Google Fit adds new Wear OS Tiles, prioritizes step counter, and improves Heart Point recommendations (Update: APK download)

Just as many people are getting a bit stir crazy from staying indoors, the Google Fit team is delivering some long overdue attention to the Android app and Wear OS. Over the next week or so, several enhancements to the interface are set to roll out, meant to make information more visible while streamlining the interface so users can quickly pull up the most important bits of data.

Google Fit introduced Heart Points and Move Minutes back in 2018. This served to push the calorie counter and classic pedometer into the background, but that didn’t seem to sit too well with users. It seems Google has received a lot of feedback and step tracking is back on top by popular demand. Heart Points will remain the top metric for tracking your higher heart rate activity, but a step counter will live alongside it on the circular graph as the second most visible metric. Move Minutes will be demoted to live alongside the calorie and distance measurements. All of this will be punctuated by subtle redesigns in text and colors to make useful data more visible at a glance.

The Heart Point measurements will also be improved with more extensive tracking and helpful guides to help reach the 150 points per week recommended by the American Heart Association and World Health Organization. This will present goals and recommendations for getting more active. However, Google says this is currently only ready for iOS and Wear devices, but didn’t reference a timeline for arrival on Android phones.

Shifting gears to the Wear OS enhancements, Google Fit is expanding on the selection of Tiles, first introduced around this time last year. There are two new tiles, one for starting a workout with a tap and another to see your daily and weekly progress. These will join the existing activity graph.

These changes begin rolling out today, but could take around a week to reach everybody. If you’re not already on the latest version of Google Fit or Wear OS, that may be necessary for some or all of the new features to take effect.