Google announces Google Fit health data platform

As expected, Google today officially announced its Google Fit health data platform.

The new platform will compete with compete with Apple’s HealthKit platform, and Samsung’s SAMI platform, both of which were announced this Spring.

In the next few weeks, Google will release a set of Google Fit APIs to app developers, which will allow them to create apps that can manage and combine multiple types of health data.

The data — like heart rate, steps taken, and blood sugar level — can be collected from various wearable devices, including ones that use sensors to detect biometrics data.

The Google Fit API will allow app makers to present “a complete picture of the user’s fitness,” as Google says it.

Importantly, Google says that Nike FuelBand plans to publish the user health data it gathers to the Google Fit platform, which will allow apps to integrate that fitness and health data.

Nike has been working closely with Apple on integration with the HealthKit platform, so it was a mild surprise that FuelBand will play nice with Google Fit, too.

Adidas is also developing a line of sensor-based health wearables that will integrate with the Google Fit platform.

Google stresses that users will have full control over what apps use their health data.