Google Fit APIs are shutting down in 2025 and could break fitness devices

Google is removing the Google Fit APIs. The platform originally existed to sync health data from third-party fitness devices to your Google Account, but is now being phased out. On May 1st, the APIs were disabled and Google has stopped accepting new registrations for the API. The official closing date is June 30, 2025.

The Google Fit API was launched in 2014, just weeks after Apple announced Healthkit in iOS 8. The goal of both platforms is to be a central repository of health data from various apps and services. Instead of seeing steps in one app and weight in another, you could combine everything into a single window for health metrics. Google had many big name partners at launch including Nike+, Adidas, Withings, Asus, HTC, Intel, LG and app makers like Runtastic and RunKeeper.

Fast forward to 2024 and we have the familiar story that Google can’t throw its weight behind a single solution. Today, Google has done just that three Competing Fitness APIs. There is a “Comparison Guide” on the Android Developer site detailing the differences between the “Health Connect” API, the “Fitbit Web API” and the “Google Fit REST API”.

Besides removing the API, Google Fit in general looks like a dead product. Google’s deal to acquire Fitbit closed in 2021, making Fitbit the shiny new fitness brand and bringing it the No. 1 fitness API. 2. Newer Google products like the Pixel Watch and Pixel phones come with the Fitbit app as a built-in fitness solution instead of Google Fit, and the Google Fit app hasn’t seen any significant updates in a while.

Google’s new fitness API, Health Connect, has had a “beta” app on the Play Store since 2022 that only works with Android 13, and in Android 14, Health Connect was brought into the operating system as an open source framework for storing health data The release of Android 14 was just seven months ago, and with Android’s slow update schedule and even slower developer adoption of features, it’s hard to say too much about Health Connect. Google notes that the Play Store version of Health Connect and the Android 14 version of Health Connect are not the same (!), and an automatic “migration” screen and device restart is needed to upgrade to Android 14. Google hasn’t said anything about compatibility with Android versions prior to Android 14 (or 13?), so even in 2025, the slow update speed of Android means it will be an API with poor device compatibility.

One change noted by Google’s comparison guide is that while the Fitbit API syncs health data with your Fitbit account (Fitbit accounts are also closing in 2025) and the Google Fit API syncs health data with your Google Account, Health Connect does. t sync with any cloud provider. The documentation on Health Connect never mentions the cloud. From a platform perspective, not having cloud synchronization makes Health Connect more of a neutral, non-Google-affiliated standard for health data storage. Google also touts the lack of cloud storage as a privacy feature. And just like Google and Samsung teamed up for Wear OS (I guess it was a related project), Samsung has agreed to give up the “Health Platform API” and is a launch partner for Health Connect.

From a user perspective, without cloud sync, what happens to my health data if I change devices or if my phone breaks? Can I easily look at my health data on a more capable tablet or web app, or will this not work? For now, all the talk about “sharing” is limited to local apps or devices that sync directly to your phone, like a smartwatch. The Fitbit app can display third-party Health Connect data right now, but it’s unclear whether it will sync third-party data to the cloud. Google notes that “Our Android Health API offerings have moved to an on-device model, so there won’t be an alternative to the Fit REST API.” (A REST API, by definition, is on the Internet.)

The company’s migration guide notes that the Google Fit and Health Connect APIs are not compatible, and for now, Google recommends supporting them while users and manufacturers migrate from one API to the other. The guide also flatly says, “We don’t recommend migrating to Health Connect if you’re a Google Fitbit Web API developer,” and then offers no alternative, so it sounds like the goal is to just save data to the device and all devices using web APIs will stop syncing in 2025.

By the way, despite being the same age, Apple’s Healthkit ecosystem it is not it turns off and will continue to work. As Google starts anew, Healthkit will continue to grow its ecosystem and already significant leadership, and Apple will continue to build trust among users and developers.