with it that haven't done so yet.
> Is it just an obsessive hobby done out of curiosity or is there some reason I should use a fitness app instead of simply enjoying myself on my bike, hiking, etc. and focusing on that instead?
Anybody have any success connecting the app to Strava?
I'm really not a fan of the logo. Makes the app look like a different kind of app. Should be change it to something that's more associated with fitness at first glance.
It would be if they were still operating GH. That had the potential to be a massively useful product; I spent a few days putting all my records from the last several years into it and building a comprehensive EHR that belonged to me, instead of a hospital. I loved it and would cheerfully have paid subscription fees, but Google just nuked it with virtually no explanation.
I meticulously entered my lab results, height, weight, etc into Google health few years back. And they promptly discontinued the service. What is the guarantee that this will not meet the same faith? I am not buying into this unless they make it open source -- so that somebody else can take over when Google loses interest.
> What is the guarantee that this will not meet the same faith?
There's generally no guarantee that any service anyone provides won't be discontinued. Either (1) the service provider is prepared to jettison services that end up becoming net money losers (and thus, its services are at risk of being discontinued voluntarily), or (2) the service provider is not particularly concerned about being able to sustain itself (and thus, its services are at an elevated risk of being discontinued involuntarily).
There is not a third option.
> I am not buying into this unless they make it open source -- so that somebody else can take over when Google loses interest.
Open sourcing the implementation is kind of orthogonal to providing a transition path for the data so that what has been captured for any user can move to a new provider's system. It is neither necessary nor sufficient for that.
I don't understand this sentiment that always pops up on posts about new Google services. Google allows you to download your data and take it with you, so if Google abandons the service, you can go elsewhere pretty easily. This is not the case with a bunch of other services I use, yet I never see such posts about them.
The data mining criticisms hold a lot more weight but only in cases where they collect more data than is necessary to run the service. That's why paying for Fastmail doesn't make any sense. You're still trusting somebody else with your unencrypted email data. In this case though, I don't see the value-add that Google provides in having unencrypted access to the fitness data. It looks like a fairly dumb data store, in which case most of the data can be encrypted with a user password before being sent to Google.
It's clearly a product very early in development. I'm surprised Google released such a minimal product in such an important domain, but willing to give it a chance, feed it data and see how it matures.
> I'm surprised Google released such a minimal product in such an important domain
I'm not -- they need to have some data aggregation/presentation front-end to encourage manufacturers and source-data-feeding app vendors to integrate with the back-end. Once they do that, there'll be more incentive for more presentation front-end work (both by Google and by third-parties -- that's the whole point of an open platform.)
[+] [-] parfe|11 years ago|reply
If I can't record squats, then what's the point?
[+] [-] dragonwriter|11 years ago|reply
The point is to be one front end to "[a]n open platform that lets users control their fitness data" and "lets developers build smarter apps and manufacturers focus on creating amazing devices." [1]
> You can manually add activities but the only options are: Walking, Running, Biking, Other.
The backend is aware of more activity types [2], so I suspect its either getting the right UX for that is the issue, or that developing the what to do with other activities to make the data meaningful that is holding back putting more into the app UI.
[1] https://developers.google.com/fit/ -- the page that, for me, comes up as the first web (not news) result for a Google search for "Google Fit".
[2] https://developers.google.com/fit/rest/v1/reference/activity...
[+] [-] Fogest|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Numberwang|11 years ago|reply
There are surprisingly few, if any at all sites/apps fulfilling my very modest basic criteria.
-weight log
-calorie log
-gym and cardio progress log and plan
-not using Liberian units of measurements.
GDoc spreadsheet still seems like the best option.
--
Don't they do any market research at all at Google? No one interested in tracking anything will find this useful. Even the people only using a pedometers won't use it. This is a horrible interface getting that one number tracked that they are interested in.
Now I'm upset. So much money to spend and one lackluster product after another.
[+] [-] mirsadm|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kyriakos|11 years ago|reply
It seems more like a clone of Moves.
[+] [-] readme|11 years ago|reply
They get more accurate data if you aren't allowed to input it.
[+] [-] lost_name|11 years ago|reply
I understand the need to offer competing products on their own platform, but I've come to doubt the long term usefulness/support of products in that second category.
[+] [-] JTon|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] richbradshaw|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gadders|11 years ago|reply
Cardio != Fit. Strength is as much or more an aspect of fitness.
[+] [-] michokest|11 years ago|reply
And don't get me wrong, cardio works to a good extent. For most of sedentary folks, doing anything will be better than doing nothing, and their fitness level will improve.
But real fitness is about a lot more: strength training, interval training, sports, etc. Bodyweight workouts and HIIT are a much better return for your effort than "just tracking". And so will shifting your diet towards something like paleo or low-carb, instead of just tracking calories.
