Late last year, just weeks after Google finally released Google Fit, an official developer challenge was announced to encourage development of apps for the nascent platform. Google offered developers a range of prizes including smart devices from Google, adidas, Polar, and Withings. Today, Google has announced the winners of the competition.
The apps which won are indicative of the types of apps that Google is looking for when it comes to a match with Google Fit. When the competition launched, Google advised they were looking for apps which were ‘new, fun, innovative fitness apps’. The winners will get devices, but more importantly will receive promotion on Google Play. The apps which won are:
- 7MinGym: All you need is this app, a chair, and a wall to start benefiting from 7 minute workouts at home. You can play music from your favorite music app and cast your workout to Chromecast or Android TV.
- Aqualert: This app reminds you to stay hydrated throughout the day and lets you track your water intake.
- Cinch Weight Loss and Fitness: Cinch helps you with detailed information your steps taken and calories burned. The app also supports heart-rate tracking with compatible Android Wear devices.
- FitHub: FitHub lets you track your fitness activity from multiple accounts, including Google Fit, and multiple wearable devices, including Android Wear. You can also add your friends to compare your progress!
- FitSquad: FitSquad turns fitness into a competition. Join your friends in a squad to compare progress, track achievements, and cheer each other on.
- Instant – Quantified Self: Instant is a lifestyle app that helps you track not only your physical activity but your digital activity too and tells you how much you’re using your phone and apps.other activity. You can also set usage limits and reminders.
- Jump Rope Wear Counter: This simple app lets you count your jump rope skips with an Android Wear device.
- Move it!: This app packs one neat feature – it reminds you to get up and move about if you haven’t been active in the last hour.
- Openrider – GPS Cycling Riding: Track and map your cycle routes with Openrider.
- Running Buddies: In this run tracking app, runners can choose to share their runs and stats with those around them so that they can find other runners similar to themselves to go running with.
- Strength: Strength is a workout tracking app that also lets you choose from a number of routines, so you can get to your workout quickly and track it without manual data entry. Schedules and rest timers come included.
- Walkholic: Walkholic is another way to see your Google Fit walking, cycling, and running data. You can also turn on notifications if you don’t meet your own preset goals.
We should see a Google Fit app focus on Google Play sometime in the near future, but until then click on the links above to check each one out on Google Play. While the competition is now complete, if you’re a developer and interested in incorporation Google Fit into your app, you can check out more information on the Google Fit Developers page.
Finally some more movement in the Fit space. hopefully this spurs of some more development. Ive tried a few already my picks are: Move it!: I’ve been looking for a activity prompting app for those times I get too engrossed in my keyboard, it god be improved but its a great start and FitHub: this provides a more graphically pleasing way (the the fit app) to view some of your Google Fit data. The all encompassing Fit dashboard I was hoping for still isn’t here but this list was just the “winners”, time to scrape the forums and find the… Read more »
This app list is strange. The aquaalert one doesnt even link with Google fit!?
The Fit API doesn’t have an object to store water consumption, the app developer would have had to define a private data type to store it in fit, which is easier, or apply to have a new public custom data type approved, the Fit team are taking a you build it in an app, prove its wanted and then we will approve a new public data type, so if this dev actually wanted to create an open data set he would have to jump through these ludicrous steps.
So… being this is a “Google Fit developer challenge”, its strange to have a app that doesn’t have an object its tracking in google fit. But hey… 🙂
I agree, I wonder if they have applied to make it a public custom data type, in which case the yhave to prove its needed before Fit will add it to the custom class. Its a chicken or the egg argument , I entered into such discussion with them about health metrics being added to the standard and just gave up with an agree to disagree stance.