Google Fit Dev APIs Shutdown Set, Fate of Android and Wear OS Apps Go Unannounced (9to5google.com) 5
Abner Li reports via 9to5Google: Since the launch of Health Connect in 2022, Google has been winding down the Google Fit developer APIs. Earlier this week, the company fully detailed how the "Google Fit APIs have been deprecated and will be supported until June 30, 2025." Fitness and exercise apps that previously used Google Fit have until the June 2025 deadline to switch to Health Connect, with Google broadly referring to it as the "Android Health platform."
Google's migration guide for developers lists what they're supposed to switch to on Android phones and Wear OS. However, there is no replacement for the Goals API that lets Google Fit users set "how many steps and heart points they want to aim for each day." Google says it will "share more details about what's next for Android Health" at I/O later this month.
As of this API shutdown announcement, Google has said nothing about the Google Fit apps on Android, Wear OS, and iOS. They still work to track activity and house your full archive. [...] At this point, it's clear that Google Fit is not the future. On the Pixel Watch, Fitbit is the default, while Samsung and other Wear OS manufacturers have their own health tracking solutions. If Google were to announce a deprecation of the Fit app, having it coincide with the June 2025 developer deadline makes sense.
Google's migration guide for developers lists what they're supposed to switch to on Android phones and Wear OS. However, there is no replacement for the Goals API that lets Google Fit users set "how many steps and heart points they want to aim for each day." Google says it will "share more details about what's next for Android Health" at I/O later this month.
As of this API shutdown announcement, Google has said nothing about the Google Fit apps on Android, Wear OS, and iOS. They still work to track activity and house your full archive. [...] At this point, it's clear that Google Fit is not the future. On the Pixel Watch, Fitbit is the default, while Samsung and other Wear OS manufacturers have their own health tracking solutions. If Google were to announce a deprecation of the Fit app, having it coincide with the June 2025 developer deadline makes sense.
Another one bites the dust (Score:4, Interesting)
As a developer, it's getting to the point where it's simply not worth the risk/effort to hitch your wagon to anything Google these days. I'm already feeling very anxious about the time/effort I've sunk into Flutter.
Re: Another one bites the dust (Score:2)
They haven't actually killed this one. Just moved the API to a new home.
Re: (Score:2)
The frustrating part is that there isn't really an alternative. Lots of proprietary apps, but nothing central that can pull in data from different devices and combine it all.
Gosh I am so glad (Score:2)
Only use first class APIs (Score:5, Informative)
We stopped using all second and third tier APIs and products from Google, Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, SalesForce, .... for just this reason
Product is announced and API is announced
Product or API is killed in year 4 or 5 meaning we get less than 2.5 usable years of use out of the product and API. Because the 1.0 API is usual too buggy to use for production.
Remember, Microsoft can end of life any Azure Cloud API and have no migration path and no replacement with a 12 month notice. How do you rewrite a large business system, test, deploy to prod if the API is going to be end of lifed with no replacement in 12 months?
How do you budget for this?
https://learn.microsoft.com/en... [microsoft.com]
"For products governed by the Modern Lifecycle Policy, Microsoft will provide a minimum of 12 months' notification prior to ending support if no successor product or service is offered—excluding free services or preview releases."