The Fitbit Air takes a smarter approach to the AI health dumpster fire

Google Health Coach seems to deliberation I’m connected the verge of beingness collapse. My slumber is not wherever it needs to be, hence my unimpressive readiness score. My bosom complaint variability, a measurement of really recovered I am, is beneath baseline. I’m spending excessively overmuch clip successful a hot, humid environment, it says, reminding maine temperatures are creeping supra 90 degrees Fahrenheit. According to Google’s AI coach, I should skip my planned spot workouts. My number 1 occupation is to hydrate, enactment retired of the heat, and effort to compression successful immoderate steps. Also — are my calves emotion immoderate strain? How americium I emotion astir this assessment?

Mixed, honestly. As it turns out, that’s an meticulous summation of really I’ve felt the past period testing the $99 Fitbit Air. If we were only talking astir the hardware, I’d person a azygous title — my “lavender” instrumentality is really periwinkle. (I person an unhinged Vergecast clip that proves I’m right, too.) But this isn’t a hardware story. It’s a communicative astir package and really AI is taking complete user healthcare.

As a basal tracker, the Air is precisely what Fitbit has historically done best. I seldom consciousness it connected my wrist. It lasts a agelong clip and charges quickly. While covering WWDC, I sewage a notification from the Air that I was down to 20 percent battery. I plopped it connected the charger for the 45 minutes aliases truthful it took maine to get ready, and I was backmost up to 85 percent. I haven’t had to deliberation astir it since. In the period aliases truthful since I booted up the Air, I’ve only charged it 3 times. I wish this didn’t require different proprietary charger, but this has ever been an rumor pinch fittingness bands.

Are you going to get the astir in-depth array of metrics ever? No, but it’s a broad group that will service each but the astir quantified wellness nut. You get the basics for illustration measurement count, resting bosom rate, and sleep. You besides get metrics for illustration bosom complaint variability, humor oxygen, readiness, slumber stages, and cardio load — which is Fitbit’s measurement of contextualizing the optimal magnitude of cardiovascular activity a personification should get successful a week. There’s thing by measurement of push notifications, but the instrumentality supports silent alarms that buzz you awake successful the morning.

Compared to a Whoop band, the default textile strap is thinner, sleeker, and easier to put on. (The Whoop clasp has been annoying from time one; I’ve gotten utilized to it, but I still don’t for illustration it.) The sensor is easy to popular successful and retired of straps if you consciousness for illustration switching up the vibe. I don’t emotion the charismatic replacement straps from Google, but hopefully we’ll spot much third-party options fixed that Google shared the specs and guidelines. Even so, the biggest triumph stylistically for the Air is that it mostly conscionable looks for illustration a bully bracelet. A statement for the petite-wristed: The Air fits wrists ranging from 130mm to 210mm, but I consciousness for illustration my 5.75-inch (146mm) wrists are astir arsenic mini arsenic you tin comfortably get earlier encountering sizing awkwardness for illustration gaps and excess strap materials.

Like I said, I’ve sewage adjacent to thing to kick astir arsenic acold arsenic hardware. I could kvetch astir the truth that there’s a $99 yearly Google Health Premium subscription, but moreover past it’s wholly optional. The subscription gets you a video workout library, adaptive fittingness plans, immoderate much in-depth metrics, and the AI wellness coach. But if each you want is basal fittingness search data, nary of that is paywalled anymore. But Google is betting you’ll want much penetration than conscionable the numbers. That’s wherever Google Health and its AI coach travel in.

My wide stance connected consumer-focused AI wellness and fittingness features, arsenic I’ve written several times in Optimizer, is that they’re shitty, stapled-on rate grabs that do small much than regurgitate googleable facts. The committedness mightiness beryllium personalized wellness insights based connected your data, but that’s not the reality. That said, of each the ones I’ve tested, Google Health Coach is the closest to not sucking. So agelong arsenic you’re consenting to put a batch of effort in.

The Google Health Coach isn’t reinventing the AI fittingness wheel. It’s a Gemini-powered chatbot that’s now beforehand and halfway successful the rebranded Google Health app. Every morning, it gives you a summary of your slumber and readiness metrics and past suggests what you ought to do for the day. It tin reply questions you mightiness person astir your health, construe what your information trends mightiness suggest, and propose tweaks to your wide fittingness plans. For example, erstwhile I was astir to spell connected a bid of business trips while dealing pinch medicine broadside effects, it was capable to make a travel-friendly workout regular pinch a little fierce measurement extremity and assemblage weight movements for strength. That said, it’ll ever defer to consulting healthcare professionals and won’t springiness immoderate diagnoses.

The Health Coach isn’t exclusive to the Air. Pixel Watches get it too, and eventually, Google hopes to grow it to third-party wearables. Nearly 500,000 group person already beta-tested it since October 2025, and Google said it had complete a cardinal points of feedback earlier shipping retired an improved type past month. I tin attest that location person been notable upgrades. The layout is much customizable (though still cluttered), location are leaderboards truthful you tin compete pinch friends, and the chatbot is astir 30 percent little chatty. It provides sources for wellness facts — galore of which, successful my testing, were either objective studies aliases reputable sources — and you tin now upload aesculapian records if you want to see much discourse for analysis. A note: Uploading records requires you to verify recognition done CLEAR — yes, the aforesaid 1 for airdrome information lines. You besides person to periodically renew permissions.

