We Tried Fitbit Air and Google Health: All About the New AI Ecosystem
The Fitbit brand still exists, but the project Google is preparing is very different from the classic setup of fitness trackers of recent years.
Fitbit Air does not try to compete in the realm of full smartwatches, nor in that of increasingly large displays. It does exactly the opposite. The new device eliminates any screen, minimizes size, and transforms the tracker into a small sensor module to be inserted into different straps. The idea is clear: remove friction, reduce distractions, and let the software, not the hardware, manage the entire experience. Behind Fitbit Air, however, the true protagonist is Google Health Coach, the new AI-based platform powered by Gemini that replaces the traditional Fitbit experience made up of graphs, badges, and isolated statistics.
Fitbit Air: Hardware and Design
Google Health and Coach
- New sleep monitoring system
- Health, AFib, and medical records
- Ecosystem and integration with Pixel Watch
- Google's strategy and positioning
Google defines Fitbit Air as the smallest Fitbit tracker with an integrated heart rate sensor. The aesthetic approach is radically different from the current competition: no display, no traditional UI, no continuous wrist interaction. Fitbit Air uses only vibration, status LEDs, and constant synchronization with the smartphone. The central structure can be quickly detached from the strap and inserted into different housings or straps, at the user's total discretion. Google explicitly talks about "pebble-swap housing", a system designed to change looks in a few seconds.
The straps available at launch include:
- Performance Loop, aimed at intense physical activity
- Active Band, traditional sports solution
- Elevated Modern Band, lifestyle version with finer finishes
The cost of the structure, including a strap, is €99, while individual straps are offered on the market starting at €44.99. There will also be a Special Edition Stephen Curry, proposed at a higher price. The battery is declared to last up to 7 days, with rapid charging capable of providing one day of use in about 5 minutes, while full charging takes about 90 minutes. Fitbit Air can be paired with multiple smartphones, supporting all those powered by Android 11 and iOS 16.4 or later versions, with no platform limitations.
Wearing Fitbit Air is very simple, with the strap provided in the original kit being hook-and-loop. It can accommodate virtually any wrist size, with millimetric precision and absolute comfort. This latter feature is even truer considering the device is significantly lightweight and slim: it’s hardly felt at all once worn. For the first pairing, it must be connected to the charger, but the process happens in a flash.
Google Health Coach: Gemini Enters Fitness
The most important shift relates to the software, which, in my opinion, represents the real novelty of Google's entire fitness ecosystem. Fitbit, in this case, is no longer the center of the experience: everything revolves around Google Health. The application unifies fitness, health, physiological monitoring, nutrition, sleep, and personal clinical data within a single platform that uses Gemini as a conversational engine, making a real difference.
The platform works on two different levels. On one side is classic passive monitoring, while on the other is active coaching generated by artificial intelligence. After an initial interview of sorts, where the AI coach tries to get to know us and understand our needs for well-being or training, the coach can perform numerous activities: for example, it can create weekly fitness programs, adapt workouts in real time, analyze longitudinal trends, interpret physiological data, provide daily summaries, comment on sleep and recovery, and even respond naturally to contextual health questions.
This is precisely the true strength of Google Health Coach: the vast majority of interactions with the service can be conducted in natural language. An example: the AI Coach suggested I take a walk, so I asked if I could bring my 2-month-old daughter Ludovica with me. It correctly advised me to respect her needs by preferring times that aren’t too sunny. A response that goes well beyond simple fitness, sport, and wellness logic.
Google places a strong emphasis on the concept of continuous personalization. The more data shared, the more the coach modifies behavior, advice, and goals. By asking questions like "help me set up a new workout plan" or "make this workout harder or easier", the system generates adaptive programs built not only on the request but also on the data collected over time from the wearable.
Google is clearly shifting Fitbit toward a model of a permanent digital coach. The new Fitness Plans are updated weekly and include personalized targets, contextual explanations, and suggested workouts. The system seeks to motivate and explain why certain targets are proposed, with a completely new approach to fitness: the app transforms into a digital personal assistant, and is no longer a mere container of information and data.
The coach can also modify the plan on the fly if availability, recovery, or desired intensity changes. Google Health also integrates: guided workouts step-by-step, personalized workout creation through artificial intelligence, integrated video workouts, automatic activity tracking, and contextual summaries for workouts.
Regarding automatic tracking, Fitbit Air and Pixel Watch can recognize common activities after about 15 minutes, automatically generating recaps and statistics, with the system designed to improve over time as the user confirms or corrects the detected activities. The coach then uses this data to calculate the new "Weekly Cardio Load", a measure of weekly cardiovascular stress built by summing workouts and daily activities.
