Google is planning to release a new product called Google Fit that will aggregate health data from various devices and apps, according to a report Thursday from Forbes. Fit will use available APIs to pull biometric information together into one place, but it's unclear whether it will be a standalone app or part of the Android OS.
Reports of Fit come on the heels of Apple's announcement of HealthKit in iOS 8, a system that also interacts with apps and APIs to curate and present health data like steps walked, calories consumed, and heart rates logged. Fit also follows the announcement of Sami, Samsung's health platform for culling health-related info.
Fit is a distant spiritual successor to Google Health, a short-lived medical record management service that Google shuttered at the start of 2012. Google Health required that participants volunteer their medical info to the service, which was not covered by the HIPAA privacy regulations governing medical records.
Apple's HealthKit was designed to be able to re-share information stored there with other apps or healthcare professionals. Forbes makes no mention of whether Google's Fit is just for making biometric data more manageable or for repurposing that info the way HealthKit does.
Forbes states that Google will unveil Fit at its I/O conference, which starts on June 25. After its announcement, Fit may figure into I/O developer sessions about wearables, Android, and the cloud. As always, we will be at Google I/O to bring you all of the big news revealed there.
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