Earlier this fall, Google announced the Gemini-fication of many of its apps and services, and our discussion today focuses on a preview version of the new Fitbit app. The app features a redesign, a library of workout videos, and a new Gemini-powered personal health coach. The preview and new features are a part of the premium version, which costs $10 per month or $80 per year. I’ve been testing the preview for nearly two months while wearing the OG Pixel Watch, the first-generation Google smartwatch, to monitor my health metrics. We have some thoughts on it.
Getting Started
Before diving in, the refreshed app requires you to answer questions about the health and fitness goals you want to reach or improve. You can use either text or voice for the setup, as the entire process takes between 15 and 20 minutes. I opted to type in all of my answers. Since the majority of 2025 was the beginning of my outdoor running journey, I worked my way up to a consistent 8-mile run in a single session. My daily activity goal is 10,000 steps and a cardio load of 90, 3,247 burned calories, and 22 active zone minutes daily within the app as weekly goals.
The Personal Health Coach & Its Advice
I asked Fitbit’s new health coach to provide tips on strengthening my knees for a faster recovery post-run without pain or stiffness lasting days later. Next, I had an additional chat to set up a workout plan and set up an entire fitness and recovery plan broken into two days. One day was dedicated to building a full-body strength foundation, which included exercises such as the goblet squat, one-leg deadlift, bent-over row, high plank, and glute bridge, on Saturdays. Sundays were dedicated to running and core stability, featuring a 3-mile run, forward lunges, and farmer’s walk. If it’s too much, your workout plans can be adjusted at any time.
Navigating The New Fitbit App
Along with the Gemini-powered personal coach and its workout plans, the Fitbit app itself receives a visual makeover while maintaining the vital metrics for tracking sleep, health, and fitness, which includes automatic activity detection for bicycling, walking, running, elliptical training, swimming, aerobics, and other sports. The app’s hourly activity tracker, which encourages walking 250 steps every hour to cut down on idle movement, can occasionally be a little annoying.
The largest icon when you open the app is the weekly cardio progress circle. This measures your overall cardio load, which is based on your activity duration, workout intensity, and fitness level. I averaged around 37 cardio loads per week while hitting my target a total of three times. However, there was one day in early November, which was the last time I really exceeded the recommended goal, when I hit 163 cardio loads with a total of 13,204 steps.
The next metric, located on the top right, is the default step counter, which is self-explanatory, and it provides hourly reminders to move, or more specifically, take steps. While using the Pixel Watch, it recognized when I completed runs and walks, but I had to go in to manually record fitness activities such as dumbbell exercises or calisthenics. I’m not sure if this experience would be different using the Fitbit Charge 6 or Pixel Watch 4.
Next, we have the daily readiness score, which is a metric that calculates your heart rate variability, sleep, and resting heart rate to determine your body’s overall rest and recovery. A score of 1-29 is low, 30-64 is moderate, and 65-100 is a high readiness score. My readiness score averaged around 40-69, with 15 or 29 occasionally, due to my partial sleep schedule. Yeah, I know, I need more sleep.
Lastly, the Fitbit app and watch combo were thoroughly accurate during my sleep tracking, which included my time awake, light and deep sleep, REM, benchmarks, and sleeping heart rate. It also did a fantastic job measuring my unintentional naps and incorporating them into the total sleep score. The app calculates your sleep score, with anything less than 60 as poor, 60-79 as fair, 80-89 as good, and 90-100 as excellent. I usually average around 6 hours of sleep nightly during the week and between 7 and 8 hours on the weekends, which can range from scores of 76 to 87 every week. I found Fitbit’s numbers to be quite accurate. It also provides advice on how to improve sleep, increase recovery, and increase readiness scores. I definitely walked away feeling impressed with the sleep portion of the app.
The new Fitbit Premium preview is set to arrive for all users (free and premium) sometime in early 2026, which is right around the corner. I am loving the overall new Fitbit experience, from its new look to the personal health coach. It’s been intriguing to compare the results from Fitbit’s preview app against Samsung’s S Health app for an upcoming Galaxy Ring review. While it was the preview version of the app, I still found the new AI-infused version of Fitbit Premium to be stable and adequate. I am curious to see how Google plans to improve and evolve the Fitbit app moving forward in its next or final form.
