Runkeeper and Strava also compatible with the personal fitness coach app
Samsung has launched an update for its S Health app adding new features for the Gear Fit2, but it’s also quietly added support for third party activity tracking apps that effectively turns it into a Google Fit style central hub for all of your data.
The Korean company has apparently been adding support since May and with the latest version 4.8.1 update, you can now connect S Health with Fitbit, Jawbone, Misfit and Microsoft Health. It’s also now integrates Runkeeper and Strava data.
Read this: Samsung Gear S2 tips and tricks
It’s not perfect. While the majority of apps will let you share exercise and sleep data, Fitbit integration will only allow you to share sleep data. Strava will also only let you share exercise data. Adding the integration is also not the most straightforward and requires hunting out the Connected Services option, which lives under the More Button inside the S Health app.
S Health had previously only been available to Samsung smartphone owners and works with its family of wearables including the Gear S2 smartwatch. Since then, full Android support has been added last year although there’s still no love for iPhone users.
Along with the third party support, Samsung is also introducing new features to coincide with the launch of the Gear Fit2, notably adding a new Steps challenge to take on friends in a race to score the most steps.
The decision to loosen the shackles on third party activity tracking support is the real story here though and should make the health and fitness app a whole lot more useful.
