Google has launched a new type of fitness tracker in India and this time, it’s a significant departure from the usual wearable devices. The new Fitbit Air is meant to be a discreet device that stays on your wrist without being intrusive and has a minimal, screenless interface with health and fitness capabilities built on the Google Health platform.
The Fitbit Air will launch in India starting October 2 and will retail at a price of 13,999 on Google Store and mass retail. The product will be available in four colours Obsidian, Berry, Lavender, and Fog, and will also come with a three-month free trial of the Google Health Premium.
Still, Fitbit Air differs from traditional smartwatches in that it doesn’t feature a screen. The device’s core is a small, lightweight pebble that receives data about your health and activity from the device and then automatically shares the results with the Google Health application. As simple as this concept is, you can wear it all the time without ever becoming distracted by alerts, messages, or an illuminated screen.
Although small in stature, the Fitbit Air is stated to contain different sensors from the manufacturer Google, to support an array of wellness insights; continuous heart rate, baseline heart rate, heart rate and rhythm monitoring and atrial fibrillation alerts (where available), blood oxygen saturation, sleep stage tracking, sleep duration, resting heart rate, and heart-rate variation.
Battery life is also something important of using the Fitbit Air. Google claims that the device can last for one week based on usage and settings. Five minutes of charging offers the user with up to a day of battery life as Google testing of the device. This feature may make the device more attractive for those who do not want to take the device off frequently for charging.
The tracker also integrates with the newly-revamped Google Health app, which replaced the Fitbit app as it’s main portal for health and wellbeing data. The app aggregates data from any wear OS device or other connected health sources, and Google’s Health Coach taps Gemini-based tech to give tailored advice on fitness, sleep, and general wellbeing.
The Fitbit Air can automatically recognize some common activities and display workout summaries via the application. The user can also push the workout manually, or perform exercises based on the coach’s advise. So, it is much more focused on gathering data to interpret later through the phone than juggling with numbers on the wrist.
The appearance of the tracker has also been taken into consideration by Google. Fitbit Air can be bundled with many band styles, which are different in appearance such as Performance Loop band, active band and elevated modern band. The company mentioned the performance loop band is made of recycled materials. Because of this, active band can be used during exercise.
Earlier this year, Google was launching its Fitbit personal health coach was expanded to India and there after introducing the Google health app and Google health premium, forming a bigger health ecosystem.
