Free-to-use health care platform

Health Connect (Beta) is a free-to-use health and fitness platform that facilitates sharing user information about health, fitness, and well-being, as well as the access of third-party apps to your health care data. This also acts as a centralized API, allowing you to set permissions and review your data by leveraging the safety measures of the Android platform.

Like most default Android apps, Health Connect (Beta) also features the same streamlined app layout that makes it easy to use. This app joins the Google Suite of products such as Google Drive, Google Maps, and Google Play services.

Manage your health care data

As mentioned, Health Connect (Beta) consolidates user control and app permissions on everything that collects, stores, and uses healthcare information. It supports most file types and categories, including the user’s activity, sleep, body measurements, nutrition, and even vital sensing info such as blood pressure and heart rate. Its primary purpose is to help users read and write data with complete control over their privacy and security settings.

In terms of the app interface, it comes in a barebones layout that makes it easy to see relevant details. Right from the home page, you see the recently used apps that use the data types mentioned above. It also summarizes your app permissions. Inside this particular option, you can set permissions for each app. You can even browse data sorted by category.

Still, there are a couple of restrictions to this app. For one, it’s not yet integrated into the Android core system. You can’t access its features right from your phone’s settings, requiring extra effort to set permissions and control data. Additionally, the app fails to sync with specific smartphone models. Sensor information like the steps from exercises renders the app essentially useless.

A promising app in need of fixes

Overall, Health Connect (Beta) is a promising part of the Google suite of apps. It is easy to use, has a good app layout, and ensures increased security for sensitive healthcare information. Through this, you can control all your health and fitness apps in one place, separate from the other apps on your device. Unfortunately, it still needs some fixes and additional support for other Android devices.