MSN health and fitness and MS Band

[ZvjerOPC]

Can anyone confirm whether MSN health and fitness stores my workout/steps data at the same new MS health servers or are those two different things? I don't have a fitness wearable, yet, but I would like to use the app right now that will start filling up my future MS health profile, if possible.

 

[sdrexler11791]

They are working on it.

 

[DroidUser42]

That would be the first I've heard of it. Taking a quick look at MSN, I don't think so.

What they're working on is integrating it with MS HealthVault which is more oriented to medical records. So what the integration will look like is hard to tell.

At this point I think it's limited to Windows Phone, Windows 8, Android and iOS.

 

[ZvjerOPC]

MSN health and fitness used to integrate with health vault but not any more. Now it mentions syncing to "our new cloud store".

 

[teemulehtinen]

This is a very good question indeed. This weekend when I went for a longish walk and thought simply to trace it on the map, I was wondering whether the cloud actually is/was the health platform.

 

[sdrexler11791]

I saw it in one reviewer article who wrote that indicated that this info was from ms. Can't remember which article now.

That would be the first I've heard of it. Taking a quick look at MSN, I don't think so.

What they're working on is integrating it with MS HealthVault which is more oriented to medical records. So what the integration will look like is hard to tell.

At this point I think it's limited to Windows Phone, Windows 8, Android and iOS.

 

[teemulehtinen]

Just check where it used to sync, I.e. Health Vault v. where it syncs now according to the MSN Health & Fitness app settings: "new cloud"... I can see my old tracks in the Health Vault, but they aren't going there anymore. What could this be cloud be other than the band related Health platform? And how can I get access to it?

Could someone with the band just record a quick walk with the MSN Health & Fitness app and then see from the new Microsoft Health platform if the data magically gets there?

 

[sdrexler11791]

I am not seeing any of my data syncing to MSN heath and fitness or the HealthVault yet. It looks like it is all set up to get that data and I suspect that MS will enable it soon. I am pretty happy with myfitnesspal doing it right now, so I can wait. It's clear that the band was released before all of the links and supporting software was 100% ready. I think they wanted to get it out before the holidays and all other other products hit the market (fitbit charge and surge, jawbone up3, etc.).

 

[simpkijd]

Sadly, I've not seen any integration with my MS band and the Health & Fitness app. I'm disappointed regarding this issue as it seems like that would have been a fairly high priority for Microsoft before the band launched. Anyways, the integration with Myfitneespal works pretty well and serves the purpose of keeping you food calories and exercise calories in the spot.

 

[anon(7822191)]

I'm disappointed too. The health app calorie tracker is wayyy better to use than MFP.. can't believe it doesn't integrate from the getgo.

 

[DroidUser42]

Maybe I'm missing it, but where in MS Heath is there a spot to enter the information needed to make it sync with anything else? You know, basic stuff like login ID? I kinda remember entering it when setting it up, but I can't find it now.

 

[teemulehtinen]

But if you leave the Band and just record an exercise with MSN Health and Fitness, will the walk, run or other workout end up to the Health Platform which you can see from the Band companion application that you would usually use?

 

[sdrexler11791]

No. I suspect all of the data is going into the same health cloud, but the software (MSN health and fitness) is just not pushing data it back to the MS health app nor is it showing Band data. if they do enable this, it will directly compete with one of their own partners (Myfitnesspal). So I wonder if they will do it at all? Especially since they are really trying to encourage vendors to use their health cloud and programming SDK.

But if you leave the Band and just record an exercise with MSN Health and Fitness, will the walk, run or other workout end up to the Health Platform which you can see from the Band companion application that you would usually use?

 

[realwarder]

No. I suspect all of the data is going into the same health cloud, but the software (MSN health and fitness) is just not pushing data it back to the MS health app nor is it showing Band data. if they do enable this, it will directly compete with one of their own partners (Myfitnesspal). So I wonder if they will do it at all? Especially since they are really trying to encourage vendors to use their health cloud and programming SDK.

FitBit and MyFitnesspal coexist nicely so it is possible to share data with multiple services that complement each other.

I'm kind of annoyed with MyFitnesspal though as the phone App wants access to Contacts and the T&C say they can share them. That is outside the scope of a fitness tool.

I'd pay them for a MyFitnessPal Pro where my data remains my data...

 

[gibbyhome]

It would be so awesome to see my band or even fit bit data in MSN Health & Fitness, which is an awesome and very user friendly app.

 

[Jeremy Griffith]

I'd definitely like to see Microsoft Health absorb all of the data I've entered into MSN Health and Fitness. I'm holding off on switching to myfitnesspal or some other app until I see where MS Health is headed.

 

[Teeceman]

I'm disappointed too. The health app calorie tracker is wayyy better to use than MFP.. can't believe it doesn't integrate from the getgo.

I've not looked at health & fitness site for some time so just had a quick mess around with it, and your right it is super awesome for entering data into, and what's even better it has a UK food database. Know just for the complete ease of it I don't want to resume entering food info into the Fitbit database which is a US foods database.

 

[Noahma]

FitBit and MyFitnesspal coexist nicely so it is possible to share data with multiple services that complement each other.

I'm kind of annoyed with MyFitnesspal though as the phone App wants access to Contacts and the T&C say they can share them. That is outside the scope of a fitness tool.

I'd pay them for a MyFitnessPal Pro where my data remains my data...

The access its asking for is not so it can spy on your contacts, or contact them without your knowledge. The app has the ability to share things to facebook etc. when YOU press the share button, it will not do so automatically. Just like when things ask for access to your camera, or camera roll, its not so it can spy on you, its so the app can access the camera when YOU take a picture, and your camera roll so it can save the photo YOU just took. Nothing nefarious.


as to the question posed by the OP. I believe that it is all going to the same cloud. They disconnect from health vault for Health and fitness happened mid summer before the bands release so the change log stating that it was going to the new cloud store could have been a tip off that Microsoft was up to something. The connections between the services are not all up and running yet. I think Microsoft pushed the band out when it was ready, not necessarily when the service was ready so they could get it in the hands of people that wanted it, and so they could test the service and get the info flowing before it went mainstream. I think this is why the band Is soo dang hard to get ahold of, limited users, but just enough so they can test the system and I also think this is why we have not seen any firmware updates except the first the other day so far. They are focusing at getting the dots connected before they roll out the firmware that would activate everything on the band. (hopeful thinking)

 

[Teeceman]

The access its asking for is not so it can spy on your contacts, or contact them without your knowledge. The app has the ability to share things to facebook etc. when YOU press the share button, it will not do so automatically. Just like when things ask for access to your camera, or camera roll, its not so it can spy on you, its so the app can access the camera when YOU take a picture, and your camera roll so it can save the photo YOU just took. Nothing nefarious.

@Noahma How can you be so sure?
There have certainly been some instances of apps that don't just access your contacts but actually download a copy to the applications server, which is a no-no as far as I'm concerned.
I certainly don't see any reason for my fitness app to want to access my contacts.