The Google Fitbit Air is a screenless band, so its Bluetooth broadcast is the only way to see its live heart rate anywhere else — gym equipment, a training app, a bike computer. The short answer is that the broadcast is there and it works on the standard profile. The longer answer has two details that decide whether it does what you want.
How do I turn it on?
Google’s support pages document heart-rate sharing with fitness equipment and apps — the compatibility list includes Peloton, Zwift, Concept2, Wahoo, Strava, and others. On Google’s screened devices the toggle is on the device itself; the Air has no screen, so its setting lives in the Google Health app.
The option that matters most isn’t in the support article: in our testing, the Google Health app offers an always-visible setting that keeps the band visible to equipment and apps at all times. With it on, the Air broadcasts continuously through ordinary wear — all day, not just during workouts. If you only ever connect at the start of a gym session, the default behavior is fine; if you want software reading the band across the whole day, always-visible is the setting doing that work.
The one-connection rule
The Air accepts one third-party Bluetooth connection at a time. This is the fact to know before building a routine around the broadcast. Google Health itself holds a separate connection to the band, so everything the band does for Google Health — sync, steps, sleep — carries on regardless of what else is connected. The contention is only ever between third parties: a Peloton and a third-party app cannot read the Air at the same moment. One lets go, the other connects.
For gym use this rarely matters — you connect the machine, ride, and disconnect. It matters when an app holds the connection continuously: while it does, the band has nothing left for the rower. Whoop straps and the Amazfit Helio, by comparison, accept multiple simultaneous readers — the full picture is in our tracker broadcast comparison.
No battery level over Bluetooth
One more behavior our testing confirmed: the Air doesn’t report its battery level over the broadcast connection. A receiving app has no number to display — that is the band’s design, not the app failing to read it. Check battery in the Google Health app.
Should I use the Air’s broadcast?
If you own an Air and want its live signal somewhere beyond Google Health, the broadcast delivers it — turn on sharing in the Google Health app, and use always-visible if you want the band readable all day. The broadcast is a standard, and brainful — the b-score app for Whoop straps — reads that standard: it listens to the heart-rate profile and puts a b-score (0–100) on each calendar event, on the phone — what each hour was actually worth. It was built and tuned on Whoop; in our own testing the Air’s broadcast is real and continuous, and end-to-end scoring in brainful is a Whoop and Helio fact today — not yet an Air one. One more fact for anyone trying it early: an app that holds the band’s third-party connection all day makes heart rate to gym equipment one-or-the-other. Official support — including tuning for the Air’s optical stack — hasn’t shipped yet, so early users are exactly that: early. If you own one, the door is open.
Sources: Google Health Help, “Share your real-time heart rate with fitness equipment & apps” — the feature and compatibility list are Google’s own. The always-visible behavior, continuous broadcast, one-third-party- connection finding, and battery-level behavior are from our own device testing, August 2026. Firmware updates can change behavior; re-verify on your device.