Google Set To Shut Down Dev Access to Fit APIs. .... I barely knew about nudges and birthday reminders in Google Messages.

I barely knew about nudges and birthday reminders in Google Messages.

Google has recently been making moves that suggest an aggressive move away from the traditional Google Fit Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). This was made even clearer this week when the company fully detailed how the “Google Fit APIs have been deprecated and will be supported until 30th June 2025.”

This means that developers will have until the said date to move their fitness and exercise apps to Health Connect, the Android health platform that was launched by Google in 2022.

According to Google, the deadline is long enough to give users enough time to switch to Health Connect and continue their service. The firm states in its migration guide for developers that it will “share more details about what’s next for Android Health” at the I/O event later this month.

Google API has for years seemed like a dying product with the tech company being unable to focus solely on providing a single solution on how to make it better. This was made even clearer when Google acquired Fitbit in 2021, making it the new shiny fitness brand that was integrated into new devices like the Pixel Watch and Pixel phones.

There have been mixed reactions to this move by users and developers alike, some of whom feel it isn’t necessary. This has been highlighted by the fact that Health Connect doesn’t sync to any cloud provider which might affect users who look to switch devices.

It’s still unclear what the future is for Google Fit on Android, Wear OS and iOS. But it seems that it will keep working as an activity tracker and data holder on those platforms.

I barely knew about nudges and birthday reminders in Google Messages

Remember nudges and birthday reminders in Google Messages? Me neither. Launched with little fanfare in March 2022, these features have become the latest casualties in Google’s ever-growing graveyard of “killed by Google” products. Nudges were supposed to be helpful, gently reminding us to reply to messages that might have slipped through the cracks. Birthday reminders, well, they did the birthday reminder thing. The screenshot below shows Nudges in Messages settings.

While neither feature was revolutionary, their swift removal highlights a concerning trend at Google: a launch-and-abandon approach to products and features. Remember Inbox, the ill-fated attempt to replace Gmail? Or Google Plus, the social media ghost town? Nudges and birthday reminders in Messages join these products in the Google graveyard with a lifespan of about two years. As you can see below, Nudges is gone in the latest Messages app.

This constant churn is frustrating for users. Why invest time in learning a new feature if it might vanish before you even get the hang of it? It creates a sense of impermanence and discourages users from fully engaging with new offerings. Google needs to get a handle on this. Otherwise, users might become hesitant to even try new features, fearing they’ll be ghosts before they even have a chance to be useful.

Meanwhile, Google Messages is rolling out a redesigned audio recorder with noise cancellation and a new feature called Voice Moods for beta testers. Voice Moods lets you add an animated emoji background to your voice message to show how you’re feeling. It’s currently only available in RCS conversations. The redesigned recorder, on the other hand, lets you record, stop, restart, and attach voice messages. It’s available to all users on the latest Google Messages beta. The stable version might already have it.

Furthermore, Google Messages is close to launching a new feature called Selfie GIF. This lets you record a 3-second video clip of yourself and automatically convert it into a GIF to share in your chats. There are two ways to access it: tapping the “+” icon and selecting Selfie GIF, or by holding down the camera icon. You can preview your creation before sending it. This feature is currently in the latest beta version of Messages and might be released very soon, possibly even next week at Google I/O.