Google Health 5.11 Rollout: Fitbit Air Health Guardian, Improved Sleep Tracking

Google Health 5.11 is rolling out this week as a pretty big update for Fitbit trackers and the Pixel Watch.

Improved automatic activity tracking is now available for the Fitbit Air, Pixel Watch 3, 4 and 5, with the Fitbit Edge getting these features when it launches on October 27.

• Tracks more activities: We’ve increased the number of activities your Fitbit or Pixel Watch tracker can detect from 10 to 100, including strength training, swimming, racquet sports, and team sports.
• Use more context: With contextual reasoning, we now take into account more context (including your workout routines, historical data, and manual edits) to provide detections that are nearly 2x more accurate and reduce missed workouts by more than half.²
• Automatically records workouts: Workouts that reach your minimum duration threshold (15 minutes by default) with a sustained high heart rate are automatically recorded and a summary sent to the Google Health app, usually within 30 minutes.
• Learns your patterns: When you confirm or modify an activity, you enhance a feature that learns your unique patterns and uses them to refine its predictions.

The Fitbit Air and Edge have two Health Guardian features if you are a Google Health Premium subscriber. You can chart trends in blood pressure and insulin resistance now, with the first report available in early November.

• Blood pressure trendswhich allow you to track your blood pressure trends before they put a strain on your heart, will be available in the Health Guardian section of the Health tab if you wore your Fitbit Air for 5 or more consecutive days in October.
• Trends in insulin resistancewhich tracks monthly changes in your metabolic health, will be available if you wore your watch for 7 or more days and nights in October.

Blood sugar is now “Glucose” in the Google Health app with updated tables and charts. Additionally:

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• Personalized Duration Goals: You can now set specific duration goals for blood glucose data from connected continuous glucose monitors. To set a goal, go to the Metabolic section of the Health tab, tap Glucose, open Settings and select Set goal.
• Faster sync with Lingo by Abbott (US only): You can now connect Lingo by Abbott directly to the Google Health app so your blood glucose data syncs faster – showing in the Google Health app within 30 minutes of a reading. If you have a Google Health Premium subscription, Google Health Coach³ can also answer questions about your blood sugar trends. To sign in, tap your profile icon in the Google Health app and select Partner apps.³

Finally, there is improvement Sleep tracking through wake detection and nap editing:

• More precise wake detection: We’ve improved our sleep tracking to better account for your step data so we can more accurately track brief awakenings, like getting up to use the bathroom.
• Easier Nap Edit: You always control your sleep data. If ever a nap appears that doesn’t fit into your day, you can now easily delete it directly from your nap map.

Version 5.11 is available on iOS and is still rolling out to Android users.