Google Fit prepares to add a new paced walking activity

The Google Fit app has received several improvements over the last few months. Towards the end of last year, Google rolled out a revamped home screen for the app and a few new Wear OS features. The company then introduced another new feature to Google Fit on Wear OS in February this year that automatically detects when a workout has finished. Shortly after that, the Google Fit app received the ability to monitor heart rate and respiratory rate using the built-in sensors on Pixel phones. And now, we’ve spotted two more useful features coming to the app.

An APK teardown can often predict features that may arrive in a future update of an application, but it is possible that any of the features we mention here may not make it in a future release. This is because these features are currently unimplemented in the live build and may be pulled at any time by the developers in a future build.

Google Fit v2.57.16 started rolling out via the Play Store recently. A teardown of the latest update has revealed new strings hinting at the following features:

Paced Walking

The new strings mentioned below reveal that the Google Fit app will soon receive a new Paced Walking feature. This feature will let you set “a pace for your walks,” and it will then play a metronome sound effect to help you keep up the pace. The description for the upcoming feature states: “Follow along with the beat to turn walking into a simple, effective way to exercise.” We’ve spotted four sound effects related to this feature in the teardown and they have different tempos to help users pick a pace that best suits their requirements.

<string name="paced_walking_card_action_button">Try paced walking</string>
<string name="paced_walking_card_content">Follow along with the beat to turn walking into a simple, effective way to exercise.</string>
<string name="paced_walking_card_title">Set a pace for your walks</string>
<string name="paced_walking_edu_cancel_button_text">Cancel</string>
<string name="paced_walking_edu_finish_button_text">Done</string>
<string name="paced_walking_edu_next_button_text">Next</string>
<string name="paced_walking_edu_previous_button_text">Previous</string>
<string name="paced_walking_edu_screen1_body">Brisk walking is an easy way to fit exercise into your day, and counts towards your activity goals.</string>
<string name="paced_walking_edu_screen1_title">Get more from your daily walks</string>
<string name="paced_walking_edu_screen2_body">A brisk walk should leave you a little out of breath. For most people, this is around 100 steps per minute.</string>
<string name="paced_walking_edu_screen2_title">Set the pace you want to walk at</string>
<string name="paced_walking_edu_screen3_body">Step along with the beat to keep up the pace. You can still play podcasts, playlists, or other audio as you go.</string>
<string name="paced_walking_edu_screen3_title">Your chosen pace plays in the background</string>

The strings further add that the app will show a new card on the home screen asking you to try out the new Paced Walking feature when it rolls out with a future release. You will also be able to select Paced Walking as one of the activities in the app. It’s also worth mentioning that you will still be able to play your favorite music, podcasts, or other audio while the activity is enabled, and the sound effect will play alongside the other audio.

Blood Glucose Tracking

Google Fit may also receive support for blood glucose tracking in a future release, according to the new strings spotted in the latest update. Since the Fitbit app recently added manual blood glucose tracking, the upcoming feature could be intended to help you input your data from the Fitbit app. Alternatively, it could be Google Fit’s own manual blood glucose tracking feature.

<string name="blood_glucose_label">Blood glucose</string>
<string name="blood_glucose_long_format">{value, plural, =1 {1 millimole per litre} other {# millimoles per liter}}</string>
<string name="blood_glucose_long_unit">millimoles per liter</string>
<string name="blood_glucose_range_long_format">Between {firstValue} and {lastValue} millimoles per liter</string>
<string name="blood_glucose_range_short_format">{firstValue} – {lastValue} mmol/L</string>
<string name="blood_glucose_short_format">{value, plural, =1 {1 mmol/L} other {# mmol/L}}</string>
<string name="blood_glucose_short_unit">mmol/L</string>

It’s worth mentioning that the Fit API supports the blood glucose data type to help apps store a user’s blood glucose level as part of their Google account. But it now seems like the Google Fit app itself will let users set this data manually.

Currently, the new features mentioned above aren’t live in the latest Google Fit release. We’ll make sure to let you know as soon as Google rolls them out with a future update.

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