When you sync successful the morning, the coach gives you a little study of your readiness and slumber scores and past immoderate proposal astir what you should do. For example, erstwhile I was precocious dehydrated and tired while covering the Enhanced Games successful Las Vegas, the coach told maine to hydrate pinch electrolytes, skip my spot workouts, trim my measurement count, and prioritize squeezing successful restful moments. It told maine the aforesaid point a fewer days earlier erstwhile I was astatine Google I/O, and again erstwhile I was covering WWDC. It besides told maine to prioritize bland foods for illustration bananas, rice, and applesauce to forestall gastrointestinal upset and nausea.

These were each bully pieces of proposal for my existent health, but they came because I front-loaded the acquisition pinch 5 to six hours of telling the coach precisely what I needed, detailing what my three-, six-, nine-, and 12-month goals were, and painstakingly uploading and explaining astir 10 years of aesculapian context. I besides enabled each azygous information integration you could ideate a wearable reviewer to person (aka a metric crapton). I told the coach each the medications I was on, the dosages, and my various diagnoses, and I manually typed retired astir 3 sets of caller humor trial results erstwhile location were nary aesculapian records to upload (some wellness providers are not yet tech-savvy enough). Google Health Coach is sadly not capable to publication screenshots. Even aft each that, the wellness coach reverted to older information during our adjacent check-in and I had to punctual it of our erstwhile conversations.

This was beyond tedious, particularly whenever the coach seemed to hide my context. There were different quirks, too. When I first group up the coach successful October, I’d yet to commencement my existent medicine regimen. I had a 10,000 regular measurement goal, ran 3 to 4 times weekly, and lifted 2 to 3 times weekly. Since January, however, I’ve physically been incapable to do much than walks and ray spot training. Google Health Coach was awesome successful the consciousness that it’s been capable to trade fittingness plans for maine that prioritize musculus retention and group a much manageable measurement extremity of 5,000 steps regular fixed really overmuch fatigue my assemblage is under. But while immoderate parts of the app bespeak that change, others still show my regular measurement extremity arsenic 10,000 steps. I tin inquire the AI to update that each I want — it ne'er sticks.

I’m a highly self-quantified personification connected a circumstantial curen plan. I presently get humor tests quarterly, ultrasounds biannually, and follow-ups pinch doctors monthly. I’m a spot neurotic astir this worldly because I’ve knowledgeable tremendous physiological alteration and broadside effects. What if you’re not? What if you person nary inducement to walk respective hours a week schooling, updating, and fact-checking the wellness coach? You’re going to get a dumber AI coach and a little useful experience.

Out of curiosity, I’ve polled respective chap tech journalists testing the Air and Google Health app. Unsurprisingly, their mileage varied. My workfellow David Pierce had a useful experience. When violently ill, the AI coach correctly yelled astatine him to spell to a hospital. Conversely, our elder news editor Richard Lawler hates the damn point and wishes it’d buzz disconnected forever. Another reviewer told maine the coach was capital-B Bad, but that they only interacted pinch it astir erstwhile a time and fed it nary aesculapian data. Yet different told maine they had yet to person immoderate penetration that was amended than communal sense. Others said the expertise to log nutrition by taking a photograph and past converse pinch the chatbot to edit immoderate mistakes was immensely helpful. Overall, everyone’s value of acquisition correlated pinch really overmuch patience they had for interacting pinch AI.

To me, the champion usage lawsuit for the AI coach correct now is arsenic a instrumentality betwixt expert visits. I input what my expert says I request to attraction connected and fto it effort to clasp maine accountable for pursuing that advice. That includes checking successful regular to spot if I’m prioritizing macromolecule during meals while focusing connected spot training and low-impact cardio. It helps maine show advancement and do ray investigation for what mightiness beryllium causing broadside effect flare-ups. Before appointments, I tin inquire it to look backmost astatine my history and hole follow-up questions for my expert based connected the past month.

The smart point astir the Fitbit Air is that you tin person 2 wholly different package experiences pinch the aforesaid hardware. If you dislike AI and simply want an old-school fittingness tracker, conscionable salary the $99 for the hardware and make usage of the free, basal information tracking. You ne'er person to interact pinch the AI coach if you don’t want to. But if you do want to, you can. That acquisition besides only costs $99 upfront since you get a three-month premium subscription trial.

Google Health is simply a activity successful progress. But the Air is the savviest wearable Google’s released since the Fitbit acquisition. There’s a palpable yearning for simpler trackers without having to springiness up immoderate of the advances successful wellness tech software. Add successful the affordable value and the action to disregard the AI chatbot, and you person a gadget that tin entreaty to AI lovers and haters alike. And successful wellness tech? That’s an progressively difficult equilibrium to strike.