Part of my frustration with the fitness ecosystem is what made me start up http://8fit.com. It's a mobile app that offers HIIT do-it-at-home workouts and low-carb meal plans.
We don't track your steps. We don't integrate fancy wi-fi scales or wearables. But you know what? If eff-ing works, and our 60k-strong userbase loves the hell out of it for the results they're seeing.
[+] [-] Florin_Andrei|11 years ago|reply
There was a time when I was lifting 3 times a week, every week, bench pressing 100kg, etc. And I tried to ride a bike uphill (pretty long ride) and nearly puked my guts out.
You need both strength and endurance. And some fine motor skills, like playing ping-pong or throwing a frizbee.
And some R&R interspersed in there, regularly, otherwise you'll collapse from stress sooner or later.
It's probably impossible to have a perfect exercise regime and live a modern busy life, but the bottom line is - diversity is good.
[+] [-] dragonwriter|11 years ago|reply
So, the name Google Fit makes quite a lot of sense.
[+] [-] tvanantwerp|11 years ago|reply
However, as soon as I got it installed, all my previous months' data was simply gone. Not imported into Google Fit, but just gone.
Fitbit wasn't perfect, but it was better than this.
[+] [-] bergie|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jessejhernandez|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] richbradshaw|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] smileysteve|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Cowicide|11 years ago|reply
If one doesn't have health issues and/or not a professional athlete - why would one want to keep track of fitness so closely?
I just go out and get exercise and enjoy myself and all this fitness app stuff seems like a distraction. Plus, I really don't want to destroy expensive stuff while I'm mountain biking out here in CO just to see my heartbeat.
Is it just an obsessive hobby done out of curiosity or is there some reason I should use a fitness app instead of simply enjoying myself on my bike, hiking, etc. and focusing on that instead?
Again, nothing against those who use these apps and devices, I guess I just don't understand the obsession.
[+] [-] dragonwriter|11 years ago|reply
The majority of Americans are overweight -- which is a health issue, and addressing that health issue is one of the major reasons people use fitness trackers.
> I just go out and get exercise and enjoy myself and all this fitness app stuff seems like a distraction.
Lots of people don't enjoy exercise, especially people trying to establish a pattern with it that haven't done so yet.
> Is it just an obsessive hobby done out of curiosity or is there some reason I should use a fitness app instead of simply enjoying myself on my bike, hiking, etc. and focusing on that instead?
I think you are presenting a false dichotomy.
[+] [-] zenciadam|11 years ago|reply
So they can blog about the 1k they walked on facebook.
[+] [-] shasheene|11 years ago|reply
I'm really not a fan of the logo. Makes the app look like a different kind of app. Should be change it to something that's more associated with fitness at first glance.
[+] [-] VLM|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] anigbrowl|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] meadman|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thro1237|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dragonwriter|11 years ago|reply
There's generally no guarantee that any service anyone provides won't be discontinued. Either (1) the service provider is prepared to jettison services that end up becoming net money losers (and thus, its services are at risk of being discontinued voluntarily), or (2) the service provider is not particularly concerned about being able to sustain itself (and thus, its services are at an elevated risk of being discontinued involuntarily).
There is not a third option.
> I am not buying into this unless they make it open source -- so that somebody else can take over when Google loses interest.
Open sourcing the implementation is kind of orthogonal to providing a transition path for the data so that what has been captured for any user can move to a new provider's system. It is neither necessary nor sufficient for that.
[+] [-] lern_too_spel|11 years ago|reply
The data mining criticisms hold a lot more weight but only in cases where they collect more data than is necessary to run the service. That's why paying for Fastmail doesn't make any sense. You're still trusting somebody else with your unencrypted email data. In this case though, I don't see the value-add that Google provides in having unencrypted access to the fitness data. It looks like a fairly dumb data store, in which case most of the data can be encrypted with a user password before being sent to Google.
[+] [-] neves|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] macu|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dragonwriter|11 years ago|reply
I'm not -- they need to have some data aggregation/presentation front-end to encourage manufacturers and source-data-feeding app vendors to integrate with the back-end. Once they do that, there'll be more incentive for more presentation front-end work (both by Google and by third-parties -- that's the whole point of an open platform.)
[+] [-] phreeza|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tarellel|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kissickas|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Istof|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zyxley|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kolev|11 years ago|reply
[1] https://exist.io/
[+] [-] puzzlingcaptcha|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] executive|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nathansobo|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|11 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] zenciadam|11 years ago|reply
What about people who do things which require real athleticism or strength?
[+] [-] darkstar999|11 years ago|reply