"Google Fit" Set For Launch As Health Tracking Platform Race Heats Up

Google is reportedly readying a health and fitness data aggregation platform to compete with similar services recently unveiled by Apple and Samsung.

Citing anonymous sources, Forbes says that “Google Fit” will gather health data from existing and future third-party smartphone apps and wearable devices. Information such as steps, calories, heart rate, temperature, blood sugar, and other biometrics will be uploaded into the cloud-based service from disparate sources.

According to TechCrunch, “end users will be able to sync their Google Fit profiles to their Google IDs, which will make their data portable no matter what app or device they’re using.”

The Forbes article said that Google Fit will “aggregate data through open APIs … and will also announce partnerships with wearable device makers” at the Google I/O conference on June 25 and 26.

Google has neither confirmed nor denied the existence of Google Fit. More information is expected to be provided during sessions on the topics of “designing for wearables” and “Android and cloud” during the developers event later this month, according to the Forbes article.

Forbes further speculated that Google Fit could make the service a downloadable app or could integrate it with its Android Wear operating system for wearables and its parent Android OS for smartphones.

Google rivals Samsung and Apple unveiled health tracking platforms in late May and early June, respectively.

Last month, Samsung introduced its cloud-based service called SAMI (Samsung Architecture for Multimodal Interactions) and its Simband smartwatch — an investigational device platform for future wearable devices. Biometric sensors from third parties can be fitted inside the band of the watch, and data collected by the sensors will be stored in SAMI.

A week later, Apple unveiled its digital health platform called HealthKit. Health information from different apps will be integrated with a new app called “Health” bundled with its upcoming iOS8 mobile operating system. HealthKit will also store fitness and health data from wearables, such as Apple’s rumored iWatch device.

Another industry giant, Microsoft, already has a health information service called HealthVault. Forbes recently learned of the company’s plans to soon launch a smartwatch that will gather health and fitness data such as continuous heart rate.

Google’s initial foray into digital health curation and storage, called Google Health, was launched in 2008. The initiative was closed down just three years later due to tepid response and poor scalability. The company seems willing to give it another try, as it tries to keep up with its rivals.

Technology giants are tapping into the growing demand for health and fitness-centric wearable devices could face hurdles not only from each other, but also in convincing people that their health data will be kept private.

Increased regulation may also be a key issue. The FDA recently added to the list of mobile apps over which  it may exercise regulatory discretion: “Mobile apps that allows a user to collect, log, track and trend data such as blood glucose, blood pressure, heart rate, weight or other data from a device to eventually share with a heath care provider, or upload it to an online (cloud) database, personal or electronic health record.”