{"id":467492,"date":"2026-05-30T09:07:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T09:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/467492\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T09:07:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T09:07:26","slug":"ive-used-the-new-google-health-app-for-a-week-and-i-hate-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/467492\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve used the new Google Health app for a week, and I hate it"},"content":{"rendered":"

However, having used the new app for about a week now, I have another categorical feeling about it: It\u2019s counterintuitive, and I hate it. It\u2019s a huge step back in usability, and Google\u2019s single-minded focus on AI has ruined what was a much better experience in my opinion.<\/p>\n

What do you think of the new Google Health app?<\/p>\n

1594 votes<\/p>\n

It’s gorgeous and so useful. Love it.<\/p>\n

22%<\/p>\n

It looks good, but I don’t like using it (few tiles, AI everywhere).<\/p>\n

52%<\/p>\n

I love the way it works, but not the new look.<\/p>\n

5%<\/p>\n

I’m indifferent.<\/p>\n

13%<\/p>\n

I don’t have the new Health app, still on Fitbit.<\/p>\n

8%<\/p>\n

Text is harder to read than graphs<\/p>\n

\"Today<\/p>\n

Stephen Headrick \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

The moment I opened the new Google Health app, my attention was drawn to the stats tiles at the top, then the big block of text beneath them. Almost every time I\u2019ve opened the app after that, it\u2019s been the same story: tiles at the top with a huge block of text from the Google Health Coach below. I\u2019ve had an instance or two of my recent sleep stats and some exercise popping up on top, but 95% of the time, I\u2019m only getting text from the coach.<\/p>\n

And I don\u2019t know about you, but I find text a lot less glanceable than a big number or a graph. Visuals are eminently more readable than text, yet Google\u2019s focus has been pushed so far into the interpretation of the data that it forgot that I need to see the data first. I don\u2019t want to read 15 lines of text to know that my resting heart rate shot up because I slept like crap; I need to see the graph about how it shot up, and below that, a quick explanation of the why and how it affects my day.<\/p>\n

Instead, the coach seems too high on its own words that it goes on and on, only to serve me some graphs and stats in the middle of sentences. This inherently changes my relationship with the app because now I\u2019m looking at an interpretation of my health, not the hard numbers. I understand why this might work for those who have time or don\u2019t know how to read the numbers, but I\u2019d argue that if you\u2019ve already invested in a Pixel Watch or a Fitbit, you must have a minimal level of health literacy.<\/p>\n

If the goal is to trap me in the Health app until I find the data I need before I escape, then Google succeeded.<\/p>\n

Even if not, seeing numbers and evolution graphs is a lot more impactful than a series of words. If I read that my readiness is 60 today in the middle of a blurb of text, but it was 70 yesterday in the middle of another blurb of text, I don\u2019t think that means anything to me or registers as well as seeing a graph that depicts my dropping readiness level. The same thing applies to any other number.<\/p>\n

\"google\"google<\/p>\n

Beyond the hampered Today tab, the same lack of visibility applies to the Fitness and Sleep tabs, too. Fitness gives me huge tiles for my workout library on the first screen, so I have to scroll down to actually see my recent activities and key active metrics. Sleep, on the other hand, starts with a huge wall of text about my sleep before showing me my sleep score and duration. Once again, I have to scroll down to check my actual sleep stages, quality, and metrics. Who OK\u2019ed this design?<\/p>\n

Look, if the goal is to trap me in a hell of useless stuff and keep me for the longest time engaged in the Google Health app just so I could find what I need before escaping, then good job. And if the goal is to blast AI in my face as if it\u2019s the only thing that matters and some product manager\u2019s pet project, then once again, good job, Google. I guess I just answered my own question.<\/p>\n

And really, what happened to the graphs?<\/p>\n

\"Google<\/p>\n

Stephen Headrick \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

I know you\u2019re reading this and thinking, Rita, look at the tiles on top! Yes, they\u2019re there, I concede, but four tiles (if you want to use a larger one next to three small ones) or six small tiles aren\u2019t enough visibility for a\u00a0health-centric app. Even swiping to reveal more slots isn\u2019t a good user experience. This stuff should be front and center, while the AI coach takes a backseat, in a smaller, expandable box.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me started on everything wrong with the tiles, too. They\u2019re not movable \u2014 not the ones on the home screen nor the ones in the Health tab. What?! I honestly thought there was something wrong with my phone, reinstalled the app, cleared cache, tried it on another phone, asked my colleagues, and they all confirmed. You can\u2019t move a tile around; you have to remove it, and then re-add it and hope it lands in the right spot. What is this, 2005?<\/p>\n

I can’t move tiles easily or add specific metrics to my home screen. This is supposed to be a health platform, not an obfuscation game.<\/p>\n

On top of this, not everything is available as a home screen tile. I can\u2019t add a tile to my Today tab for my resting heart rate, blood oxygen, heart rate variability, breathing rate, skin temperature variation, or body fat percentage. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. That data exists as square widgets in the Health tab, but it\u2019s not readily accessible from the home screen. This is supposed to be a health platform, not an obfuscation game.<\/p>\n

Google can fix this misstep pretty easily<\/p>\n

\"Google<\/p>\n

Stephen Headrick \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

I love the new design of the Google Health app, but I just dislike the user experience tied to it. I don\u2019t want Google to go back to the older Fitbit app design; this is so much more alive and interesting to look at. But I need it to be useful to look at, too. Google can easily fix this by implementing a few changes:<\/p>\n

The AI Coach blurbs should show me metrics and graphs first before explaining them, and the text part should be collapsed with a quick button to expand and read more endless words for those who need to.
\nThe tiles should be movable, and any metric should be able to be added to the home screen tiles, including resting heart rate, heart rate variability, breathing rate, and the others I mentioned above.
\nThe home screen\u2019s tile section should be resizable. If I want four rows of tiles to show more stats, I should be able to do that. Also, let me display proper graphs like the ones in the Health tab on the home screen. They give me a much better view of my progress over the last week than a single number that just depicts today\u2019s state.
\nThe Fitness tab needs to compress the workout library section to the top and show me my actual workouts on the first screen.
\nThe Sleep tab needs to show me my stats first before giving me an expandable AI-powered interpretation.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a few minor changes, I think, that would make the app a lot more usable. Well, that and the ability to pick between the different data sources when there\u2019s an overlap, and we prefer one source over another. But if Google is able to implement these modifications, I think it has an excellent foundation for the one-stop health app that I\u2019ve been asking for for years, instead of the fragmented Fitbit-Fit-Health Connect approach.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t want to miss the best from Android Authority?<\/p>\n

\"google\"google<\/a><\/p>\n

Thank you for being part of our community. Read our\u00a0Comment Policy<\/a> before posting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"However, having used the new app for about a week now, I have another categorical feeling about it:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[1525,133,30555,163,85,46,321,125],"class_list":["post-467492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-fitbit","tag-google","tag-google-health","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-mobile","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}