Health Connect on Android

Health Connect is where your finished sessions go on Android, so they show up in Samsung Health, Google Health and anything else that reads it. This page covers what Upscore saves there, why it asks for each permission, and how to put permissions right if the first setup went wrong.

Do I need Health Connect?

No. It’s optional, and it’s about where your sessions go afterwards, not about heart rate coming in. Sessions, recaps and heart rate all work without it. Set it up if you want your DDR sessions in your health app alongside your other workouts.

What does Upscore save to Health Connect?

Each finished session becomes one workout called “DDR”, filed as High intensity interval training because that’s the closest type Health Connect has. Attached to it:

• Steps, counted from the charts you played.
• Heart rate, every reading from your monitor, if you had one connected.
• Calories, estimated from your heart rate and your weight.

Nothing is saved until a session ends, and nothing is saved if you turn Save workouts off.

What permissions does Upscore ask for, and why?

Android shows one sheet with everything on it. Each line, and what it’s for:

• Exercise (write): the workout itself. Without it nothing else can be saved.
• Steps (write): your DDR steps, so they count toward your daily total.
• Heart rate (write): the beat-by-beat line inside the workout.
• Active calories and Total calories (write): the calorie figure on the workout.
• Weight (read): only to estimate calories. If Health Connect already knows your weight, Upscore uses it and never asks you to type one.
• Read past health data, on phones that offer it: Health Connect normally only lets apps see the last 30 days, and your weight was probably recorded longer ago than that. It’s used for the weight lookup and nothing else.

Upscore never reads your workouts, steps or heart rate from other apps. It writes its own and reads your weight, that’s all.

You can allow some and decline others. Decline heart rate and you still get a workout with steps and calories; decline weight and Upscore asks you for a weight instead.

How do I set it up?

1. Open Profile → Connected devices.
2. Under Health Connect, tap Set up.
3. Android shows the Health Connect permission sheet. Tap Allow all, or pick the lines you want.
4. The row now says Connected. Your next finished session is saved automatically.

Prefer to decide after a session? Until you’ve set it up, your recap asks Nice session. Want it in your health app? Tap Save this session and you go through the same sheet.

It says “Get Health Connect”? Your phone doesn’t have Health Connect yet. Android 14 and newer have it built in; on Android 9 to 13 it’s a free app from Google Play. Tap the button, install it, and come back. Android 8 and older can’t run Health Connect at all.

It says “Health Connect isn’t available on this device”? Either the Android version is too old, Health Connect needs updating from Google Play, or Upscore is installed in a work profile, which Health Connect doesn’t support.

I declined something and want to change it

In Upscore, go to Profile → Connected devices → Health Connect and tap Manage data & permissions. That opens Upscore’s own page inside Health Connect, where every line has a switch. Turn on what you want and go back; the row updates on its own.

If Upscore shows Health sync is turned off instead, Health Connect has stopped showing you the permission sheet because it was cancelled twice in a row. That’s Google’s rule for every app, not ours, and the switches are the only way back in:

1. Tap Open Health Connect in Upscore. Or open it yourself: on Android 14 and newer, Settings → Security and privacy → Privacy controls → Health Connect; on Android 13 and older, open the Health Connect app. Searching Settings for “Health Connect” works on both.
2. Tap App permissions (under Permissions and data).
3. Tap Upscore.
4. Turn on Exercise, Steps, Heart rate, Active calories, Total calories and Weight, or use Allow all.

Back in Upscore the row reads Connected again.

Heart rate or calories missing from a saved workout? The row shows Turn on heart rate or Turn on calories when only that line was declined. Tap it to re-ask for just that one.

My workouts aren’t showing in Samsung Health

Samsung Health needs to be connected to Health Connect once, on its side:

1. Open Samsung Health
2. Tap Menu, then the Settings gear
3. Under Connected apps and services, tap Health Connect
4. Allow Exercise, Steps and Heart rate

Workouts can take a minute to appear, and Samsung Health is slower to pick up new data on Android 13 and older. If nothing shows, turn its Health Connect access off and back on. Your workouts stay in Health Connect either way, so Google Health can still read them.

My workouts aren’t showing in Google Health

Google Health also needs its own connection to Health Connect. In Google Health, open Connections, then Partner apps, then Manage Health Connect, and make sure Google Health is allowed to read Exercise, Steps and Heart rate. If that screen shows Update Health Connect or Review your permissions, do that first. Google Health is the app that used to be called Fitbit, if you’re looking for it under the old name.

My DDR steps aren’t counting toward my daily total

Health Connect picks one app as the priority source for steps, and your phone’s built-in counter usually wins. To put Upscore first:

1. Open Health Connect settings
2. Tap Manage data
3. Tap Data sources and priority
4. Choose Activity, then drag Upscore to the top

Upscore has a shortcut to this screen under Connected devices → Health Connect.

Why does Upscore ask for my weight?

Only to estimate calories, and only if Health Connect doesn’t already know it. Your weight is saved on your phone; it’s never uploaded and never leaves your device. It’s optional: skip it and you still get the workout, steps and heart rate, and the workout shows 0 kcal.

The same session shows up twice

Two apps recorded it. If your watch’s own fitness app also records a workout while you play, you’ll see both. Pick one: turn off Save workouts under Connected devices → Health Connect and let the watch do it, or don’t start a workout on the watch.

Steps are different: when two apps write steps for the same minutes, Health Connect merges them and the app higher in Data sources and priority wins, so a watch and Upscore both writing steps doesn’t double your total. It does mean whichever is on top decides the number, which is why the steps fix above matters.

Where does this data go?

Health Connect stays on your phone. Upscore writes to it and the apps you’ve allowed read from it; none of it passes through Upscore’s servers. Separately, Upscore stores your heart-rate data on its own servers for your session recaps, which you can turn off any time in Settings. The Session Mode overview has the details.

How do I turn it off?

Connected devices → Health Connect → Save workouts stops future sessions being saved. To cut Upscore’s access entirely, turn its permissions off in Health Connect (steps above) or remove the app under Health Connect → App permissions. Workouts already saved stay in Health Connect until you delete them there.

If something here didn’t match what you see, tell us on Discord and we can help troubleshoot.