I’m not a fitness fanatic, but I still can’t wait to buy a Fitbit Air

I’m not a fan of most fitness trackers. I’ve used a number of Fitbit products over the years, most recently the Charge 6. None of them have ever fallen into my routine. Most have become simple smartwatches that notify you of incoming texts and calls. I’m not a fitness fanatic, but that doesn’t mean I’m not interested in my health. No device was found that meets my needs.

The Fitbit Air is the first product I’ve been wanting to try in a while. It’s lightweight, practical, and changing the way Google processes health data. You’re not going to hit the couch to 5K right away, but even small improvements in your sleep and overall health will add up over time.

If you’re like me and are more likely to reach for donuts than dumbbells this week, the Fitbit Air is worth considering.

A common saying about NFL players is that their best ability is availability. You may have the best fitness tracker in the world, but if I’m not wearing it, it’s useless. Smartwatches have all the health sensors you need in a modern fitness tracker, but they have limitations. I like analog watches and like to test different models even when I’m wearing a smartwatch.

As a result, you’ll end up doing some workouts in one app and sleep tracking in another from your smartwatch, but you won’t get any useful data. My Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra is also bulky. Besides worrying about giving my wife a concussion if I move around while I sleep, it’s not something I want to have on my wrist all the time. Battery life is a challenge, but you don’t need to have time to charge during the day to enjoy sleep tracking at night.

The Fitbit Charge 6 was better in terms of battery life and weight, but it still felt like I was wearing two watches.

Fitbit Air solves many of those problems. First, it’s very light. It weighs 12g, so you won’t notice it even if you wear it on your wrist. It will also be easier to attach accessories. The default band is attractive enough, but it won’t be long before we see an avalanche of cheaper bands and straps.

It also has a week-long battery life, so you can wear it all the time without worrying. It also has plenty of fitness and health sensors to help you get the job done.

The all-new Google Health app makes it easier to pull in information from different devices. If you want to wear a smartwatch one day and a fitness tracker the next, Google Health combines that into one app. While this is useful, fragmented data is only part of the problem.

I’m not a fitness fanatic. You don’t know how many steps you need to take in a day, and you don’t know which heart rate zone is best for you. Sleep tracking is also a mystery. Tracking your sleep score is great, but what’s the point if you don’t have actionable steps to improve your sleep? Whenever you test a new product, you enter your height and weight and hope for the best, but that’s not enough.

Google’s AI-powered Health Coach aims to solve this problem. It’s not free – you have to pay $10 a month to take advantage of the benefits – but if you’re like me, it could be worth it. AI coach analyzes your workout and provides an improvement plan. We’ve seen similar products before, but Google has taken it a step further with this latest version. Medical history and records can be added to give the AI ​​coach a more complete picture.

Instead of just getting a static action plan based on your data, you can ask your AI coach questions. Dialogue is much more helpful and allows you to get information in a language you understand. It’s hard to know where to start with your health data, so it’s nice to have the equivalent of an AI assistant to gently input it for you. Following a plan and setting goals together is much better than getting a list based on a few data points.

Google claims that various outside experts have reviewed the feedback provided by the AI ​​coach, but I still have my doubts. You trust an AI model with your personal health records. That alone is alarming enough, but we all know that these models are prone to various hallucinations. That becomes even more dangerous when it comes to providing health advice. People with limited medical understanding may follow inappropriate suggestions without realizing that they are actually harmful.

As a result, I think initial feedback will be muted. No matter how good it is, it will never replace actually going to the doctor or talking with a medical professional. There will be a fine line between what is helpful and what is harmful. If Google’s AI coach can be used to guide people and make more people conscious of their health as a result, I’m all for it. But it’s not ideal if people use it as an excuse not to address legitimate medical issues.

Still, I’m looking forward to it. Like AFIB detection on smartwatches, anything that increases health awareness has the potential to save lives. I’m not going to take Google’s AI coach at his word, but if it makes me ask constructive questions and work with my doctor to lead to a better health plan, even if you’re a couch potato like me, the Fitbit Air has done its job.

The Fitbit Air will be officially released on May 26th, and even though I’m not that into fitness, I can’t wait to buy one.