{"id":103781,"date":"2025-10-27T17:28:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T17:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/103781\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T17:28:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T17:28:14","slug":"fitbits-overhauled-app-and-ai-health-coach-arrive-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/103781\/","title":{"rendered":"Fitbit\u2019s overhauled app and AI health coach arrive today"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fitbit\u2019s new Gemini-powered health coach is debuting in preview today<\/a>, as part of an entirely new app experience that was announced back in August<\/a>. Premium subscribers in the US on Android will have access to it first as it starts rolling out today, with plans to expand to iOS \u201clater this year,\u201d according to Taylor Helgren, Fitbit product manager.<\/p>\n

The new health coach is the foundation for an entirely rethought Fitbit app. Rather than bolting AI features onto the existing app, the health coach is offered as an opt-in experience wrapped up in a redesigned Fitbit app. It\u2019s not feature complete yet \u2014 things like nutrition and cycle tracking are on the roadmap to add later \u2014 and people who opt in will be able to switch back and forth between the new and regular app whenever they want. Onboarding begins with a five to 10 minute chat with the AI coach (text or spoken), which will help establish your goals and what kind of recommendations the system will make for you. It\u2019s all based on your input and Fitbit data \u2014 past and present \u2014 and the health coach will be able form a weekly workout plan for you based on a library of exercises available in the app. It\u2019ll take into account any equipment you have and what kind of training you want to do \u2014 whether you want guidance ramping up to a 5K or building a strength training routine.<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019re set up, the idea is that you\u2019ll use natural language to make adjustments and ask questions related to your health and fitness; conversations are tracked in a section called \u201ccoach\u2019s notes.\u201d If you\u2019re dealing with an injury or an unusually busy schedule, you can let the coach know and it will make tweaks for you. It\u2019s an unusually thorough integration of AI recommendations, which can often feel bolted on and spit out \u201cCaptain Obvious-level summaries\u201d as my colleague and senior wearables reviewer Victoria Song puts it.<\/p>\n

There are some real risks to such a wide-ranging, AI-centric overhaul. Hallucinations would be a real problem, especially considering that the health coach is designed to field some medical questions as well as topics related to fitness. Helgren says that the team engaged with \u201cinternal and external clinicians and fitness experts\u201d along with an advisory panel to build a safety framework for the coach. Importantly, it\u2019s also designed to refer users to health care professionals when necessary.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an ambitious update, and today is just a first step of what may be a long road to a full launch. Google says the health coach will be fully available \u201cnext year,\u201d though isn\u2019t committing to any timeframe more specific than that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fitbit\u2019s new Gemini-powered health coach is debuting in preview today, as part of an entirely new app experience…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[565,356,367,3451,111,139,69,370,145,1801],"class_list":{"0":"post-103781","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-gadgets","10":"tag-google","11":"tag-google-pixel","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-tech","16":"tag-technology","17":"tag-wearable"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}