Garmin Fenix 8 and others to receive deeper Apple Health integration

With Garmin already working on deeper integration with Google Health Connect, smartwatches like the Forerunner 570 are also expected to be better integrated with Apple Health within the next two months, as the5krunner has learned. Garmin Connect has been able to export selected data for years so that users can view it in the Apple Health app, together with data collected by an Apple Watch or a third-party health monitor, for example.

What's new is that Garmin Connect will also be able to read data from Apple Health in the future so that it can be included in fitness and health displays in the Garmin Connect app and directly on Garmin smartwatches. This makes it possible, among other things, to switch between smartwatches from different manufacturers without subsequently seeing gaps in the data displayed on Garmin watches. It's also possible to use a third-party sleep monitor, for example, and incorporate the data collected in Garmin Connect to calculate "body battery", i.e., the stress level.

However, Garmin is not expected to fully open up its ecosystem, as the company is reportedly restricting which data can be read and written to Apple Health, and it is not yet known exactly which data will support full two-way synchronization. Garmin Connect can currently already send data such as body fat percentage, blood pressure, BMI, steps taken, distance walked, heart rate, sleep tracking data and completed workouts to Apple Health, but not advanced sensor data such as electrocardiogram (ECG) data.