Senior Engineer Kidong Hong (left) and Principal Engineer Jiyoung Kong (right)

Q. How did you come to add a fitness tracker to these Bluetooth earbuds?

Jiyoung Kong: We wanted to make the Gear IconX the most convenient choice for users to accurately measure their activity. A new, cord-free standalone device.

Because music playback is a must to keep boredom at bay during workouts, it was only natural for us to develop the Gear IconX as a combination of a music player and fitness tracker.

As a developer of S Health, I’m delighted that we now have another line of fitness trackers to add to our wristbands and smartphones. Though smartphones excel in computational functions, we usually find them bothersome while at the gym. I am glad to see more diversity in wearable devices because it will surely help us meet our users’ increasingly diversifying needs.

Q. What was the main focus when incorporating S Health support into the Gear IconX?

Kidong Hong: Although the earbuds may look simple, it took a lot of collaboration with other teams to incorporate support for fitness tracking features—such as exercise recording and heart rate measurement—while ensuring that the Gear IconX still delivered a top-rate Bluetooth listening experience.

Since we have numerous fitness tracking options available in other Samsung wearable devices and smartphones, S Health now has more sources to help users collect and optimize exercise data. So we also focused on ensuring optimal usability when the Gear IconX is connected to the app. For instance, we had many discussions regarding how the earbuds would send information to S Health and how that data would be displayed.

Q. How exactly does the Gear IconX’s fitness tracking technology work?

Kidong Hong: The Gear IconX comes with a built-in acceleration sensor and a CPU. When the sensor detects your movement, the CPU calculates speed and distance based on that information.

The device tracks walking and running by detecting how your feet leave the ground. While wristband-type fitness trackers usually measure how much your arms swing, the Gear IconX, being earbuds, does its job by noting how much your head shakes.

We set our measurement standards based on verification with a dedicated sports lab and also consulted our own database, which features relevant data we’ve gathered since launching the Gear series.

Q. What kind of information does the Gear IconX’s voice guide relay during workouts?

Kidong Hong: The voice guide tells you the duration, distance and speed of your exercise, as well as your heart rate and the number of calories you’ve burned. You can check all of this information on the S Health app.

You can choose the items you’d like to have announced, and set a time or distance interval for updates. The voice guide also notices when you’ve reached the high-intensity workout zone corresponding with your heart rate. All of these features provide users with more significant information and reinforce the Gear IconX’s extensive capabilities as a standalone fitness device.

Q. What’s the difference between using the Gear IconX on its own and with a smartphone?

Jiyoung Kong: While the Gear IconX certainly supports independent use, we have also carefully considered how it works with a smartphone. To this end, we are working on a situation-based framework to work out how to best alternate functions between the two devices, determining in which circumstances one will operate as the main fitness tracker and the other will support.

For example, when you press the Gear IconX’s button and start running, the framework prevents your smartphone from recording your activity, deeming that you clearly expressed your intention to rely on the earbuds instead. On the other hand, when you choose not to activate the Gear IconX and start walking or running, it automatically turns the fitness tracker on your smartphone on. In this case, the earbuds function as accessories to measure your heart rate.

Heart rate is certainly one of the most useful bits of information for people who enjoy working out; it serves as a sort of stamina indicator. By incorporating valuable, advanced functions into S Health, including the Program feature, which helps you get accustomed to regular exercise more easily, and Pace Goals, which offers runners guided training through different intensity zones, we tried to help people use their smartphone and wearable together to work out smarter.

More Connected

To improve usability and enhance user engagement, S Health v.5.0 features a streamlined user interface. Now, in place of a main dashboard, the app’s supported health activities are neatly organized under three tabs – Me, Together and Discover – to help users more easily manage their fitness data.

Together is dedicated to social features. It’s where users can go to find extra motivation to achieve their goals. There, Challenges and Leaderboards encourage them to engage in healthy activities with friends to reach their fitness targets. Friendly one-on-one competitions like Step Challenges and the ability to share activity data on Facebook add further motivation, engaging users work out more actively together.

Whether a user walks, runs or cycles, S Health automatically detects the type of activity being engaged in and dutifully tracks the user’s progress. In all, 44 different activities are supported, including exercise bike and step machine sessions, as well as Pilates, lunges, crunches and squats.

Want a second opinion on a fitness program? Ask Experts is a new service that enables S Health users to connect and start Q&As with healthcare professionals anytime, anywhere via text, phone, or a simple search. With it, users will be able to ask questions, find answers and get helpful advice from professional health consultants local to their country. The service is currently available in Korea, and will expand to other countries in the near future*.

