Google Health Data: Portals, Scores and AI
In May 2026 Google replaced the Fitbit app with Google Health, and in the process deleted the part of the product a lot of people actually cared about: the ability to look at your own history on a screen bigger than your wrist. This page is our index on what happened, what replaced it, and where your data can go now.
The short answer
Your Fitbit data is intact and still reachable — you just lost the window to look at it. Google retired the web dashboard and moved everything into a phone-only app. Your data now lives behind the Google Health API, and from there it can go to an export, to Apple Health on iPhone, or to a third-party tool you run yourself. The catch that almost nobody mentions is that every Google Health API scope is restricted, which caps what any third-party tool can realistically offer you without Google's security review. Details below.
What actually happened, and when
The 2026 transition was not one event. It was a sequence, and the order matters, because the capability that solves your problem arrived three months after the capability that broke it.
| Date | Change | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 7 May 2026 | Google announced Google Health and the Fitbit Air | The Fitbit app was revealed as a rebrand into Google Health. Google Health Coach, built on Gemini, was placed at the centre of the product and gated behind Google Health Premium at $9.99/month or $99/year. |
| 19 May 2026 | Google Health rolled out to all users; Google Fit invited to migrate | Existing Fitbit users were migrated automatically. The web dashboard, Challenges, Adventures, badges and the community feed were removed rather than relocated. |
| May–September 2026 | Backlash, review-bombing, and a published roadmap | Long-time Fitbit users reported losing hourly step views, step reminders, badges and easy day-to-day comparison. Google published a roadmap acknowledging food-logging problems, mislabelled runs, data staleness between tiles, and dashboard customisation limits. |
| 2 August 2026 | Google Health 5.05 shipped two-way Apple Health sync on iOS | This is the important one. Google Health can now write Fitbit data into Apple Health, not just read from it. Before this release the connection was one-way. Google's own help page still described write-back as arriving "later in 2026" after the feature had already shipped. |
| End of 2026 | Google Fit API retired | Anyone still building on Google Fit is building on an API with an end date. The replacement for web integrations is the Google Health API. |
The bit that surprises people
The web dashboard was not a casualty of the redesign described in the announcement. It was removed as part of consolidating Google's health offerings, and it has not come back. If you spent years using a laptop to review sleep scores, resting heart rate trends and step history, the closest thing to a replacement is either a third-party dashboard you run yourself or, on iPhone, Apple Health.
Where your Fitbit data can go now
This is the single most useful thing to understand, because the answer changed in August and almost nobody has written it down. Your data has three exits, and which ones are open depends on whether you own an iPhone or an Android phone.
| Route | iPhone | Android | What you need |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Health app | Yes | Yes | Nothing. This is the default and it works, but it is phone-only. |
| Apple Health, then anything that reads Apple Health — including ChatGPT | Yes, since 2 Aug 2026 | No — there is no Apple Health on Android | Enable Sync to Apple Health in the Google Health app, then grant permissions. |
| Health Connect to a third-party tool | Not applicable | Yes | A self-hosted or hosted tool that reads Health Connect or the Google Health API. |
| Google Health API to your own software | Yes | Yes | A Google Cloud project, an OAuth client, and patience with the consent process. See the section below. |
| Export (Google Takeout or Fitbit Data Export) | Yes | Yes | Nothing technical. Produces a frozen archive, not a live feed. |
The consequence is worth stating plainly. An iPhone user in October 2026 has a free, native, no-third-party route from Fitbit into ChatGPT. An Android user does not, because ChatGPT reads Apple Health and does not read Android's Health Connect. The same Fitbit Air, on the same Google account, produces two completely different answers to "can I ask an AI about my data?" depending only on which phone it was paired to.
The constraint nobody warns you about
If you plan to read your data with anything other than the Google Health app, this is the part that decides whether the project is a weekend or a chore.
The seven-day token problem
Every Google Health API scope is classified as restricted by Google. To publish an app that uses them in production you must complete Google's OAuth verification, which for restricted scopes means an annual paid third-party security assessment — Google's CASA programme. That is not a realistic cost for a personal dashboard.
The workaround every self-hosted project uses is to keep the OAuth consent screen in Testing mode with yourself as the only test user. The cost of that choice is that Google issues refresh tokens which expire after seven days. After a week your tool stops syncing until you re-consent, which takes about ten seconds in a browser.
This is not a bug in any particular project. It is a direct consequence of the scope classification, and it applies to every self-hosted Google Health tool equally. Several projects document it openly, which is the single strongest signal of honesty to look for when you are choosing one.
