Samsung updates S Health with a dose of friendly competition

Samsung updates S Health with a dose of friendly competition ,

Samsung is giving its S Health app a minor overhaul, switching up the layout and making it easier for users to compare fitness levels with friends. There's also a new service named Ask Experts that lets users start Q&As with local healthcare professionals to ask questions about their workouts. It's currently only available in South Korea but will "expand to other countries in the near future."

The main change is the replacement of the single S Health dashboard with three tabs: Me, Together, and Discover. The Together tab puts all of S Health's social features in one place, letting users share activity data to Facebook, keep track of private leaderboards, and challenge friends to one-on-one competitions (like aerobic step challenges). The Discover tab, meanwhile, is more about editorial content — with Samsung promising news, guides, and articles on "healthy living and workout tips."

The new Together tab. (Image credit: Samsung)

The Ask Experts service is the most interesting aspect of the update, but we'll have to wait until it becomes more widely available to try it for ourselves. Samsung says users can "ask questions, find answers and get helpful advice from professional health consultants local to their country," making contact via "text, phone, or a simple search." Will this be a free service? How does Samsung vet and certify its consultants? And do they know why my shoulder makes a weird popping noise when I lift anything heavier than a banana above my head? We've got a lot of questions.