Google Fit is seeing a renaissance of sorts. After being quasi-abandoned for a long while, the app reemerged with a new UI and keeps adding new features every now and then, like the impressive heart and respiratory rate measurement on Pixels. But what Fit has always lacked is a more organized user experience. The stream of similar-looking cards on the homescreen is the least efficient way of showing all this health data, and it seems the devs finally took notice and decided to fix it, while also adding new functionality.

A new Browse tab is rolling out as part of Google Fit 2.61. It acts like a centralized place to view all your health data, organized under six big categories: activities, body measurements, vitals, nutrition, sleep, and menstrual cycle. New Material You-fitting icons flank each of these, plus everything is searchable.

Left & Middle: New "Browse" tabRight: Old Fit UI for logging a new item.

This is obviously much better than the smorgasbord of cards in the Home tab where you had to scroll and try to spot the stats you were looking for among a series of similar graphs. It's also much, much better than the even more disorganized way of manually logging data in previous Fit versions.

Consider this: a floating button in v2.60 and below allowed you to track your blood pressure, weight, and activities, but the app supported way more manual logs — they were just hidden. For sleep, heart rate, and respiratory rate logging, you had to find the corresponding cards and tap the + button on the upper right side. For your height, you had to go to your profile and edit it. And for plenty of other metrics, you had to rely on a third-party app integration. Even though Fit was perfectly capable of displaying that data, it didn't let you add it by yourself.

The new Browse tab in v2.61 provides a central management not just for viewing your data, but also for adding to it. And there are plenty of new data types you can manually enter.

In the following paragraphs, I'll point out in bold the new health data stats that you can now manually log in the app. These were already supported in Fit, but only a third-party app integration could trigger them or add new data points to them. With this update, they show up by default and can be used without any third-party app.

Activity

Under the activity tab, you can see all the related cards and stats (daily goals, heart points, steps, energy expended, distance, move minutes, and more). Tapping the + button on the top right lets you manually log any activity. The UI is simpler now with the boxes gone and replaced by more streamlined lines; this is going to be a recurrent design change in this new version.

Left: Activity sectionMiddle: Adding an activity in v2.61. Right: In the older v2.60.

Body measurements

This section houses your height, weight, and body fat charts. You can also manually add any of these while specifying the exact date and time for the measure.

Left: Body measurements section. Middle: Adding a new measure. Right: Logging body fat.

Vitals

The existing heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure cards find themselves in this section, but new ones have also been added: blood glucoseoxygen saturation, and body temperature. That means that yes, you can finally track blood glucose manually inside Fit, and you can enter your heart and respiratory rates without having a Pixel. But most importantly, you can also log all of your other medical data. For blood pressure, you can also specify your body position and the location of the monitor (left or right, wrist or upper arm) while taking the measure, both important factors in interpreting the data.

Left: Vitals section. Middle: Manually log these. Right: Body and arm position for blood pressure.

Nutrition

This section is dedicated to the calories you consume and water you drink. You can also manually log your hydration and calories consumed, down to the teeniest details.

Left: Nutrition section. Middle: Log water and food intake. Right: Detailed calorie logging.

Sleep

There's nothing essentially new in the sleep section, but the screen to manually add your sleep is another example of a simplified UI with the boxes gone and replaced by a more linear interface.

Left: Sleep section. Middle: Adding sleep in v2.61. Right: In the older v2.60.

Cycle tracking

Fit can now be your (or your partner's) cycle tracker as it allows you to add a period and specify the flow level for each day, separately. There's no manual tracking for other data types (ovulation, contraception, protected/unprotected sex, etc...) but it's a start. Some of that data can be imported from third-party apps, but isn't available out of the box in Fit for now.

Left: Cycle tracking section. Middle: Adding a period. Right: Month view.


Overall, while this change might seem like a small improvement, it's such a gigantic leap forward when you break it down. So to recap, I've decided to make a bulleted list:

  • All of your stats are now better organized under six big categories.
  • You can now search for a certain type of data.
  • Manual logging is now centralized and you don't have to go digging around the app to find it.
  • Manual logging has been expanded to nine new data types.
  • Manual logging screens have received a facelift with a simpler UI.

To try out all these features, you need Google Fit 2.61.14. It's available on the Play Store, but you can also grab it from APK Mirror and sideload it.