Sunday Runday
On this weekly column, Android Central Wearables Editor Michael Hicks talks concerning the world of wearables, apps, and health tech associated to working and well being, in his quest to get quicker and healthier.
Google I/O 2024 arrives this Tuesday, and we count on a Put on OS 5 announcement. The final three I/Os gave us a large Put on OS 3 overhaul (2021), a Pixel Watch reveal (2022), and a Put on OS 4 preview (2023). After two bombshells, final yr’s wearable information was extra perfunctory, so I am crossing my fingers for a bounce-back yr with a long-overdue health repair to Put on OS.
We all know that Put on OS 5 is on the I/O schedule, with a chat on “Constructing for the Way forward for Put on OS.” Google may convey up the new Hybrid Interface that provides Put on OS watches longer battery life, or maybe it will announce plans to convey Put on OS watches into the new Discover My community.
We would see Gemini coming to Pixel and Galaxy Watches, given I/O’s doubtless AI focus. And maybe we’ll get a glimpse of the Pixel Watch 3, even when it will not arrive till the autumn.
These all look like truthful bets to your Google I/O bingo card. What’s much less doubtless, however nonetheless essential, is that the Put on OS group broadcasts a correct OS-wide substitute for the dying Google Match. Perhaps that is Fitbit, perhaps not; it simply must be one thing.
The Google Match API shuts down subsequent yr in favor of “Android Well being,” a brand new API with common information classes like steps, distance, and energy. Designed to work with Well being Join, it will seamlessly switch information between apps, with the flexibility to export area of interest information like blood glucose or strain as soon as watches begin monitoring them.
Sounds nice, in principle! In apply, it nonetheless creates a vacuum the place Google Match used to sit down as an agnostic choice. You’ll be able to switch information, however you continue to want an finish vacation spot, and most health apps are designed to lure you of their ecosystem and cost you a charge. Sure, the Google Match app remains to be out there, however the writing is on the wall for the app to get the boot now that Google has turned its consideration to Fitbit. Samsung Well being is the closest “common” and unpaid various, although that app is barely out there on Samsung smartwatches.
One might argue that well being and health apps are a key means Put on OS watches differentiate themselves from each other as of late, because it appears to be the massive draw for the Pixel Watch. Additionally, these firms promote your well being and health information to advertisers, and a common app may forestall smaller manufacturers from profiting. So, with a common health app expertise, how would Put on OS watches stand out from one another?
When Samsung joined Put on OS, Google did not insist that it abandon its personal apps, UI, and distinctive strategy; leaving Samsung Well being because the default choice is a part of that. As for different manufacturers, they may not need their apps to should compete with Fitbit or Samsung Well being.
That does not change the truth that the Put on OS model suffers from this fragmentation. Each non-Samsung/Google watch has a proprietary app that is normally stripped down in comparison with what devoted health watches provide, resembling exercise suggestions and restoration occasions.
As a substitute, we noticed how OnePlus’ first Put on OS providing — the OnePlus Watch 2 — had points with well being sampling, whereas Fossil deserted Put on OS for good as a result of it could not sustain on the software program entrance with its woefully lackluster Wellness app. With out extra help from Google, I am not sure what number of third-party manufacturers will escape of their small niches.
What is the answer? My first plan is straightforward sufficient and would make for a splashy Google I/O announcement: Say Fitbit is coming to all Put on OS watches with Put on OS 5, both by way of the Play Retailer or as a substitute “default” choice — the identical means you may select between Bixby or Google Assistant on a Galaxy Watch.
Sure, this makes Put on OS watches extra uniform. Nonetheless, well being information is simply as very important for a very good smartwatch expertise as Google Assistant or apps; Samsung prefers its customers to make use of the Galaxy Retailer or Bixby, however at the least there are dependable Google alternate options.
So far as how Put on OS watches would stand out, there are nonetheless different methods to distinguish between completely different fashions of their design, shows, UI, and so forth, with out leaving well being and health as this Wild West market.
This transfer would additionally give the struggling Fitbit model an even bigger profile with Android customers. I would even recommend that Google compensate companions like Mobvoi or OnePlus by slicing them in on the income for any Fitbit subscriptions purchased on their watches after the trial interval ends.
My different answer would play into Google’s love of renaming providers that fulfill the identical function: Simply make “Android Well being” an app like Google Match. Give it some primary targets and training, make it free, and let folks use it as a waystation between their Put on OS watch and whichever proprietary health app they like.
Ultimately, I count on Google to supply one thing like “Gemini Coach AI,” which appears to be like at your well being information and offers you suggestions on sleep, coaching, and restoration. However until that is one other Fitbit unique to promote Pixel Watches, then it should nonetheless want a uniform Put on OS health expertise.
We’ll see if Google I/O 2024 has a health shock in retailer for us this yr, Fitbit-related or in any other case. All I do know is that, sooner or later, Google’s selection to depart its Put on OS companions to fend for themselves on well being and health — the primary precedence for lots of Android watch patrons — might backfire on them.
