When Google introduced Health Connect to the Android platform with Android 14, I thought it was a genius way to bridge the gap between multiple fitness and health platforms. I’ve had a Fitbit since the original Fitbit One in 2012, so most of my data lives on the platform, but Fitbit doesn’t track everything. My hikes are in AllTrails, my blood pressure is in Google Fit, and I wear an Oura Ring 4 that gives me more detailed sleep and wellness tracking than my current Pixel Watch 3 provides. Health Connect promised to bring all of that data together into Fitbit and all of my Fitbit data into those other apps so I can have a holistic view of my health.

And in reality, it does all of that. But little did I realize that it only does it momentarily, on one phone.

I had always set up all my apps and Health Connect links on every phone I got, so my data always showed properly, and I never gave it a second thought. Health Connect was billed as Android’s answer to Apple Health, a way for Google to solve the fragmentation of health apps across its ecosystem, so I had made the assumption that it carried across all devices like Apple Health. But I recently bought a Walking Pad A1 Pro to be more active while working at my desk and decided to use my Pixel Tablet as my dashboard for the treadmill, and that’s where things went south and I discovered this silly, silly limitation. And my rosy-tinted view of Health Connect shattered.

The Walking Pad A1 Pro ($599 on Amazon) originally appealed to me because it’s a folding, low-footprint treadmill that I can deploy when needed and stash away when I’m done. The fact that its companion app, KS Fit, supports Health Connect was a huge bonus, too. So I made the plunge, paid the discounted €419 price (it’s cheaper in France than in the US), and waited for my huge package to be delivered.

When I got the treadmill, the first thing I tried was to see if my Pixel Watch 3 would detect any steps while my hands were raised and relatively staying still at my desk. The answer was an obvious big fat no. At best, it counted one out of a hundred or more steps. I love exercising, but I’m a sucker for the positive reinforcement of good metrics and stats. I can’t walk 10,000 steps a day and then look at my Pixel Watch or my Fitbit app and see a silly low number. I need that dopamine rush. Plus, how would I know if I’m improving, pushing myself harder, or struggling to regain form?

So I installed KS Fit on my phone, signed in, and realized that the app needs to remain running while I’m on the treadmill. Which, if you’re following my logic, would be several hours a day since I’m walking while working. That would be too detrimental to my phone’s battery life. So I decided to install KS Fit on my Pixel Tablet, which also sits at my desk, always charged on its dock, screen ready, and just basically begging to become a dashboard for my health journey.

I thought I’d send my KS Fit data to Health Connect on my Pixel Tablet and then catch it on my phone to see it all in my Fitbit app. Oh, how naive.

Obviously, that didn’t happen. KS Fit was bringing the data in, but there was nothing to grab it. So I thought, “Alright, I’ll have to make the link between these services on the same device,” so I installed Fitbit on my tablet to sync up with Health Connect and then thought that’d send the data everywhere I have Fitbit installed. Oh, how naive — again.

Health Connect synced my KS Fit data to my Fitbit app on my Pixel Tablet. Just my Pixel Tablet. I kept opening and refreshing Fitbit on my phone, waiting for the data to show up there, and nada. It was incredibly upsetting to see just 600 steps taken on my phone when I knew I’d just polished 10,000 steps on my treadmill. After a few refreshes, it dawned on me. Could it be? Really? Is Health Connect per device? Does it not carry over?

No, no carryover. Google’s support page explains that:

Your data is stored locally, on your device, and you’re in control of which apps have access to your data on Health Connect and what kind of data is shared with your connected apps.

Also,

Once access is granted, the connected app can access data from the last 30 days and any new data written after that.

So, you’re telling me that for the past few years, I’ve been syncing my AllTrails hikes, Oura data, and Google Fit metrics to Fitbit for no particular reason? None of that synced data is retained by Fitbit? And if I install Fitbit on a new phone and don’t log into these apps and connect them together in Health Connect, I don’t see any of that data? And if I do, I just get 30 days back, not the two past years’ worth of syncing?

I’m quite baffled by this discovery, honestly. I had incorrectly assumed that Health Connect carries over devices and that data synced to it was retained a) by the apps that receive that data and b) by Health Connect itself. I thought that the exercises and metrics I was syncing from my other apps to Fitbit would be retained by the latter so I could see them everywhere I use Fitbit. I thought that if I stopped using AllTrails, for example, and moved to Komoot or some other outdoors tracking app, I’d still have my AllTrails data in Health Connect, linked to my Google account.

But no. Health Connect doesn’t work like Apple Health. It’s not a central repository for all your health and fitness details that retains data synced with it. It’s just a momentary, local, on-device link between two apps. Not more, not less. Google says this is done for privacy reasons, and I think that’s commendable for those who want to give away their health data. But hear me out: If I’m agreeing to share my exercises and health metrics, if I’m consenting to let Fitbit see my Oura, AllTrails, Google Fit, and KS Fit data, then why can’t I let it keep a trace of those details? Why create a half-baked solution that serves on the spot but doesn’t have any long-term value?

Now, I find myself in a conundrum. Yesterday, I walked 12,000 steps normally, plus 7,000 more on my Walking Pad. Fitbit on my Pixel Tablet tells me I walked 19,000 steps; Fitbit on my Pixel 9 Pro says it’s just 12,000 steps.

The everyday difference is so remarkable between the two that it’s skewing my Fitbit averages between my phone and tablet. The former says I’m averaging around 6,500 steps per day this week, the latter has a more impressive average of nearly 15,000 steps. It’s so discouraging to open up Fitbit on my phone and see these low numbers when I know I’ve been putting in the effort.

KS Fit is silly enough that it won’t let me sign into two devices at the same time (price of low-effort Chinese-made software), so I can only run it on my tablet. I can sync all my nice step counts to Fitbit on my Pixel Tablet daily, but every few weeks, I’ll have to temporarily log into the app on my phone, let Health Connect sync up, and then disconnect and return my KS Fit account to my tablet. That’s the only way I can keep an eye on all my stats on my phone. Ridiculous. And even then, any phone upgrade I do will lose me all that data. More ridiculous.

I’d love for Google to find a solution to this. Maybe those who want to and who understand the privacy implications can connect or back up their Health Connect data to their Google account (or use Google Fit, which is pretty much forgotten at this point) to act as a central repository of all health and fitness data. That way, we have one place to check, no matter the phone or the apps installed, to get an overall view of our exercises, sleep, body metrics, and more. No need to install all apps, no loss of data when you start over and can only sync 30 days’ worth, no fussing when moving phones or using a tablet as a secondary device. That’d be ideal.