Skip to main content

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

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.

Recommended Videos

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

Please enable Javascript to view this content

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.

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
I like the Galaxy S25 Ultra far more than I expected to
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra's camera.

Samsung’s newest flagship has finally landed in stores and it would be easy to look at the Galaxy S25 Ultra as nothing more than an iterative upgrade that brings a few small upgrades to the table. However, as Andy covered in our Galaxy S25 Ultra review, to do so would be to do a disservice to the overall experience.

While reviewing the Galaxy S25 Plus — which offers a lot but failed to meet my expectations — over the past two weeks, I’ve also been using the Galaxy S25 Ultra. It turns out that while Samsung’s middle-of-the-road flagship didn’t quite hit the mark, its flagship sibling has left a mark on me.

Read more
Samsung might return to all-Exynos for its Galaxy S26 lineup
A close up of the triple camera on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus

Samsung has seen a smoother development with its Exynos 2600 chip than it did with the 2500, according to a new report. Prior to the release of the Samsung Galaxy S25, rumors suggested the phone could use the Exynos 2500 or the Snapdragon 8 Elite, and leaks provided a lot of conflicting information. Now, a report from a Korean news outlet says the company has already achieved a 30% yield from its manufacturing process.

The company is using a 2 nanometer production process, and it's initial yields were higher than expected according to The Bell. Samsung plans to start mass production of this chip in the second half of the year and say it could improve performance by 12% and power efficiency by 25%.

Read more
This One UI 7 update just made my Galaxy S25 Ultra way more fun
Prakhar Khanna holding the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

I’ve been using the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra for 10 days now, and the best and worst part about the new Galaxy flagship is its familiarity. The familiar form is good because Samsung delivered much-needed experiential upgrades such as improved battery life, better skin color temperature in cameras, and more without substantially changing the hardware.

But Samsung played it a little too safe with the Galaxy S25 Ultra instead of experimenting and trying new things. It was starting to feel like just another stale incremental update--until I installed One UI 7’s latest Home Up update. It brought new, customizable ways to interact with the phone and truly personalize it to your liking.
What's this new Home Up update about
 

Read more