Google Health Coach launches in India as Fitbit app becomes Google Health

Google has launched its AI-powered Health Coach in India, arriving inside a redesigned Google Health app—the new name for what was the Fitbit app—that ships on May 19 with a four-tab layout, sharper sleep tracking, and round-the-clock guidance from a Gemini-built coach.For existing Fitbit users, the switch is hands-off: a new icon shows up automatically, while data, devices, and history carry over untouched. The app itself is now organised across four tabs—Today, Fitness, Sleep, and Health—and finally plays nice with outside data, drawing in metrics from Health Connect and Apple Health instead of staying walled off as a Fitbit-only silo.The Coach itself starts rolling out the same day and hits 100% of users by May 26. It sits behind a Google Health Premium subscription—formerly Fitbit Premium—priced at Rs 99 a month or Rs 999 a year. Subscribers to Google AI Pro and AI Ultra get it bundled at no extra cost.For now, it works only on eligible Fitbit and Pixel Watch devices. Google says support for other wearables is coming, but has not committed to a timeline.When you set up the Coach, it asks about your goals, daily routine, equipment access, injuries, and lifestyle. It then builds weekly targets instead of a fixed schedule, adjusting daily suggestions based on readiness, progress, and even the weather. Tap "Ask Coach" any time for a quick chat—say, asking for a knee-friendly workout or why you woke up tired after crossing time zones.You can log meals by snapping a photo, upload PDFs for the Coach to summarise, dictate workouts by voice, or photograph a gym whiteboard. Cycle Tracking, Nutrition, and Mental Wellbeing have been rebuilt from scratch, so menstrual phase data, for instance, can shape recovery and workout recommendations.Sleep tracking gets a methodological upgrade. Google says its new machine learning model is 15% more accurate than the previous one against clinical gold-standard measurements, with better detection of naps, interruptions, and stage transitions.Google says the Coach is grounded in its SHARP framework—safety, helpfulness, accuracy, relevance, and personalisation—and was shaped by a Consumer Health Advisory Panel of clinicians, plus feedback from large-scale Fitbit Insights Explorer research studies. NBA star Stephen Curry, now a Google Performance Advisor, and his team contributed on goal setting and recovery.Health and wellness data from the app will not be used for Google Ads, the company reiterated—a commitment carried over from Fitbit. Users can delete or export their data anytime, with two-step authentication available across the app.