Sleep: New Algorithm and Redesigned Sleep Score
Sleep remains one of the pillars of the Fitbit experience, but Google decided to completely rewrite a significant part of the algorithms. The company claims a 15% improvement in the accuracy of sleep phase tracking compared to the previous generation.
The declared improvements include: more accurate detection of REM and deep sleep; better management of night interruptions; more reliable napping tracking; faster data synchronization, and a change in the Sleep Score. Google defines it as more transparent and easier to interpret concretely. The algorithm now considers sleep as a continuous journey throughout the night instead of isolated blocks. A new "Restlessness" bar also appears, separating micro-awakenings from actual awake periods.
Artificial intelligence also plays a heavy role here. Every morning, the coach generates a contextual message that links sleep quality, recovery, and recommended workout for the day based on data collected from the worn device. The new Google Health messages are not just sterile instructions to be followed without sometimes understanding anything. For every indication, in fact, we can respond naturally, or notify the system of any concerns. The journey towards personal well-being becomes more personal than ever, as well as interactive, as if we have a personal trainer with us, at all times of the day.
AFib, Physiological Metrics, and Medical Records
Fitbit Air does not give up on health monitoring according to advanced metrics, despite its reduced size, integrating a plethora of sensors and modes. Here they are all listed:
- Heart rate
- HRV
- SpO2
- Breathing rate
- Skin temperature variation
- Resting heart rate
Google also places great emphasis on Irregular Rhythm Notifications to detect potential signs of atrial fibrillation. The system works passively in the background and sends notifications if it detects patterns compatible with AFib. As is now mandatory in this sector, Google repeatedly emphasizes that the device is not intended for medical use and that the information should not be considered diagnostic, but is still useful.
Much more ambitious is the part related to medical records. In the United States, Google Health will be able to sync reports, medications, allergies, lab tests, and personal health history directly within the app. The platform then uses Gemini to transform complex clinical data into readable and contextual summaries. However, support remains limited to the US market and depends on integrations with local healthcare providers, so we have not had the opportunity to verify its effectiveness.
Dual-Wear with Pixel Watch and Multimodal Logging
One of the most interesting aspects, and in my opinion fundamental, of the new Fitbit Air is its dual-device support with Pixel Watch. What does this mean? Google allows you to use Fitbit Air and Pixel Watch simultaneously, leaving the app to reconcile data coming from the two devices automatically.
It's an interesting solution, especially for Pixel Watch users, who are grappling with its battery life not exactly being top of the class. The "dual-device" technology transforms the Pixel Watch / Fitbit Air duo into a continuous tracker, where each device can be used in the most suitable circumstances.
As a good nerd and regular user of smartwatches and smartbands, I admit that it often happened to me to raise my wrist and look at Fitbit Air to know the time, check the weather data, or look at the latest notifications that came in, only to be disappointed. In those circumstances, I would have preferred to use Pixel Watch 4. However, in many scenarios, the latter can be uncomfortable: for example at night, or during workouts, the more discreet Fitbit Air can be less susceptible to damages or breakage.
By alternating the two devices, charging Pixel Watch 4 in parts of the day when I needed it, while still keeping all the fundamental trackers of Fitbit Air active, I can say I found the perfect device: extremely comfortable when the "smart" part isn't needed, versatile during the more frantic parts of everyday.
Google Health also integrates Health Connect, Apple Health, and the Fitbit/Google Health APIs to aggregate data from external services, with the ability to perform even extreme synchronizations like photographing a handwritten workout journal or uploading medical documents in PDF to be interpreted by the AI coach. It is probably the step closest to the "Gemini everywhere" vision that Google is trying to build right now in both the fitness and productivity spheres.
Why Fitbit Air is Worth More Than the Device Itself
Fitbit Air, taken individually, is not particularly extreme hardware. Health sensors, activity monitoring, and a battery life of a week are not absolute novelties; in fact, there are smartbands that offer a much longer battery life. The real point is different.
Google is transforming its data platform into a continuously active coaching service based on artificial intelligence, and the Air is the ideal terminal for delivering data to this AI coach without ever pausing. It is the first incarnation of the technology, and it will likely improve over the years, but it can genuinely make a difference for fitness enthusiasts. The decision to eliminate the display should be read in this light. The value is no longer in the device on the wrist but in the continuous relationship between sensors, personal data, and conversational AI.
The company includes with the purchase three months of Google Health Premium, which clearly serves to push a subscription-first ecosystem, with AI coaching, workout libraries, proactive insights, and advanced analytics available only with a subscription.
The final result is an ecosystem that mixes Fitbit, Gemini, digital health, and subscription services into a platform much broader than simple fitness tracking. And this is probably the true innovation behind Fitbit Air.