Google Fit vs Samsung Health: Which is the Better Fitness App?

Although Samsung Health and Google Fit nail the basics of fitness tracking, both apps differ in numerous aspects. Read our detailed comparison of the two to understand the major differences and pick the perfect fitness companion for your needs.

Interface: How Do Things Look

The UI of both Samsung Health and Google Fit follows the same design language. Both apps have a bottom menu bar and lots of white backgrounds on the main page. Google Fit’s homepage shows steps, heart points, daily goals, weekly targets, and more.

Samsung Health shows a big app name at the top and other useful info at the bottom. It follows the same UI design as other Samsung apps. While both apps support the dark theme, Samsung Health has a true black theme (compared to Google Fit’s dark grey) that’s more battery-friendly on AMOLED devices.

Winner: Samsung Health

How Well Do They Track

1. Steps Tracking

Google Fit tracks your every move in the background. It offers something called Heart Points, which motivates you to perform the activity faster. You can see your movements, steps, calories burned, and kilometers. Tap on any item and access the respective data in detail.

On the other hand, Samsung Health sets a daily target of 6,000 steps. From the Daily Activity menu, you can track your steps, active time, and total burned calories. You can also check your daily steps history from the calendar menu.

Winner: Tie

2. Sleep Tracking

Sleep tracking is quite basic in Google Fit. You can read the factors that affect your sleep and the number of hours you need to stay in bed at night. The app doesn’t track your sleep hours automatically. You need to add data from the Sleep menu manually.

Samsung also lets you manually enter sleep data in the app. Invest in a dedicated smartwatch or a fitness tracker if you are serious about tracking your sleeping patterns.

Winner: Tie

3. Exercise Tracking

Google Fit supports 100+ exercises, while Samsung Health is behind with 95+ activities. Both companies regularly add new exercise tracking capabilities with frequent updates. While the process can be a little lengthy on Google Fit, you can start exercise tracking right from the main Samsung Health home. And this gives it an advantage over its competitor. You can even mark your frequently used exercises as favorites for easy access on the latter.

Winner: Google Fit

How Accurate Are These Two Fitness Apps

Accuracy is the prime aspect of any fitness-tracking app, and both apps performed as expected during our testing. However, we do have a couple of observations. We did notice that Samsung Health’s measurements were more accurate when it came to step tracking.

That said, there is a major flaw in the Samsung Health app that makes it auto-detect workouts in the background after 10 minutes. This also caused it to mistake bike rides as a walking activity and count the trip in steps.

Winner: Google Fit

Compatible Apps and Widgets

Both Samsung Health and Google Fit let you enable Health Connect to share data with compatible apps. Google co-developed Health Connect with Samsung to create a central hub for all your fitness data. That means you can add data to Fit and Samsung Health from other apps and share the existing data with them. It’s useful if you use apps like Strava, MyFitnessPal, Oura, and Fitbit.

Samsung offers a couple of widgets (Sleep and Steps) to add to the home screen. With Google Fit, you can use multiple stats, single stat, and activity goals widgets.

Winner: Samsung Health

Data Tracking

Samsung completely trumps Google Fit here. With a compatible fitness watch, you can track stress, heart rate, blood glucose, blood pressure, and oxygen levels.

On the other hand, Google Fit pales in comparison with only heart rate and blood pressure (manual) tracking.

Winner: Samsung Health

Do You Get Any Extra Features

Apart from fitness tracking, Samsung Health also lets you log food data. The app has a database of thousands of items with relevant details like calories and nutrient data. You can easily ditch your preferred calorie counter app.

You can also track your water intake and keep yourself hydrated throughout the day. In the app, Samsung Health also lets you check your personal bests, earn badges, and fitness tips.

Google Fit simply offers a Journal menu to record your activities. You can manually add a new activity too. The app also lets you track virals and period cycles.

Winner: Samsung Health