Practical consequences: a tool you open daily will nag you weekly, and that is normal. A tool you set up and forget may fail silently the first time you need it. Any project that claims a permanently live self-hosted Google Health sync with no re-auth step is either wrong or doing something you have not been told about.
What Google Health will not do for you
Two limitations are documented by Google itself and are worth knowing before you build anything around this platform.
- Scores are calculated from first-party data only. Google's third-party device support page states that Google Health "currently uses first party data only to calculate your sleep score and Cardio Load." Connecting a Garmin or a third-party app will not improve your Sleep Score or your weekly load target. It populates history and context, not the headline metrics.
- The Strava integration now runs the other way. Google Health can push activities to Strava, including GPS-free activity types. Strava no longer imports Google Health activities through Health Connect or Apple Health. If you relied on Strava logging into Fitbit, that path is closed.
There is a third limitation that is not Google's fault and matters just as much: Fitbit does not publish the formulas behind its own Readiness, Cardio Load or Sleep Score. Those are proprietary. If you want a recovery or load number computed a specific way, you have to compute it yourself, and any result is a reimplementation rather than a reproduction. That is the subject of the main guide in this cluster.
Guides in this cluster
Recreating WHOOP on Google Fitbit
What the API actually exposes, the published methods you can build a recovery and load score on, and why a Fitbit reimplementation is a different instrument rather than a WHOOP copy.
Fitbit Air: every feature explained
The sensors the new screenless tracker carries, what it can and cannot measure, and which features sit behind Premium.
Fitbit Air vs WHOOP
The hardware and subscription comparison — relevant background if you are trying to decide whether you need a recovery score at all.
Top 5 reasons to buy the Fitbit Air
The case for a cheap screenless tracker, including what you give up by not paying for Premium.
Frequently asked
Can I still see my Fitbit data on the web?
No. Google retired the Fitbit web dashboard as part of the May 2026 transition to Google Health, and it has not returned. Your options are the Google Health phone app, an export from your Google account, or a third-party tool that reads the Google Health API or Health Connect.
What replaced the Fitbit Web API?
The Google Health API, served from health.googleapis.com under version 4. It uses Google OAuth 2.0 instead of the old Fitbit OAuth, which means existing access and refresh tokens cannot be transferred and users have to consent again. Data type identifiers are kebab-case in URLs (heart-rate) but snake_case in filter parameters (heart_rate); sending camelCase returns an error.
Can I get my Fitbit data into ChatGPT?
On iPhone, yes, since Google Health 5.05 shipped two-way Apple Health sync in August 2026. Fitbit data flows into Apple Health and ChatGPT's Health feature can read Apple Health. On Android there is no equivalent, because ChatGPT does not read Android's Health Connect — you would need a self-hosted bridge or a hosted service. Expect proprietary scores like Readiness and Sleep Score not to transfer, since they are computed by Fitbit rather than stored as raw measurements.
Can I build my own WHOOP-style recovery score from Fitbit data?
Yes, with caveats. The Google Health API exposes daily heart rate variability, daily resting heart rate, sleep sessions with stages, and active zone minutes — enough to compute a baseline-relative recovery score and a cardiovascular load score using published methods. But Fitbit publishes no formula for its own Readiness or Cardio Load numbers, and Fitbit Air has no ECG and no continuous HRV, so a reimplementation is a different instrument rather than a copy.
Related
- Recreating WHOOP on Google Fitbit — the main guide in this cluster
- Does WHOOP recovery predict your lift performance? — worth reading before you build a recovery number you intend to act on
- Sleep consistency and your training data — which sleep metrics are actionable and which are decoration
- Best fitness tracker for recovery 2026 — if the platform question is still open
Sources
- Introducing the Google Health app — Google, 7 May 2026
- Introducing the new Google Fitbit Air and Google Health app — Google, 7 May 2026
- Connect third-party devices and apps to the Google Health app — Google Health Help Center. Source of the first-party-only calculation note and the reversed Strava integration
- How do I use Apple Health with the Google Health app? — Google Health Help Center
- Google Health API overview — Google for Developers
- Google Health API data types and scopes — Google for Developers
- Fit migration guide — Android Health Connect documentation. Confirms Google Fit API end-of-life and the Health Connect migration path
- How do I export my Fitbit data? — Google Help Center
- Google Health roadmap details improvements amid backlash — 9to5Google, 27 May 2026
- Google Health adds two-way Apple Health syncing on iPhone — 9to5Mac, 3 August 2026