Ron Amadeo / Google
Google is killing off the Google Match APIs. The platform initially existed to sync well being knowledge from third-party health units to your Google account, however now it is being killed off. Deprecation of the APIs occurred on Might 1, and Google has stopped accepting new sign-ups for the API. The official shutdown date is June 30, 2025.
The Google Match API was launched in 2014, only a few weeks after Apple introduced Healthkit in iOS 8. The purpose of each platforms is to be a central repository for well being knowledge from numerous apps and providers. As a substitute of seeing steps in a single app and weight in one other, it may all be mushed collectively right into a one-stop-shop for well being metrics. Google had plenty of big-name companions at launch, like Nike+, Adidas, Withings, Asus, HTC, Intel, LG, and app makers like Runtastic and RunKeeper.
Quick-forward to 2024, and we get the acquainted story of Google being unable to throw its weight behind a single resolution. Right now, Google has three competing health APIs. There’s a “Comparability Information” on the Android Developer web site detailing the variations between the “Well being Join” API, the “Fitbit Net API” and the “Google Match REST API.”
Apart from killing off the API, Google Match generally looks as if a lifeless product. Google’s deal to amass Fitbit closed in 2021, making Fitbit the shiny new health model and bringing with it health API No. 2. New Google merchandise just like the Pixel Watch and Pixel telephones include the Fitbit app because the built-in health resolution as a substitute of Google Match, and the Google Match app hasn’t seen a big improve shortly.
Google’s Match API shutdown timeline.
Google’s new health API, Well being Join, has had a “beta” app on the Play Retailer since 2022 that solely works with Android 13, and in Android 14, Well being Join turned baked into the OS as an open supply framework for storing well being knowledge. That Android 14 launch was solely seven months in the past, and with Android’s gradual replace schedule and even slower developer function adoption, it is arduous to say an excessive amount of about Well being Join. Google notes that the Play Retailer model of Well being Join and the Android 14 model of Well being Join aren’t the identical factor (!), and an computerized “migration” pop-up display and machine reboot is required to maneuver to the Android 14 model. Google hasn’t mentioned something about compatibility with variations of Android older than Android 14 (or 13?), so even in 2025, Android’s gradual replace velocity means that is going to be an API with low machine help.
One change identified by Google’s comparability information is that whereas the Fitbit API syncs well being knowledge to your Fitbit account (Fitbit accounts are additionally being shut down in 2025), and the Google Match API syncs well being knowledge to your Google account, Well being Join would not sync to any cloud supplier. The documentation round Well being Join by no means talks in regards to the cloud in any respect. From a platform perspective, not having cloud sync makes Well being Join extra of a impartial, not-Google-affiliated commonplace for well being knowledge storage. Google additionally pitches the dearth of cloud storage as a privateness function. And similar to how Google and Samsung teamed up for Put on OS (I assume this was a associated venture) Samsung has agreed to surrender on the “Well being Platform API” and is a launch associate for Well being Join.
From a consumer perspective, with no cloud syncing, what occurs to my well being knowledge if I swap units or if my telephone breaks? Can I ever simply take a look at my well being knowledge in a extra succesful pill or net app, or will that not work? For now, all speak of “sharing” is proscribed to native apps or units that straight sync to your telephone, like a smartwatch. The Fitbit app can present third-party Well being Join knowledge proper now, however it’s unclear if it is going to sync third-party knowledge to the cloud. Google notes that “Our Android Well being API choices have moved to an on-device mannequin, so there won’t be a substitute for the Match REST API.” (A REST API, by definition, is over the Web.)
The corporate’s migration information notes that the Google Match and Well being Join APIs aren’t appropriate, and for now Google recommends supporting each whereas customers and producers transition from one API to the opposite. The information additionally flatly says, “We do not advocate migrating to Well being Join if you happen to’re an current Google Fitbit Net API developer,” after which gives no various, so it sounds just like the purpose is siloed on-device knowledge solely, and any units that use the net APIs will cease syncing in 2025.
By the best way, regardless of being the identical age, Apple’s Healthkit ecosystem is not being shut down and can proceed working. Whereas Google begins over, Healthkit will proceed rising its ecosystem and its already vital lead, and Apple will proceed to construct consumer and developer belief.
