To bridge the functional gap with Apple's Health app, Google is actively strengthening the Health Connect platform at the core of the Android system.Android Authority website reportsGoogle plans to revamp the interface of "Health Connect" and add several more sophisticated data tracking features, including "alcohol intake" and "medical symptoms," in an attempt to create a more comprehensive personal health data hub.
Interface revamp: Easier management and authorization
In the latest interface design, Google has adjusted the logic of the settings menu. To make it clearer for users which apps are accessing data, "Connected Apps" has been moved to the top of the list and is no longer sorted by read/write time, making data management more intuitive.
In addition, to address the cumbersome permission settings, the new version introduces a "Group View". Users no longer need to select each switch one by one; they can simply click the drop-down arrow of the category to grant or deny access permissions for the entire category of data (such as "Nutrition" or "Sleep").
He can even remember what kind of alcohol he drank and where he was in pain.
In addition to interface optimizations, two new metrics that "Healthy Connection" will soon support have been discovered in the latest Android Canary source code:
• Alcohol intake:The system will be able to identify and record various alcoholic beverages, including beer, wine, whiskey, and sake. This is quite useful for users who need to monitor their diet and metabolism.
• Medical symptoms:This is an important step towards professional medical management, with the coded content including description fields for dozens of symptoms such as abdominal pain, fever, insomnia, joint stiffness, and shortness of breath.
By combining previously supported allergy history and vaccination records, Google is clearly trying to upgrade "Health Connect" from a simple "exercise logbook" to a "personal medical record".
No need to wait for system updates, you can upgrade through the Google Play Store.
It's worth noting that "Health Connect" primarily acts as a "data hub" (it typically doesn't generate data itself, except for step counting), handling the exchange of data between third-party apps like MyFitnessPal, Ora, and Samsung Health. Therefore, these new features will only become available after developers update their apps for compatibility.
However, thanks to Google's Play System Updates mechanism, these underlying feature improvements do not need to wait for major Android system updates; they can be quickly pushed to users' phones directly through the Google Play Store.
