Samsung Health is one of the top fitness and wellness apps. It’s also one of the few Samsung apps and services that’s not exclusively tied to Galaxy smartphones, and it can be downloaded on pretty much any Android phone. Samsung Health has evolved over the last couple of years to become much more than a simple companion app to use with your Samsung watches or activity trackers. It can now help you practice mindfulness and relieve stress, provide guided workouts, and can even read sleep stories to you for a good night’s sleep. There’s a lot more to Samsung Health than meets the eye, so everything you need to know about it.

What is Samsung Health?

As the name implies, Samsung Health is a fitness app that lets you keep track of various fitness metrics while encouraging you to develop healthy habits. The app is available on the Google Play Store, the Galaxy Store, and Apple’s App Store. You don’t need to have a Samsung smartwatch to use the app since basic metrics such as steps, walks, and runs can be tracked using your phone, but pairing a smartwatch will give the most comprehensive experience.

The app has a very intuitive user interface and a clean design. The home tab displays all the important stats you need on rectangular cards, and it’s easy to see your progress toward goals at a quick glance. The Together tab lets you set up friendly competitions with friends and family, while the Fitness tab is home to training programs and fitness-related content.

What health metrics can you track with Samsung Health?

When used on its own, Samsung Health can track basics like steps, calories, walks, runs, and general activity using your smartphone’s accelerometer. With a compatible accessory such as a Galaxy Watch 5, you can record more advanced health metrics such as blood oxygen level, stress, body composition, sleep, and even blood pressure.

Here’s a complete run-down of all health and fitness measurements offered by Samsung Health.

• Daily activity: This includes a combined overview of the number of steps, total distance covered, calories burned, and physical activity.
• Heart rate: Shows heart rate range and average resting heart rate based on data obtained from your smartwatch or band.
• Exercise: A detailed breakdown of your various workouts, including heart rate zones, workout duration, calories burned, and more.
• Sleep: Provides in-depth sleep analysis, including time spent in various sleep stages, blood oxygen level, and snore detection, if enabled.
• Body composition: This shows the percentage of body fat, skeletal muscle, and water in relation to your total body weight. This feature requires a Galaxy Watch 5, Galaxy Watch 4, or a compatible smart scale.
• Stress: Measurement of stress level using biomarkers such as heart rate and guided deep breathing exercises.
• Bloody oxygen: The measure of the percentage of hemoglobin in your oxygenated red blood cells. Measurements can be taken manually, or you can have the feature work continuously during sleep.
• Blood pressure: Shows blood pressure measurements taken from your Galaxy Watch 4/5 or a compatible blood pressure monitor.
• Food and water: This lets you manually record your food and water intake.
• Blood glucose: Displays blood glucose level readings from a compatible glucose meter.
• Cycle tracking: Lets you track your menstrual cycle.

Other Samsung Health features

Samsung Health’s Together program adds a fun twist to reaching your fitness goals. From the Together tab, you can set up challenges with your friends and family, like who can reach a specific step count first or take the most steps in a week or month. This not only keeps you motivated but also helps your friends and family stay on track toward their fitness goals. You can also invite friends to join the challenges and make it a fun competition.

Apart from letting you track your physical activity, Samsung Health has a dedicated Fitness section, which offers a curated selection of health-related content, including various tailored workouts, relaxing music, sleep stories, and guided meditations. This is a great place to start if you’re a fitness newbie. There’s a diverse selection of training programs to choose from, so whether you want to put on muscle mass or get toned, you’ll have no trouble finding a program that aligns with your fitness goal. All workouts come with easy-to-follow video instructions and an audio guide, so you'll know what to do. Your workout programs are easily accessible from the home tab and can be downloaded for offline access as well.

Which smartwatches and fitness bands are compatible with Samsung Health?

Samsung Health may run on any Android smartphone, but that doesn’t mean it can be paired with any smartwatch or fitness band. The app's compatibility is limited to Samsung's own smartwatches and fitness bands. This includes older Tizen-powered watches as well as newer Wear OS ones.

Smartwatches

• Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro
• Samsung Galaxy Watch 5
• Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic
• Samsung Galaxy Watch 4
• Samsung Galaxy Watch 3
• Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2
• Samsung Galaxy Watch Active
• Samsung Gear S3
• Samsung Gear Sport
• Samsung Galaxy Watch

Fitness trackers

• Samsung Gear Fit 2
• Samsung Gear IconX (2018)
• Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro
• Samsung Galaxy Fit
• Samsung Galaxy Fit e
• Samsung Galaxy Fit 2

Does Samsung Health support Health Connect?

Yes, Samsung Health is compatible with Health Connect, a unified platform developed by Google and Samsung that simplifies interoperability between fitness apps. As a result, Samsung Health can read data shared by Google Fit, Fitbit, and other fitness apps that have adopted the Health Connect API.

Final thoughts

Overall, Samsung Health is a powerful fitness app with a lot to offer. It provides comprehensive health tracking, covering everything from basics like steps, calories, and runs to more advanced metrics such as sleep, body composition, and stress level. The app also offers a great selection of fitness content, including tailored workout programs, sleep stories, and guided meditations.

You don’t need a Samsung Watch to use Samsung Health, but at the end of the day, it's still a platform designed to serve the company’s fitness wearable ecosystem. I’ve had Samsung Health installed on my phone for a long time, but It wasn’t until I got my Galaxy Watch 4 that I started using it regularly. Google Fit is a better option if you don’t have a Samsung Watch, as it’s much easier to sign in with your Google account than going through the hassle of creating a Samsung Account. There are also plenty of other great fitness and wellness apps for your Wear OS smartwatch, so you might want to check them out.