Health Connect can now track your steps using your Android phone

Last week, we reported that Google was bringing native step tracking to Health Connect, allowing the app to count your steps using your phone’s sensors. This marks a significant shift for the app, which currently doesn’t track any data on its own and instead acts as a hub for information from other health and fitness services. While that was its original purpose, it seems Google has bigger plans for the platform. This change suggests Health Connect could transform from a simple data hub into a full-fledged tracking platform, with native step counting being just the first step.

When we first reported on this feature, though, we noted some uncertainty. Our evidence came from an analysis of the APK in the 2508 Android Canary release, but the feature itself wasn’t functional yet, and there was no concrete proof within the app itself. With the release of Android 16 QPR2 Beta 2, however, there is no longer any doubt. Google has confirmed that it is adding native step tracking to Health Connect.

In its blog post, Google says that “Health Connect now automatically tracks steps using the device’s sensors.” Apps that hold the READ_STEPS permission will see this step data as appearing from the “android” package, which is the name given to the Android Framework. Google says it made this change to simplify the code developers need to add to support step tracking while also making it more power efficient as well.

Indeed, opening up Health Connect in the QPR2 Beta 2 release reveals a new banner at the top, announcing that the app will now track your phone’s steps for other connected apps to access. Tapping the “Review” button takes you to the new “Devices” page we previously spotted. This page lists all devices contributing data to Health Connect; in my case, my Pixel phone was listed (albeit as an “unknown” device). Selecting it opened a “device info” page confirming it had permission to write step data.

The app will also inform users of this new capability through a notification that mirrors the message in the banner, as seen above.

While step tracking is a basic feature available on almost any Android phone, its addition to Health Connect has profound implications for the platform’s future. Currently, Health Connect is a lackluster alternative to Apple Health, held back by poor data syncing and a lack of its own native tracking capabilities. By adding these foundational features, Google can create a much stronger baseline platform for more robust services like Fitbit to build upon. If you’re curious to learn more, we discussed the importance of this news in greater detail on the latest episode of our Authority Insights Podcast.