Today’s WWDC 2026 conference gave Apple fans something they’ve been dreaming of for years: a powerful, agentic version of Siri, with its own dedicated app. The new Siri AI is designed to work across Apple’s entire suite of tools, from powerful Macs to the smallest Watch. But the AI health features we saw were lacking compared to Google’s.
One of the main features of last year’s Apple Watch, Workout Buddy, has been improved: users can now get advice and encouragement in their ears while exercising while simply wearing a watch, and they don’t need to bring their phone, as they did in watchOS 26. Additionally, new information, such as heart rate zones, will be integrated.
Other expanded health and fitness features include the inclusion of menopause and perimenopause conditions in cycle tracking (an important and useful addition for many women) and improved accuracy of treadmill measurements. Siri AI’s health capabilities have also been highlighted on the watch, using its ability to search for healthy recipes and describe stretching routines based on its vast intelligence.
However, despite rumors that an AI model specifically dedicated to health and fitness was in the works, nothing came to fruition this year. Which is a shame, because I already use Google Fitbit Air and its accompanying AI health coach, and I’ve seen how powerful such a feature can be.
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Although current Fitbit fans lament the loss of community features, I’ve come to love Google’s Health Coach. Unlike the Apple Watch, the Google Fitbit Air is screenless and all interactions with the chatbot take place on the phone in the Google Health app.
To be honest, this works well: if you want to read tons of text about stretching or your measurements, you want to do it on a proper 6-inch screen oriented specifically for readability, not on a 1.9-inch circle as was demonstrated in Apple’s keynote.
Additionally, Google Health Coach works with its own library of Fitbit workout and meditation content, allowing you to create personalized workouts simply by asking the chatbot and getting demonstrable video instructions rather than a simple block of text. It also takes into account your illness or injury, as I discovered when I got sick, and the coach changed my training plan to recommend rest days and shorter races.
Apple already has an extensive library of fitness content through its premium Apple Fitness+ service, and I expected a health coaching feature to be integrated into this subscription as part of the Siri AI overhaul. This may be a feature we’re more likely to see at WWDC 2027. But its absence wasn’t as much of a focus as Apple’s decision to roll out watchOS 27 to only a handful of modern watches.
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