Google Releases Preview SDK for Google Fit
Google has released what it calls a "preview" software developers’ kit for its recently announced Google Fit platform.
Google has released what it calls a "preview" software developers' kit for its recently announced Google Fit platform.
Google Fit was announced at the Google I/O conference in June, and industry observers expect Google and Apple to duke it out in the mobile fitness and health market with their competing platforms (Google Fit and Apple HealthKit, respectively).
"Google Fit provides a single set of APIs for apps and device manufacturers to store and access activity data from fitness apps and sensors on Android and other devices (like wearables, heart rate monitors or connected scales)," Google Fit product manager Angana Ghosh said in a blog post announcing the SDK's release. "This means that with the user’s permission, you can get access to the user’s fitness history--enabling you to provide more interesting features in your app like personalized coaching, better insights, fitness recommendations and more."
Ghosh said there are three sets of APIs designed to meet specific developer needs:
*Sensors API provides high-level access to sensors from the device and wearables--so with one API your app can talk to sensors, whether on an Android device or a wearable. So if you’re making a running app, you could register it to receive updates from a connected heart rate monitor every 5 seconds during a user’s run and give immediate feedback to the runner on the display.
*Recording API allows apps to register for battery-efficient, cloud-synced background collection of fitness data. For example, a running app could ask to store user’s location so it can map the run later. Once it registers for these data types, collection is done by Fit in the background with no further work needed by the app.
*History API allows operations on the data like read, insert and delete. When the exerciser finishes her run, the running app can query the History API for all locations during the run and show a map.
Ghosh also said the full Google Fit SDK would be released "later in 2014."
Google Fit was announced at the Google I/O conference in June, and industry observers expect Google and Apple to duke it out in the mobile fitness and health market with their competing platforms (Google Fit and Apple HealthKit, respectively).
"Google Fit provides a single set of APIs for apps and device manufacturers to store and access activity data from fitness apps and sensors on Android and other devices (like wearables, heart rate monitors or connected scales)," Google Fit product manager Angana Ghosh said in a blog post announcing the SDK's release. "This means that with the user’s permission, you can get access to the user’s fitness history--enabling you to provide more interesting features in your app like personalized coaching, better insights, fitness recommendations and more."
Ghosh said there are three sets of APIs designed to meet specific developer needs:
*Sensors API provides high-level access to sensors from the device and wearables--so with one API your app can talk to sensors, whether on an Android device or a wearable. So if you’re making a running app, you could register it to receive updates from a connected heart rate monitor every 5 seconds during a user’s run and give immediate feedback to the runner on the display.
*Recording API allows apps to register for battery-efficient, cloud-synced background collection of fitness data. For example, a running app could ask to store user’s location so it can map the run later. Once it registers for these data types, collection is done by Fit in the background with no further work needed by the app.
*History API allows operations on the data like read, insert and delete. When the exerciser finishes her run, the running app can query the History API for all locations during the run and show a map.
Ghosh also said the full Google Fit SDK would be released "later in 2014."