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Our partnership with Google strengthens our health product line.

I've been wearing Google's Fitbit Air, which doesn't have a screen, for a few weeks now. Comparisons are often made to its higher-end counterpart, Whoop, but in testing Google's health tracker, we liked its biggest rival, Apple.

It's nice to see Apple release its own screen-less health tracker, but what I'd rather see a major upgrade to its own health suite starts with the software.

Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference begins Monday, and software revealed there will be featured in Apple's next-generation products. It may not seem like it, but WWDC could be a turning point for the tech giant, centered around its rumored Siri overhaul. Here's why:

Gemini supports the next generation of Siri

Google's Gemini will support the next-generation Siri, which the two companies announced earlier this year. Companies use each other's software all the time. But Apple is no ordinary company. Steve Jobs was notorious for shutting down Apple's hardware and software, with little interest in integrating his own products into Android devices or introducing Google products into the Apple ecosystem.

Unfortunately, it is 2026. AI is flooding Android hardware and leaving Apple impoverished. Now it's time for Apple to sign a deal.

As ZDNET's health editor, I'm most excited about the health and fitness possibilities that Google's Siri overhaul brings.

Although it's not perfect, our experience testing Google's AI Health Coach has shown us that Health AI is a useful tool. All you need is a chatbot that connects to your sleep, exercise, and stress data so you can ask health-related questions and receive personalized answers and recommendations that take your specific condition into account.

Plus, I'm looking forward to seeing how Apple incorporates this software into their devices to create something that sets them apart from the competition.

I love new health apps and chatbots.

I'd like to see a health app overhaul similar to what Google did with the Fitbit (now Google Health) app. Now is the time for Apple to take the data Apple Watch already collects and use it to power new daily metrics, connect information across apps, or provide new insights.

A health chatbot could be very easy to implement in a health app, but Apple needs to configure Google's Gemini to be as private, secure, and encrypted as its own products. That's one of the many reasons people flock to Apple over Android devices, and that's the big challenge of this collaboration. Would Apple give up some of its own privacy measures to have AI working in its products? I hope Apple mentions this when it unveils its health-related AI assistant.

Health Assistant can interact across apps, such as the Health app, Journal, and Apple Watch Fitness app, allowing users to record information without having to manually enter it into multiple apps. So, let's say a user records their mood in the Journal app. Health AI can connect that mood to physiological information across the user's health, sleep, or exercise apps.

Building on the sleep scores Apple released in September, we hope to see more data from your smartwatch incorporated into your daily summaries. While testing the Fitbit Air and Google Health Premium, I enjoyed getting quick summaries of my daily activities, bedtime recommendations, and prompts to move more.

Apple's position within the health ecosystem emphasizes privacy and science-based solutions. I'd like to see research-based approaches to readiness scores, stress monitoring, or more robust wellness recommendation engines.

Interactive and digestible data

Apple appears to have built its health app with interactivity as an afterthought. This makes sense. It's not a game or streaming app. It's not an app that people should spend more than 5 minutes looking at. But Oura and the Google Health app have proven that people can actually get more out of their health devices when data is presented in an interactive and digestible way.

Oura does this best with tabs for your daily sleep, activity, and stress scores. There's also a short-term aggregate tab for important biometrics and a longitudinal health tab that displays information like stress management, sleep health, and heart health.

If Apple succeeds with its health coach and health app redesign, it will solidify the company's position in the wearables space of the future.