ZDNET Highlights
- The AI-powered health coach and fitness planner subscription costs $80 annually or $10 per month.
- The software is extremely impressive, a great example of Google combining its great fitness trackers with groundbreaking AI integration.
- I would love to see more tracking metrics for activity and fitness available in competing fitness plan apps.
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What can AI do for my health? Before testing Google’s revamped Fitbit Premium powered by Gemini, I didn’t believe it could do so much. Of course, I am aware of the potential of technology to mine large datasets to decode patterns. This is helpful for tracking exercise, sleep, or predicting illness or stress. This is one reason why I like to use devices like smartwatches and smart rings to keep track of my health.
But can AI get me out of my bed, take me to the train, and get me to my gym every other day of the week? Not completely, I learned. But much more than my initial expectations.
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As ZDNET’s health and wearables editor, I test smartwatches, smart rings, and other weird tech that fall under the general health umbrella. I work out regularly, at least twice a week, often four times a week. I really enjoy exercise and care about my health, so I was curious to see how the Fitbit Premium would help me create a workout schedule or respond to my weekly activity and sleep patterns.
My biggest obstacle to a consistent workout routine isn’t a lack of motivation or care; It’s a sporadic schedule that changes from week to week or travel that disrupts my weekly routine. Could a fresh and AI-powered app find a way to solve this?
fitbit premium It received a complete redesign earlier this year, creating an AI that adapts to a user’s specific needs and abilities, changes based on the user’s schedule and desires, measures sleep, stress, and exercise, plans weekly workout routines, and answers questions on all things health and wellness.
Gemini, Google’s AI, underpins all of this functionality. Google is integrating its Gemini functionalities into the app more than ever before, in hopes that users can not only view their data but also interrogate the AI for suggestions or answers to questions.
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This process starts with a quick intake of my activity habits. I tell Fitbit that I enjoy strength training and do it regularly. After my two to three strength training sessions at the gym, I alternate between Stairmaster and elliptical sessions to get my cardio going.
I enjoy running, but I do it irregularly, with no specific goal of increasing strength or speed – I simply run as an accessible form of cardio. I requested that if planning to run it then plan to run it on days when the weather is not terrible. I mention that my sporadic schedule can make it difficult to be consistent.
Then, Fitbit creates a workout plan that varies from week to week, increasing intensity or weight as I demonstrate progress and strength. Surprisingly, the first week I tried Google’s strength training routines, it accurately predicted the correct weight to use for certain exercises with minimal adjustments.
Because Fitbit is heavily integrated into Google Pixel Watches and its own devices, Fitbit Premium is incorporating data that is monitored outside the gym, like sleep, stress, and steps. This additional layer of data tells you how much intensity the personal health coach recommends you exercise each day.
Also: Is Fitbit Premium’s new AI Coach worth the subscription? Try it now and see
My only wish is that Google would make a smartwatch that doesn’t feel so heavy in gold. While my Pixel Watch 4 is excellent at exercise tracking and everyday wear, it’s not a breathable watch that I enjoy sleeping with. I eventually got tired of wearing it to bed and missed a few nights of data while testing the Fitbit Premium.
Over the several weeks that I tested the Fitbit Premium, I enjoyed the variety of exercises that Fitbit provided, targeting both the regular lineup of muscle groups and ones I wanted to tone more. Additionally, the Fitbit was great at changing exercises and adding more weight or longer periods as I performed them week after week. For example, when I demonstrated success it added a few more seconds to my plank time, and added more sets to my weight training exercises.
It was easy to modify my weekly plan to fit my changing schedule. Every modification or change can happen through chat with the AI coach. For example, I was home for a week and away from my gym where I frequent. I told the coach that I would like to modify my strength training plan to focus primarily on running and walking.
There was a chance I could go to my parents’ gym one day, so I asked the AI coach to schedule a strength training session for me once during the week. The AI devised a remarkable plan for me. When I returned after meeting my family, I asked the coach to restore my routine. This provided me with a plan for the final part of the week that included short workouts to “re-enter” my strength training routine. This was a good way to get me back into my intense workout routine.
Google uses several different Gemini models to power the renewed Fitbit Premium. This is a smart integration for a few reasons. The first is that you can get all your sleep and activity data in one place. The questions you ask the Health Coach inform other aspects of the app.
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As fall turned into winter, I tested the Fitbit Premium, and on a cold day I felt like I was going to be sick. I inquired about their AI on the app and asked how to differentiate between seasonal allergies and cold symptoms. It provided me with information about that, so I mentioned that my ear was clogged and the ear was clogged.
I also said I was taking plenty of fluids and rest. The next morning, when I checked my daily sleep and health report, it brought up the information I mentioned in the chat and asked me how I was feeling, and encouraged me to rest if my symptoms were present.
To keep the information recorded about you transparent and accessible, there is a Coach Notes tab to view the information collected through your conversations – and those notes can be deleted at your discretion.
How does Fitbit compare to the alternatives?
I’ve been paying for the workout app, Fitbod, for over a year. I bought it when I was just starting weight training with no prior experience. Before its recent update, the app provided me with dedicated workouts based on upper, lower, or full body days, and changed workouts based on recovery (a recent update prevents me from changing workouts based on upper, lower, or full body days – kind of disappointing).
I can also track metrics, such as my overall strength and the strength in my pushing, pulling, and leg muscles, which Fitbod scores out of 100.
This highlights my improvement in benchmark lifts like lat pulldowns, bench presses and squats. And if I want to get really granular, I can track my body composition, like fat mass, lean mass, and body fat percentage, which I will measure and report myself. (I track my weight on the app occasionally.)
Where Fitbit excels is in a hyper-tailored and progressively challenging workout plan that integrates with your Google Pixel watch to provide helpful and curated insights. However, I would love for Fitbit to incorporate some of the Fitbod’s functionality, like strength scores or charts that track my reps and weight progress over time. This could really bring out the “personal fitness coach” aspect of the app.
If Google continues to advance its AI and these AI-powered wellness devices and software continue to integrate and improve, as is already the case, I can imagine these fitness trackers evolving into health assistants. Currently, I would describe them as fitness devices with AI-powered health and wellness features.
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But there’s real opportunity for these devices to do much more. We’re seeing signs of this in the current version of the Fitbit Premium, with a dedicated AI that not only summarizes activity data but also provides guidance on better health and wellness conversations. I can’t currently think of any rival tools with such all-inclusive functionality.
Google currently has the biggest lead over its competitors with the Fitbit Premium and its lineup of smartwatches and Fitbit health trackers. It excites me to see how the health tracker field will evolve – and what Google’s competitors will do next.
ZDNET’s shopping advice
fitbit premium The revamped app energizes and excites me to workout with a diverse but personalized selection of exercises that suit my interests and take into account my health data, like sleep, stress and vitals.
Fitbit Premium costs $10 per month or $80 per year. If you’re ready to fully commit to your health and fitness over the next year, I’d say the membership is worth it. It is available via public preview now and will have a full rollout soon.
It couldn’t fix my busy, sporadic schedule that kept me from getting regular exercise, but it did make me more excited to go to the gym when I could get closer to my fitness goals. Its AI functionalities also allowed me to ask the right questions and extract relevant information from my health and sleep reports.
