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How to use Google Fit on your Pixel Watch

The highly anticipated Pixel Watch by Google was finally released on October 6th, 2022. This smartwatch has quickly become one of the best options for Android users due to its impressive health and fitness features and attractive design. However, as with any first-generation technology, it has its flaws. A major concern for fitness enthusiasts is the inability to use the popular health and fitness app Google Fit on the watch. For those who rely on Google Fit to track their progress, this could be a significant drawback. But is this really a dealbreaker for the Pixel Watch?

Google Pixel Watch doesn’t come with Google Fit pre-installed, but you can still use the fitness app by downloading it from the Play Store after updating WearOS on your device to the latest version available. You can use Google Fit and the pre-installed Fitbit app side by side on your Pixel Watch, or even deactivate Fitbit entirely if you prefer. However, it’s worth noting that background heart rate monitoring is exclusive to the Fitbit app due to Google’s terms when acquiring Fitbit. This means that while you can access most Google Fit features on your Pixel Watch, the app won’t be able to track your heart rate throughout the day. Nevertheless, you can still manually take heart rate readings or receive heart rate data during a workout to track your effort. This is something to keep in mind when choosing which fitness app to use on your Pixel Watch.

Fitbit or Google Fit: Which is the best choice for your fitness goals?

Google Fit is similar to Samsung Health or Apple Health, as it allows users to track steps, exercises, and other basic health data, but it does not offer the same level of support for wearables. Instead, it connects to third-party apps to collect data. In contrast, Fitbit is a complete fitness tracking app that supports wearables and manual data such as weight and water intake. It also offers features that Google Fit lacks, such as music playback, personalization options, auto pause, elevation tracking, calorie intake tracking using a barcode scanner on the app, a passcode, and ovulation tracking. However, Google Fit has its own exclusive features, such as routes support, widget support, smart coaching, pace measuring, voice feedback, a food diary with a point-based system, live tracking/sharing, and a stopwatch. Ultimately, both apps have unique features that stand out.

Why not both?

Google has a track record of aggressively shutting down redundant services like Google Play Music and YouTube Music. As a result, it’s feasible that one of these apps may not be available in the future. However, at the moment, both applications are operating simultaneously. You don’t have to decide on using one of these apps right now, but it is good to know how to synchronize data between them.

To synchronize your fitness data between Fitbit and Google Fit, there are two methods you can use. The first one is to transfer all your data from Google Fit to Fitbit, which allows you to access all the health-tracking features of your Pixel Watch and have all your workout data in one place. This can be done by exporting your Fit data via Google Takeout and then importing it into Fitbit. While this method is simple, there’s another way to do it… and when you think about it this only enables Fitbit to use a snapshot of the Google Fit data, but Google Fit will not be fed with input from Fitbit.

The second method is to use the Health Connect app to synchronize your fitness data between the two platforms. This app enables you to sync multiple fitness apps and is likely how Google plans to connect Fitbit and Google Fit. This approach is better than the first one because it lets you keep track of and store all your data from various fitness platforms in one place (Google Fit).





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