More Informative and Secure

Users will find dynamic content such as healthy living and workout tips, health information and relevant news under the Discover tab. Its content is geared to help users manage their health and stay motivated, covering major topics such as fitness, weight loss, sleep, nutrition, recipes, cardio health and other vital aspects of healthy living.

S Health has also been audited by an independent third-party firm for meeting requirements in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) – U.S. federal regulations requiring stringent measures to keep protected health information (PHI) secure. Furthermore, the service is backed by Samsung’s defense-grade security platform, Samsung Knox, to provide a higher level of protection and encryption with hardware-backed credential storage.

The Knox-supported S Health app can detect malware, rooting binary and unauthorized changes on users’ phones with the Knox framework. Once such hazards are detected, S Health will be rendered inaccessible.

Samsung Knox S Health support is compatible with S Health v.5.0 or higher and enabled on Samsung Galaxy devices starting with the Galaxy Note7. S Health v.5.0 can also be used on smartphones running on Android OS 4.4 and higher.

*Availability may vary by each country and market conditions.

**All functionality features, specifications and other product information provided in this document including, but not limited to, the benefits, design, pricing, components, performance, availability, and capabilities of the product are subject to change without notice or obligation.

Fitness Gets Fun

To motivate users to be more active, S Health v.4.8 adds an element of competition to your fitness routine with Together.

First of all, the game-like concept of Steps challenges enables you to create a one-on-one match with your friend. Simply select a friend to challenge, select a step target, create a name for your challenge and send the invitation.

Compete to be the first to reach the set steps target, while monitoring your step count and your opponent’s along the way. Falling behind? S Health alerts you as to how many “steps” you need to take the lead. The Steps challenges allow you to gain a more immediate sense of accomplishment, not to mention bragging rights.

Of course, you can monitor the status of all your challenges with your new Gear Fit2 from your wrist.

But the fun doesn’t end there. With the Steps leaderboard function, you can also compare your own step counts with those of your friends, your age group or all S Health users around the world.

Once activated, the comprehensive Steps leaderboard provides data from the previous seven days, such as average step count, distance and calories burned in comparison to other users. Here you can check your rank and your competitors’ step counts.

With the new S Health, you also have access to more comprehensive step count information. In addition to being able to monitor step count and distance walked data from each individual source—like your smartphone or wearable device—you can also estimate your total step count with the All steps option. Should you enable All steps, your total number of steps across all devices and select third-party apps will be displayed in the Steps Tracker and the S Health widget.

Ultimate Organization

The S Health update also features a faster and simpler way to record various activity data. Now, with the Detect Workouts function, the app can automatically detect and log your running, cycling, walking and hiking sessions that occur for at least 10 minutes. Turning on the Auto Pause setting will also improve tracking accuracy, as it will recognize when you stop your exercise session.

Customizing the S Health dashboard has never been easier with the more organized Trackers management list, which is now arranged in two different sections.

Exercises are now listed separately from general health measurements such as weight and caffeine intake. From the Exercises list, you can select from more than 40 types of exercise that you’d like to manage, ranging from Hula-hooping to Push-ups to Yoga. With these added exercise options, you can customize the Trackers on the S Health dashboard based on your fitness preferences, and record individual workouts more accurately.

For a more generalized overview, the updated My page keeps track of your weekly activities by displaying a detailed weekly summary, rewards received, program history and a compilation of personal bests. Using this accumulated data, the app will suggest goals and targets to work towards in the future.

Quick and Accurate Heart Rate Monitoring

You can now also measure your heart rate quickly, wherever, whenever, without having to launch S Health. After activating the Quick Measure** feature, simply place a finger on the heart rate sensor and set the device facedown to complete the reading.

Heart rate information, along with other data such as blood pressure measurements and glucose levels can be exported as HTML, XLS and PDF files with a simple tap.

Not only can you track more types of exercise, and have fun while doing it, but the enhanced layout of the app also makes it easier to personalize and navigate the S Health dashboard. The pinch-zoom function can adjust the screen grid according to your preference, improving the overall user experience.

S Health can be downloaded from the Google Play Store or Samsung Galaxy Apps. The app is compatible with all Samsung smartphones since Galaxy S3, as well as select non-Samsung Android devices.***

* Gear Fit2 pairs with smartphones running on Android OS 4.4 and higher with over 1.5GB RAM.

** Quick Measure operates with Android 6.0 when activated. Not compatible with Galaxy S5 and Alpha.

*** The latest update of S Health is compatible with the Galaxy S6, Note5 and S7.

All functionality features, specifications and other product information provided in this document including, but not limited to, the benefits, design, pricing, components, performance, availability and capabilities of the product are subject to change without notice or obligation.