Google Fitbit Air review: Barely there, always on

Preparation begins with a qualifying conversation with the newcomer AI health coachpowered by Gemini. It asks you about your goals, routines, and obstacles before creating a personalized wellness plan. Depending on the amount of details you share, including the option to upload medical records, the process takes about five minutes. From there, the app creates a weekly plan that includes suggested workouts and goals that you can manually adjust or improve through follow-up conversations with a coach. The experience feels friendly and not prescriptive or overly clinical.

I was surprised by how important an AI-based health coach was to this experience. More than the tracker itself, it was the health coach that kept bringing me back to the app throughout the day. It sends you morning check-ins with sleep summaries, post-workout summaries, and nightly overviews that link your activity levels, recovery, and stress to something more coherent. Most of these messages also end with a question about how you’re feeling, which opens naturally in the chat rather than feeling like another notification to dismiss.

Automatic activity detection is generally solid. The air constantly recognizes your walking, and even produces useful summaries about intensity and recovery afterwards. I haven’t experienced any hallucinations while working out (yet), although there have been some misreadings on occasion. One day, for example, the Air registered my walk as a run, but immediately followed it up with a note indicating that my heart rate data indicated it was probably a walk. It was a strange moment as the system partially corrected itself in real time.

Detection algorithms have also improved significantly through feedback. During the first three days of testing, the Air missed a frequent high-intensity training session. But after I manually recorded the sessions a few times, it started to be recognized automatically. like Oura ringAir gets smarter the more context you give it.

If you start a workout from the app beforehand, you can follow live stats in real time, including heart rate, elapsed time, and timing. Cardiac load meterwhich estimates the stress placed on the cardiovascular system during exercise. AI Health Coach creates a weekly cardio goal based on your health data. Like most findings regarding preparation style, I will treat it as indicative rather than factual; It ultimately relies on Google’s proprietary algorithms.

Courtesy of Google