For some time now, Samsung has included the S Health application with their Galaxy smartphones. It was first introduded with the Galaxy S III and has been part of every Galaxy S and Galaxy Note device since, as well as some other Galaxy smartphones. Late last year however, Samsung finally let it loose and made it available for devices that weren’t from the Samsung camp, allowing the likes of Nexus, HTC and LG users to get in on the fun, too. The launch of the new Gear Fit 2, which is compatible with more than just Samsung devices, was probably a big factor behind the decision, but it’s now getting an update with more features, of the social kind.
The new version of S Health, version 5.0, will allow users to compete against their friends and family in a similar fashion to Fitbit through the new “Together” section, which allows users to see the steps and other stats that their friends have clocked up, as well as compare their progress with others with the “Leaderboards” features. This might seem like a trivial addition for those that have been using Fitbit’s app or a member of Runtastic, but these are the sort of features that encourage groups of friends to go out and try out a new app, and there’s no doubt that Samsung is also hoping that this leads to the sale of more Gear Fit 2 devices, and possibly even Samsung smartphones.
Aside from the social features, Samsung is also adding two other new sections to S Health with the new “Ask Experts” service, which is pretty self-explanatory, allowing users to ask specific questions about their health as well as gain advice on common issues. On top of this, the new “Discover” feature gives users of S Health access to news and articles about general health and exercise that should give users a little more insight into what they can try out to improve their routine as well as generally giving them something new to experiment with and try out. For those that have to try out the S Health app, they can download it from the Play Store using the button below.
