Migrate by 2026: Health Connect vs Google Fit for Android Power Users

Use Health Connect as your Android on-device hub, and keep Google Fit only as a viewer while you verify your syncs. Google’s own migration guidance recommends Health Connect and the Android Health APIs for new and existing integrations, since Fit’s APIs are deprecated. Enable Health Connect, check each app’s permissions, then decide whether Fit still earns a place on your phone.

TL;DR:

• Moving to Health Connect means apps will store data locally on your device, not in the cloud, with a strict deadline of late 2026 for Fit API support.
• Health Connect requires granting permissions per data type and setting app priorities to avoid data conflicts, ensuring your totals are accurate.
• Switching from Google Fit to Health Connect involves verifying recent data syncs and disabling Fit only after confirming your data has migrated successfully.
• Support issues generally stem from incorrect permissions or unsupported data types, and resolving them involves toggling permissions or starting the sync manually.
• Deleting Fit data does not erase all copies, as some apps may retain local or historical versions, so review data before removing or disconnecting apps.

Table of Contents

• What changes for you at a glance
• Why Google is moving the architecture, not just the branding
• How Health Connect stores, shares, and prioritises your data
• Setting up Health Connect and migrating from Google Fit
• Fixing the sync problems you’ll actually hit
• What disconnecting or deleting actually does to your data
• How Heala fits into a Health Connect setup
• Why the migration matters more than the app-store update suggests
• One app to centralise what Health Connect only shares
• Sources
• FAQ

What changes for you at a glance

Health Connect and Google Fit solve different problems, and confusing the two is the fastest way to lose data you thought was safe.

Health Connect is a sharing hub: it sits on your device, stores your health and fitness data locally, and lets apps you trust read and write specific data types with your permission. Google Fit, by contrast, is a dashboard: a viewer that displays activity, and now optionally reads from Health Connect rather than running its own separate store for everything.

• Purpose: Health Connect distributes data between apps; Fit mainly displays it.
• Storage: Health Connect keeps data on-device; Fit may hold its own historical copies from before you connected it.
• Your move: turn on Health Connect, confirm each app’s permissions, and check recent entries before switching Fit off.

The nuance that trips people up is ownership. Multiple apps can write the same data type, such as steps, and each app may still hold its own record even after you change what feeds your totals.

Why Google is moving the architecture, not just the branding

Health Connect is not a rebrand of Fit. It is a standardised, permissioned data store that lives on your device rather than in the cloud, with fixed data types (steps, sleep sessions, heart rate, and more) and a priority system for deciding which app’s numbers count when several apps report the same metric.

The timeline matters here. Developers could no longer register for new Google Fit APIs from May 2024, and Google’s migration guidance confirms that Fit APIs, including the REST API, are supported only until late 2026. That is a hard deadline for anyone building on Fit, and it is why most fitness and wearable apps are already pointing new integrations at Health Connect instead.

For you as a user, the practical implication is that Fit will likely keep working as a display layer for a while, but any app still relying purely on the old Fit APIs risks losing functionality once that support window closes. Wearables and third-party apps that want to stay useful are shifting to a device-centric model rather than routing everything through Google’s cloud.

How Health Connect stores, shares, and prioritises your data

Health Connect works on a per-data-type permission model. You grant an app access to specific categories, such as sleep or workouts, rather than an all-or-nothing switch, and most types are limited to a rolling 30-day access window, with medical records handled under different rules described in the Health Connect comparison guide.

When several apps write the same data type, Health Connect merges the entries and uses an app priority list to decide whose figures count toward your totals. You can add, remove, or reorder data sources and priority, which is a clean way to prefer one wearable’s step count over another’s without uninstalling anything. Removing an app as a source stops it affecting totals, though it may still hold the data it already wrote.

To see exactly who wrote what, open Health Connect’s Recent Access and Data and Access screens. These show which app last touched a given metric, and they are the fastest way to settle a dispute between two step counts before you change any permission.

Setting up Health Connect and migrating from Google Fit

Before touching any settings, check your Android version, update your fitness apps, and note which data types matter most to you (steps, sleep, and workouts are the usual suspects).

1. Find Health Connect. On Android 14 and later it is built in, accessible from Settings; on Android 13 and earlier you install or open it from the Play Store, as detailed in Google’s get started guide.
2. Grant permissions app by app. Open each fitness or wearable app and allow it to read and write the specific data types you want shared, rather than assuming a blanket toggle covers everything.
3. Verify recent values. Compare the last few days of steps, sleep, or workouts in Health Connect against what your wearable app shows, to confirm the sync actually worked.
4. Turn on Sync Fit, if you still want Fit as a dashboard. In Fit’s Profile, then Settings, enable Sync Fit with Health Connect so Fit reads from the new store rather than its own legacy data.
5. Disable Fit only after verification. Do not switch it off until you have confirmed Health Connect holds the history you need.

