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Google Fit: An effortless, comprehensive view of your fitness

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Re: Google Fit: An effortless, comprehensive view of your fitness

#71

Post by richbradshaw »

mirsadm wrote: post #49
parfe wrote: post #3

Just installed the phone app. Less a "comprehensive view", and more of a pedometer with graphs. You can manually add activities but the only options are: Walking, Running, Biking, Other. And even then, you can only record duration. I suppose there is hidden integration with the wearables, but why can't I manually input the data? If I can't record squats, then what's the point?

I think anyone that is even a little bit serious about their particular exercise/activity will not use this. I cycle and run. I record everything in Strava. Most of my friends do too. I can't really see a reason to use this. Counting steps does not seem to be very useful.

The data from Strava will sync into Google Fit (if you want), then if you wanted to switch to a new app in the future, it could bring in your existing data from Google Fit. Essentially this can act as an external datastore for those apps, rather than your data being locked into Strava's infrastructure.

It's hard to think of this as useful with Strava as it's so damn good, but there are many other apps for other activities that are not as nice to use, but users are locked into them as losing all your data means starting with a new app is frustrating.

Re: Google Fit: An effortless, comprehensive view of your fitness

#72

Post by richbradshaw »

lost_name wrote: post #18

Were people asking for something like this, or is this Google responding to Apple's HealthKit? I understand the need to offer competing products on their own platform, but I've come to doubt the long term usefulness/support of products in that second category.

Fit was announced at Google IO, about a fortnight after Healthkit was first announced - I assume that it was not in response to Healthkit, but a similar idea at the same time.

Re: Google Fit: An effortless, comprehensive view of your fitness

#73

Post by richbradshaw »

jessejhernandez wrote: post #19

I'm hoping they can incorporate something for weight lifting too. It'd be awesome to chart your growth in a more intuitive way rather then just using Excel.

One of the activities in their API is weightlifting: https://developers.google.com/fit/rest/v1/reference/activity..., so looks like this is only the start.

Re: Google Fit: An effortless, comprehensive view of your fitness

#75

Post by warcode »

nevi-me wrote: post #68
DevKoala wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why you are getting downvoted. There was some obvious snark in your comment, but I am also not clear on how else Google could monetize this product unless it is through the use of the collected data?

Why should every small component be monetised? Google has an interest in Android, and if they felt that Android needed something like this, then the continued revenue from people using Android services benefit them because most of those people would use the 'greater' Google services, not just Fit. Does it mean that when Google created Keep, they were looking for a way of making money off our notes and to-do lists?

Because truly capitalist people aren't happy with just enough money, they want all the money.

You should expect that keep data is being tracked the same way gmail and calendar data is. With this your health will also be in the data package.

Re: Google Fit: An effortless, comprehensive view of your fitness

#77

Post by dragonwriter »

Cowicide wrote: post #70
dragonwriter wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If one doesn't have health issues and/or not a professional athlete - why would one want to keep track of fitness so closely? The majority of Americans are overweight -- which is a health issue, and addressing that health issue is one of the major reasons people use fitness trackers. > I just go out and get exercise and enjoy myself and all this fitness app stuff seems like a distraction. Lots of people don't enjoy…

>The majority of Americans are overweight -- which is a health issue, and addressing that health issue is one of the major reasons people use fitness trackers. I've been overweight at times when I overwork. Especially after I was in a situation where I was a caregiver for a sick loved one for some years. Even after that spell of time, I lost weight fairly quickly (and healthily) by mountain biking. I've lost weight b…

> I'm still curious after your response. How would a fitness app and device helped me?

It might not have. Not every product on the market is designed for you personally.

Again, you keep saying that you have lots of exercise activities you know about and enjoy, and that the challenge you've had is overwork. Lots of other people don't have lots of exercise activities they enjoy, but measurement, and the feedback and sense of accomplishment from improving their numbers is something that they get positive feelings from which help counteract the negative feelings from an unpleasant activity that doesn't produce immediate tangible results (although, for people whose challenge is overwork, measurement can be an early signal that an imbalance is occurring that might be visible before tangible harm, so it could be useful for people whose situation is more like yours, as well; come to think of it, lots of people I know who have found trackers useful seem to be more like you in that regard -- several, for instance, are usually regular ballroom dancers, but have lots of other commitments and less-fitness-friendly activities in their life, so...)

Re: Google Fit: An effortless, comprehensive view of your fitness

#78

Post by dragonwriter »

DevKoala wrote: post #67
ams6110 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lets developers build smarter apps and manufacturers focus on creating amazing devices They don't seem to have mentioned "and lets us sell all the data to the highest bidder"

I don't understand why you are getting downvoted. There was some obvious snark in your comment, but I am also not clear on how else Google could monetize this product unless it is through the use of the collected data?

Google monetizes the product by the fact that:

(1) Part of the infrastructure is tied to Android, so it promotes Android and their many ways of monetizing the Android ecosystem, (2) Its grows the market for cloud services, for which Google is an infrastructure provider.

Both of these are fairly indirect, but that's not uncommon for Google. Google has lots of projects that aren't directly monetized, but support products that are.

Re: Google Fit: An effortless, comprehensive view of your fitness

#79

Post by gadders »

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #13
gadders wrote: post #4

A better name would be "Google Cardio" (or Met Con if you want to be trendy). Cardio != Fit. Strength is as much or more an aspect of fitness.

True, but be careful to not fall into the other extreme. There was a time when I was lifting 3 times a week, every week, bench pressing 100kg, etc. And I tried to ride a bike uphill (pretty long ride) and nearly puked my guts out. You need both strength and endurance. And some fine motor skills, like playing ping-pong or throwing a frizbee. And some R&R interspersed in there, regularly, otherwise you'll collapse from…

In my daily life, I use strenght more often than I use endurance. And typing takes care of my fine motor skills.

Re: Google Fit: An effortless, comprehensive view of your fitness

#80

Post by gamblor956 »

zenciadam wrote: post #58
endzone wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i am shocked that a bunch of dorks with something to prove have used this post as an opportunity to start droning on about strength training, intervals. it's almost like correlation/causation or dunning kruger p.s the average man in a gym can't bench 100kg. maybe a rep or two with some generous spotting

nothing to prove. I've totalled 1680 raw.

That is quite an accomplishment, considering that the world record is currently only 1102 pounds, set late last year.

You clearly must be using a much smaller unit of measure, perhaps grams (1.6 kg, or roughly 3 pounds) or ounces (105 pounds). Either way, that amount of weight is considered below average for a male of average height who has been weight training for more than a few months.

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