Microsoft has announced the launch of a new skill for Cortana, promising to make it "easier than ever to monitor your health and fitness goals" by using its digital assistant in conjunction with Fitbit's wearable devices.
At its Build 2017 developer conference in May, Microsoft launched a public preview of the Cortana Skills Kit, enabling third parties to significantly expand the capabilities of the assistant. The new Fitbit skill joins dozens of others already available for Cortana.
"Once you have connected your Fitbit account to Cortana," Microsoft's Gurpreet Singh Pall explained, "simply ask Cortana to get the information you need to stay inspired without having to pull up the Fitbit app or website." He also highlighted some examples of how users might interact with the Fitbit skill:
- “Hey Cortana, ask Fitbit how much water I’ve had today”
- “Hey Cortana, ask Fitbit how many calories do I have left to eat”
- “Hey Cortana, ask Fitbit how many steps do I have left”
- “Hey Cortana, ask Fitbit how many workouts I need to do this week”
He pointed out that "Cortana understands natural language and makes it very easy to update Fitbit about your beverage and food intake without having to manually log the information." Users can simply say something like "Hey Cortana, tell Fitbit to log I drank 12 ounces of water." All of the information logged manually or automatically is then stored on your Fitbit account, and accessible online, via the Fitbit app, or by asking Cortana.
Microsoft said that support for the Fitbit skill will be available "across devices and platforms, starting with Windows 10, Android and iOS and soon on the Harman Kardon Invoke speaker", which was officially announced in May.
You can get a quick overview of Cortana's Fitbit skill in action in the video below:
There are now over 50 million registered users of Fitbit devices around the world, so it makes sense for the company to work with Cortana - which is available on hundreds of million of devices - to make users health and fitness data more easily accessible.
Microsoft previously sold its own Band wearable devices with a range of health and fitness features. However, it killed off the Band 2 last October, with no indication that a replacement is on the way.
Source: Windows Blogs
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