Google Brings Fitbit AI Coach to iPhone
Google has introduced its Fitbit AI Health Coach to iOS, making the personalized wellness tool available on Apple devices. The launch comes as Apple is reportedly scaling back its own 'Health+' expansion plans. This move intensifies competition in the digital health and wellness space, pitting Google's AI-driven coaching against Apple's ecosystem.
- The AI coach is powered by Google's Gemini model and is integrated into the Fitbit Premium subscription service, which costs $9.99 per month. It functions as a 24/7 digital advisor that can create personalized workout plans, analyze sleep patterns, and answer health-related questions through a chatbot. - This feature first launched in a public preview for Android users in the United States in October 2025, indicating an iterative, platform-specific rollout strategy before the wider expansion to iOS and other countries like the UK, Canada, and Australia. - The launch is a direct result of Google's $2.1 billion acquisition of Fitbit, which was completed in January 2021. As part of that deal, Google made a binding commitment to global regulators that Fitbit users' health and wellness data would not be used for Google ads. - The AI coach adapts its recommendations based on a user's logged activities and biometric data, such as sleep scores and heart rate variability (HRV). For example, it can automatically adjust a user's marathon training plan if it detects poor sleep quality or high strain. - Apple's competing "Health+" initiative, internally codenamed Project Mulberry, was designed to combine Apple Watch data with lab reports and surveys to provide AI-driven recommendations. The project has been scaled back under the new leadership of Services chief Eddy Cue, who is reportedly pushing for smaller, faster feature releases within the main Health app rather than a single large subscription service. - Google is using Fitbit Labs as a platform to test more advanced, experimental AI features with select users. These include a "Medical Record Navigator" to simplify lab reports and a "Symptom Checker" to
