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Google should take the Gemini-powered Health Coach back to the drawing board, or at least give me a way to customize it.
Brady Snyder / Android AuthorityWhen Google first unveiled the new Health app, the Today page might’ve been the most controversial change. It crams a few tiles displaying health metrics in the top third of the screen. The rest of the screen displays a scrollable feed of activity and sleep data, manually logged data, and Health Coach entries. I’d see a new Health Coach entry every few hours, leading me to believe the free version would be barren.
Google’s Health Coach and its related AI features are the key selling points of the premium subscription, which costs $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year. All the basics, like activity tracking, sleep tracking, health tracking, and wellness logging, are free for any Google Health user. These essential data points are exactly what I want to see when I open the Google Health app, and they’re exactly what the free users get.
Without the Health Coach, the bottom portion of the Today view isn’t blank. It’s filled with activities, sleep sessions, and logged data, just without the verbose AI commentary Health Premium users see. I don’t need a daily reminder from Health Coach to sleep or drink water, so the streamlined experience of the free app is preferable to me.
I could turn off Health Coach entirely. Open the Google Health app, tap your profile picture, and press Google Health settings. Tap “Coach,” and you’ll see a “Turn off” button. But, as with too many Google AI features, it’s all-or-nothing. I can’t choose to cut Health Coach summaries from my Today view and still enjoy all the other perks. If I decide to disable the Google Health Coach, I’ll lose most of my Health Premium benefits.
Brady Snyder / Android AuthorityWeeks into switching to Google Health, I can see the app’s potential. I don’t mind the colorful design or health tiles. They’re my favorite part of the new app — but they’re constantly obscured. By default, you can only fit six small tiles or two large tiles on the homepage. If you optionally use the expanded Focus view, you can double those numbers.
If the Health Coach summaries were genuinely useful, this would be easier to forgive. Instead, they’re long-winded and conversational for seemingly no reason. In the photo above, Health Coach used a header, five sentences, and a closing question to relay only two metrics: step count and calories burned. I can think of many visual ways these metrics could’ve been better conveyed than with AI-generated text, such as an engaging hourly graph or chart.
Brady Snyder / Android AuthorityHealth Coach isn’t as dynamic as I would like, either. The Fitbit Air’s automatic activity detection has been poor so far, identifying almost anything as a walk or run. You can manually adjust the activity type in the app after the fact, so that’s what I did. Only the Health Coach entry didn’t update, leaving me with a confident recap of a run that was actually a pickup basketball game.
It also bugs me that Health Coach summaries come with a disclaimer: “AI responses may contain mistakes, not for medical advice.” To be clear, this is a necessary disclaimer given the nature of AI. However, this makes me wonder why my Google Health app feed is cluttered with information and advice Google acknowledges I can’t fully trust.
If the Health Coach’s analysis isn’t medical advice and might not be accurate, it’s simply coloring objective data with educated guesses.
I’d rather use the Fitbit Air with the standard Google Health app than with the Health Premium version — and that’s a problem.
Google Fitbit AirScreen-free fitness tracker • Affordable price • Excellent sleep tracking MSRP: $99.00The Google Fitbit Air is the company’s first screenless fitness band.The Google Fitbit Air combines Fitbit’s trusted health tracking with Google’s smarter insights in one app. It works with both Android and iPhone and brings fitness, sleep, medical records, meals, and hydration tracking into a single, easy-to-use health hub.See price at AmazonFeaturesFitbitGoogleGoogle HealthGoogle Health PremiumFollowThank you for being part of our community. Read our Comment Policy before posting.
