Android Developers Blog
The latest Android and Google Play news for app and game developers.
🔍
Platform Android Studio Google Play Jetpack Kotlin Docs News

04 January 2023

Signos streamlines integrations with other health and fitness apps through a single Health Connect API


Link copied to clipboard

Posted by the Android TeamSignos helps people make healthier decisions and achieve their health goals by giving them a simple way to track and monitor their body’s response to glucose throughout the day. Pairing a continuous glucose monitor with an AI-driven app, Signos builds an understanding of a member's metabolic profile in real time, providing personalized nutrition suggestions based on their glucose patterns. This includes determining which foods are best for a member and when to eat them, or when to exercise to bring glucose levels back within a healthy range for optimal weight loss.

The Signos team knew that having more context on a member’s daily lifestyle behaviors—including exercise, sleep, and stress—would give a clearer view of health and allow the app to deliver more personalized recommendations. To integrate these additional wellness insights into its app, Signos developers used Health Connect, an Android API that unifies health and fitness data from multiple devices and apps into one platform.


Putting the member first

Signos integrated Health Connect so its members’ health and fitness data from apps like Fitbit, Samsung Health, and Google Fit can be automatically synced to the Signos app. Instead of requiring members to manually input this data from multiple sources, they can use Health Connect and enable Signos to sync with the other integrated apps they use to support their well-being. Not only does this save members time, it also ensures consistent and accurate data.

With Health Connect, it’s easier for Signos to identify patterns in a member's health and offer more insightful recommendations based on their glucose patterns. It also provides Signos members with a better understanding of how their daily choices affect their glucose, metabolic health, and weight by bringing their health data together in Signos, where they can easily view it and make comprehensive connections.

Signos understands data privacy is important, and with Health Connect, Signos members can securely manage their health information on Android devices. When a member first opens Health Connect, they're guided through the process of selecting which health metrics and apps they want to provide access to, giving them complete control of what's made available to Signos.


One implementation for many data sources

Before implementing Health Connect, Signos developers struggled to connect relevant data from multiple sources because many APIs weren't available or too many integrations needed to be created and maintained. This meant the Signos team had to write individual integrations to support multiple API surfaces for every app they wanted to sync data from. Now, they only need to write one, saving them a tremendous amount of development time and effort.

With a single API connection through Health Connect, Signos was able to unify health and wellness data from the apps most used by members. “Now that data from workouts, sleep, weight logs, and heart rate automatically sync from other apps, members can see how all of this data impacts their glucose throughout the day,” said Emma Allison, vice president of product at Signos.
'The more data we can tap into, the more complete a picture of metabolic health we can provide. This kind of holistic view is unprecedented and is the foundation of a more personalized approach to overall health that helps our members reach their goals.' — Hannah Russin, CMO of Signos.
Additionally, implementing Health Connect is simple. Using specialized constructors, Signos developers were able to take Health Connect records and convert them into the internal models used for Signos’ health data. This allowed the Signos app to process Health Connect data the same way it processes its own, so the experience is completely seamless to members. Sleep logged from their wearables that’s synced through Health Connect looks exactly the same to them as sleep logged straight into Signos.

“One aspect I was pleasantly surprised by was the user onboarding UX,” said Signos developer Jake Smith. “A simple, drop-in piece of code brings them straight to the Play Store to install Health Connect and then right back to the app so they can set up the permissions and start reaping the benefits.”


More connections, more opportunities

Currently, Health Connect’s first integration with Signos syncs personal wellness data like exercise, heart rate, sleep, and hydration. In the future, Signos plans to build out more robust integrations and in-app experiences with each data set, including women’s health, nutrition, and even mindfulness.

Signos is excited about what the future of Health Connect will bring. Health Connect helps standardize different data types and allows Android apps to freely connect to the API, so Signos won’t have to create any further integrations as other apps adopt Health Connect. This means that as the Health Connect ecosystem grows, so will Signos’ ability to help its members.


Get started with Health Connect

Health Connect lets developers and users securely connect with multiple Android apps and devices. Watch the DevByte introduction video to learn how you can get started with Health Connect.