Android could soon track your medical symptoms in Health Connect
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google is redesigning Health Connect’s settings to put connected apps front and center while streamlining the overall menu layout.
- A new grouped view for “App access” will allow you to grant or deny permissions for entire data categories with a single tap.
- We also found evidence that Health Connect will soon support tracking for alcohol consumption and various medical symptoms.
Android already offers a wide array of fitness tracking tools, giving users many options to improve their health. But managing data from these apps can be tricky, which is why Google created Health Connect. This service consolidates health and fitness data in one secure hub and simplifies data sharing between apps, so developers don’t need to build their own transfer tools.
When Google launched Health Connect in 2022, it supported a little over 40 data types across six categories. With Android 16, Google expanded the service to include wellness items like yoga and meditation sessions, as well as medical records such as allergies, vaccinations, and lab results. The Android 16 QPR2 update added native step-tracking to Health Connect.
Google seems determined to make Health Connect a more useful tool and a stronger rival to Apple’s Health app. And the company isn’t finished adding features.
In last month’s Android Canary release, I found that Google is reshaping the main Health Connect settings page to showcase your connected health apps at the top. Instead of highlighting the apps that most recently accessed data, Health Connect now lists all connected health apps prominently.
The “App permissions” menu item has been removed and is now accessed via the “See more health apps” button. You can still review recent data access through the new “Recent access” option under the “Your health data” section. The dedicated “Browse health records” page is gone, though you can still view records on the unchanged “Data and access” page. A new footnote explains Health Connect to users who encounter the feature via notifications. Additionally, icons next to each option on this page have been removed, which some may view as a minor downgrade.
Most submenus remain the same, but the “App access” screen received a notable update. Data types are now grouped by category, so you can grant or deny access to entire groups with a single tap instead of toggling individual data types. The interface is more organized and easier to navigate, with specific data types hidden until you expand a category.
Under the hood, clues suggest Health Connect will begin tracking alcohol consumption. The app’s strings indicate support for a wide range of beverages, including Absinthe, Beer, Brandy, Chuhai, Cider, Cocktail, Gin, Highball, Lager, Mead, Rum, Sake, Shochu, Soju, Tequila, Vodka, Whiskey, and Wine.
Additionally, strings point to tracking a broad set of medical conditions—abdominal pain, back pain, constipation, diarrhea, earaches, fever, heart palpitations, insomnia, joint stiffness, loss of consciousness, muscle pain, nausea, pelvic pain, runny nose, shortness of breath, vomiting, wheezing, and more. Together with recent medical-record support, this hints at Google aiming to position Health Connect as a comprehensive aggregator for your health profile—from daily activity to doctor visits and symptoms.
The challenge is that Health Connect doesn’t store this data itself (except for steps); it relies on third-party apps to share information. Fortunately, Health Connect is a modular system component, allowing Google to push new capabilities to users via Play System Updates. This means developers won’t have to wait for full Android releases to support new data types. Still, it isn’t clear when these features will roll out, so deployment may take some time.
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