Fitbit’s New Personal Health Coach Arrives on iOS

In October of last year, Fitbit began rolling out its new Personal Health Coach to Premium subscribers on Android in a Public Preview, giving them an initial taste of what the future of Fitbit could look like. Google and Fitbit were betting big on the idea that people looking to stay healthy might want help from an AI assistant that they could regularly check-in with in order to reach goals.

This new AI coach was supposed to arrive for iOS users “soon” following that Android launch, but we’ve gone months without seeing that access and even entered a new year. Today, that changes and iOS users will get a fresh look at an AI personal coach over the next few days.

Fitbit shared the news today, saying that iOS users will need a Fitbit Premium subscription to give the Personal Health Coach a spin. They’ll find access by opening their Fitbit app and looking for an invitation from the Today screen or within Account Settings.

What does the new Fitbit Personal Health Coach look like? You can see the refreshed design in the screenshots below. After testing it for several weeks when it first launched, what I can tell you is that you really have to buy into this personal coach companion. To get the most out of it, you’ll want to regularly check-in, have short conversations with the coach, tell it how you are feeling or how workouts went or if you are injured or why you missed a session or slept poorly. It wants to know everything so that it can fine-tune your schedule and continue to help you reach goals.

It is very much a different experience from the regular Fitbit app, so there’s a chance you’ll hate it. You can always switch off of the preview to go back to the standard Fitbit experience. The coach is also missing a bunch of features, so if you see something on Google’s list that you need, maybe now isn’t the time to give it a try,

Google also shared that users in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore should start to see access too.