For Health Connect, Google has released a beta app that gives users control over their data and the apps that can access it.
Google and Samsung collaborated to introduce Health Connect earlier this year. The Android API, which supports more than 50 data types including body measurements, nutrition, and more, was announced at I/O 2022. A list of fitness and wellness apps that are now supported by Health Connect is provided in the most recent business announcement.
Platforms that Google mentions include:
- Calorie counter,
- Fitbit,
- Samsung Health,
- Flo,
- Oura MyFitnessPal, and period tracker
- Google Fit: Tracking Your Activity
- hiking and biking outside
- Healthy Eating & Diet: Lifesum
- ADV Insight
- Weight Watchers (WW) Dexcom Peloton
According to Jason Peterson, the chief technology officer at MyFitnessPal, “With Health Connect APIs, our engineers were able to easily adapt their existing infrastructure to read and write user health data, such as nutrition, hydration, exercise, and steps.” We can now read data from any third-party programme that also publishes to Health Connect thanks to this connection, giving our users additional options while giving them more freedom to grant detailed permissions regarding the data they wish to share.
Google claims that the interfaces allow users to access more comprehensive data. For instance, the Peloton and Health Connect link enables users to sync their workout data and receive credit for it on applications like Oura. The Health Connect app offers over 40 data types across six categories: Activity, Cycle tracking, Body measurement, Nutrition, Vitals, and Sleep. In addition, thanks to a standardised schema, apps can read raw data of over 40 data types from the Health Connect app. Additionally, it does away with the need for developers to manage numerous API connections.
Users can manage app permissions with Google’s granular controls, and developers can access a permissions management hub and granular permission user interface (UI), which eliminates the need to create permission management UIs. Starting today, people can use the Health Connect app on the Play Store to access these advantages.
