Throwing down: Google Fit versus Apple HealthKit

Previously I have written about Apple's new foray into the consumer health and fitness market with their Health App and HealthKit API which will be introduced in iOS 8 for the iPhone and iPad. Not to be outdone, Google last week at their developer's conference (Google I/O) announced a competing product Google Fit to appear in the next version of Android.

In many respects, Google Fit is similar to HealthKit. Both are developer platforms that expose an API that allows "different apps and devices to talk to each other." As a result, your internet-enabled scale by one manufacturer can communicate your weight information to the fitness app developed by another company. The goal is to produce an ecosystem of devices and apps that can exchange information while taking advantage of the various resources on the platform.

However, there were also two big differences. First, Google did not announce the equivalent of Apple's Health app, which Apple describes as "an easy-to-read dashboard of your health and fitness data." It will store, display, and update the user's health data from a variety of health/fitness trackers and apps. One possibility is that Google plans to unveil a similar app in the future. Another possibility is that Google will allow third party companies to develop their own master app that consolidates fitness information, and let user's choose the one they like best.

The second difference was that Apple placed a lot of emphasis on health data like blood sugar, cholesterol levels, etc. An important part of the presentation was announcing that Epic Systems and the Mayo Clinic were partners for the launch. Epic Systems is one of the largest providers of electronic health records (EHRs) and the Mayo Clinic is one of the top hospitals in America.

At the Google Fit unveiling, Google didn’t use the word “health” once (according to Mobile Health News). Instead the emphasis was almost exclusively on "fitness."

Two different companies and two slightly different points of view on how mobile technology will disrupt the fitness/health market. It will be interesting to see how this competition plays out.

Figure 1. A summary of Google Fit.