Deleting your Fit history does not guarantee it disappears everywhere. Other apps may retain their own copies, so check before you delete anything permanent.

Pro Tip: Run the migration on one app at a time and check Recent Access after each one, rather than granting every permission at once and hoping it all lines up.

Fixing the sync problems you’ll actually hit

Most Health Connect sync failures come down to permissions or app support rather than a platform fault, according to Google’s own troubleshooting guidance.

• Check the specific permission. Confirm the app has access to that exact data type, not just a general connection.
• Confirm the app supports that data type. Some apps read steps but not sleep stages, for instance.
• Start the sync from the partner app, since Health Connect often waits to be triggered rather than polling constantly.
• Toggle the permission off and back on if a sync appears stuck.
• Check Recent Access to see which app last wrote the data and whether it matches what you expect.

Duplicate entries usually mean two apps are writing the same data type without a clear priority order, and time-zone changes around daylight saving can create odd gaps or overlaps in sleep or workout timestamps. If you need to contact support, have your device model, Android version, the app versions involved, and a screenshot of the Data and Access screen ready.

What disconnecting or deleting actually does to your data

Health Connect keeps your data on your device, not in a separate Google cloud store, which is a meaningful shift from how Fit historically worked. Connected apps that have written data may still hold their own copies even after you disconnect them.

Turning off an app’s access, or disabling Sync Fit with Health Connect, stops that app reading or writing new data, but historical copies it already created can remain. Similarly, using Fit’s own delete your data flow removes it from your Google account but will not necessarily erase copies other apps hold. Deleted Fit data cannot be recovered, so check what you actually need before you confirm. Medical records, where supported, follow separate FHIR-based rules rather than the standard fitness data model.

How Heala fits into a Health Connect setup

Heala integrates with wearables including Fitbit and WHOOP, pulling in data to build centralised insights and adaptive daily plans rather than leaving you to check several apps separately. As Health Connect becomes the shared layer between your wearable, your workout app, and your sleep tracker, an app that can read across those sources without manual entry becomes more useful, not less.

Heala’s AI-assisted meal photo logging and barcode scanning cover the nutrition side that neither Fit nor Health Connect handles on their own. If you are checking compatibility, the Heala landing page lists supported integrations before you connect anything.

Why the migration matters more than the app-store update suggests

Most people will treat this as a minor settings change, but it is closer to a foundation swap. Google Fit spent years as a familiar dashboard, and its quiet shift toward reading from Health Connect rather than owning the data outright will not feel dramatic day to day, right up until an app you rely on stops supporting the old Fit APIs after 2026.

If you manage more than one wearable or fitness app, migrate now and keep Fit purely as a viewer while you confirm nothing has dropped. Test the change on a spare device or a secondary account first if you can, since a mismatched permission is far easier to fix before your main history depends on it.

— Kerem

One app to centralise what Health Connect only shares

Health Connect solves the sharing problem between apps, but it does not turn your data into a plan. Heala reads across wearables like Fitbit and WHOOP, along with manual logs, and turns that into adaptive recommendations for training, recovery, and nutrition rather than a raw feed of numbers.

Where Fit shows you a dashboard, Heala builds a daily plan from the same underlying data, including AI-assisted meal photo logging and hydration tracking that neither Fit nor Health Connect handles alone. If you would rather have one app interpret your health data than check several, see Heala’s pricing for the Free tier or the Pro plan from £12.99 per month.

Sources

• Migrate from Google Fit to Android Health APIs
• Get started with Health Connect
• Health Connect on Google Fit

FAQ

Will Health Connect replace Google Fit?

Health Connect is designed to take over the data-sharing role that Fit’s APIs used to handle, and Google’s own migration guidance points developers toward Health Connect for new integrations. Fit can still work as a viewer for now, but its underlying APIs are only supported until the end of 2026.

What app is replacing Google Fit?

There is no single named replacement app. Health Connect itself is the underlying system that fitness and wearable apps now use to share data on Android, and Fit is shifting toward reading from that store rather than running its own separate one.

Is Google phasing out Google Fit?

Google has not announced a shutdown of the Fit app itself, but it has confirmed that the Fit APIs, including the REST API, are deprecated and only supported until the end of 2026, according to its migration guidance. Developers building new features are directed to Health Connect instead.

Is Health Connect part of Google?

Yes, Health Connect is an Android platform feature built by Google, integrated directly into Android 14 and later, and available as a Play Store app on Android 13 and earlier, as described in the get started guide.

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