Technology - Google News

As Pixel Watch goes all-in on Fitbit, founder says Google Fit will co-exist for now - 9to5Google

Posted: 11 May 2022 06:42 PM PDT

The culmination of Google's $2.1 billion acquisition of Fitbit is here, with the Pixel Watch officially coming later this year with a fully integrated Fitbit experience. What does that mean for Google Fit? We've been curious to know for a while, but it seems Fitbit and Google Fit only have plans to co-exist.

In an interview with the folks at CNET, Fitbit founder James Park answered a few burning questions regarding Fitbit's first foray into providing its health software for hardware that lacks its name. In case you missed it earlier today, the Google Pixel Watch will ship with Fitbit as its health suite, complete with sleep tracking, heart rate tracking, active minutes, and more.

But a big question around this has been what happens to Google Fit with Fitbit in the picture. After all, the two apps essentially have the same goal, and Google Fit has run the show on Wear OS for years as the platform's go-to health suite. Apparently, Google has no immediate plans to shelve Fit, Park says.

I think for now, Google Fit and the Fitbit app are just going to continue as is — I don't think we want to interrupt the experience for either set of users. Both user groups, which are fairly substantial, like the app they are using for a variety of reasons. For now, we don't see any reason to change that.

It's been quite clear for a while that Google hasn't fully figured out what to do with Fit and Fitbit, with products like the Nest Hub 2nd Gen and its Soli-powered sleep tracking sitting in limbo for a while as a result. But it seems, for the time being, this is the situation we're going to stick with, for better or worse.

Park's interview brings up some other interesting tidbits about the Pixel Watch experience with Fitbit. He said that Fitbit wants to "bring as much of the benefits of Fitbit to Pixel" as possible, and that "it'll work both ways" with Google services plugging into the Fitbit experience. As far as sensors go, Park couldn't share exactly what the Pixel Watch will offer, but that the "goal is to bring the most advanced sensors across the entire portfolio." Previously, we noted that it appears the Pixel Watch shares its health sensors with the Fitbit Charge 5.

As Pixel Watch goes all-in on Fitbit, founder says Google Fit will co-exist for now

You can read the full interview for more of Park's thoughts on the Pixel Watch and how it ties into Fitbit, and our coverage for more information about the Pixel Watch itself.

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Google Has New AR Glasses in Development - CNET

Posted: 11 May 2022 01:49 PM PDT

Google has been expected to be developing AR glasses, and the company indeed announced a prototype pair of glasses it's developing at this year's Google I/O conference.

The glasses look focused on helpful features, such as language translation. Google acquired smart glasses maker North in 2020, and its work with Google Glass pioneered smart eyewear nearly a decade ago.

Now playing: Watch this: Google Gives Us a Glimpse of New AR Glasses With Live...

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Google's tease of its glasses was brief, but the company's continued strides in AR tools through its phones, search and Lens look ready to carry over to its glasses, too. But there's no clear indicator when these glasses might be available to buy.

Google has been active in VR and AR for years. While no company has everyday smart glasses in regular use, Google looks like it's going to try again.

One of the most interesting parts of its new glasses initiative is a focus on utility. The ability to be understood, or to understand, is actually useful. These glasses aren't focusing on floating dinosaurs or magic experiences; they're trying to assist. Meta's recent smart glass ambitions also aim at utility, but Google's experience and tools seem well suited for the challenge.

As Google's CEO Sundar Pichai notes in a blog post, these prototype glasses are focused on delivering language in a line of sight experience. Google's work with AR will likely be incremental, but it also looks like it's trying for services first. In that sense, these glasses already seem a lot different than the more magical VR headset that Daydream was. In many ways, it seems like the sort of stuff I always expected Google Glass to do someday.

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