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Samsung adds new features to S Health to make exercise more fun

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Samsung Gear Fit 2
Jessica Lee Star/Digital Trends
You can be honest with us if exercise is not your favorite activity. But as summer continues to extend shorts season, you may have decided to take, or retake, the plunge. Luckily, Samsung has launched an S Health app update that hopes to make exercise a bit more fun.

Building upon its last update (which was timed with the concurrent release of the Gear Fit 2), this latest update “expands the concept of ‘personal health’ and makes the entire self-fitness experience much more social, connecting people in a way that allows them to motivate one another and grow healthier together.” So get back on the horse, friends. Samsung is here to help you ride.

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Updated on 8-22-2016: Samsung releases new updates for S Health

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Building upon S Health’s previous addition of “an element of competition to your fitness routine” with Together, Samsung has now replaced the entirety of the S Health dashboard with three main tabs — Me, Together, and Discover. The Together tab becomes the home base for everything social, so you can still keep track of games like Steps challenges, which lets you directly interact with a friend via the app and start a friendly contest. The Gear Fit 2 helps you can monitor both parties’ progress, giving you an extra bit of motivation if you’re in the red, and a bit of validation if you pull ahead.

The Discover tab gives users the opportunity to explore editorial content related to their fitness, like news, guides and articles on “healthy living and workout tips.”

There’s also the Ask Experts service, which while currently only available in Korea, seems like one of the coolest parts of the update. In it, Samsung says, S Health users will be able to “start Q&As with healthcare professionals anytime, anywhere via text, phone, or a simple search.” Whether you want to ask a question or get advice, an expert has you covered.

These features all enhance previous updates, like the Detect Workouts function, which allows the S Health to automatically “detect and log your running, cycling, walking, and hiking sessions that occur for at least 10 minutes.” You can select from over 40 types of exercise in the health app, including hula-hooping, start jumps, and even stretching.

Also available via the My Page feature is a generalized overview of your health stats with the updated. You’ll be able to see “a detailed weekly summary, rewards received, program history, and a compilation of personal bests” to help suggest goals and targets for future workouts.

So no, it still may not be your favorite thing in the world, but just maybe, this more collaborative, more intuitive version of Samsung’s S Health app will make things a little bit better.

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