How Samsung Health works with the Galaxy S26 Ultra to support your fitness goals

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra works as the central hub for your health and fitness data through the Samsung Health app^[1].

The phone tracks basic activity like steps and active minutes on its own, and when paired with a Galaxy Watch, it gains access to a much wider range of health data — including sleep stages, continuous heart rate, and body composition — all of which is collected by the watch and displayed and interpreted on the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Galaxy AI^[2] then works across that data to surface useful insights through the Samsung Health App and Now Brief^[3].

Here is a quick overview:

Sleep tracking in the Samsung Health App requires a paired Galaxy Watch, which monitors your sleep stages — light, deep, and REM — along with heart rate and movement through the night.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra receives and displays this data in the Samsung Health App each morning. It gives you a Sleep Score and a breakdown of how you moved through each stage during the night.

The Samsung Health App also offers Sleep Coaching, which builds a personalised program based on your sleep patterns over time. After at least seven days of tracking, the app assigns you a sleep type and creates a multi-week coaching program with goals and recommendations tailored to your habits.

Bedtime Guidance adds to this by suggesting a specific bedtime each night based on your sleep data and how much rest you typically need.

Now Brief on the Galaxy S26 Ultra also draws on health data from the Samsung Health App, which can include your sleep information. This means your morning summary on the Galaxy S26 Ultra can reflect how well you slept alongside your schedule and reminders, giving you a fuller picture of the day ahead in one place.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra tracks your daily step count and active minutes automatically using the phone’s built-in sensors, with no Galaxy Watch required. This basic activity data is visible in the Samsung Health App and contributes to your daily activity goals.

For more detailed workout tracking, pairing with a Galaxy Watch gives the Samsung Health App access to continuous heart rate data, GPS route mapping, and sensor-based metrics for over 90 exercise types — from running and cycling to swimming and strength training.

The Galaxy Watch handles the sensor work during the session, and the Galaxy S26 Ultra processes and stores the data in the Samsung Health App, where you can review a full breakdown of each workout including time spent in each heart rate zone.

The Samsung Health App also generates a Weekly Report that pulls together your steps, active time, sleep, and other health data into a single weekly summary. This makes it straightforward to track progress toward your fitness goals over time without manually comparing individual days.

Continuous heart rate monitoring is handled by the BioActive sensor on a paired Galaxy Watch and synced to the Samsung Health App on the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

The app tracks your resting heart rate trends over time, records heart rate during workouts, and monitors how your heart rate changes during sleep. The Samsung Health organises all of this into daily and weekly views.

During exercise, the Samsung Health App uses the heart rate data from your Galaxy Watch to show which training zone you are working in, from light activity through to high-intensity effort. Tracking these zones over time helps you understand whether your fitness is improving. A lower resting heart rate and faster recovery between sessions are reliable indicators of progress.

Body composition analysis is performed by the BioActive sensor on a compatible Galaxy Watch. It uses bioelectrical impedance to measure body fat percentage, skeletal muscle mass, body water percentage, and BMI. The measurement is taken directly on the watch and the results are synced automatically to the Samsung Health App on the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Tracking body composition over time in the Samsung Health App gives you a more complete view of your fitness progress than weight alone. Someone building muscle while losing fat may see little change on the scale but the body composition data in the Samsung Health App clearly shows the shift. The app stores your measurement history so you can compare results across weeks and months.

Galaxy AI works with the Samsung Health App on the Galaxy S26 Ultra to turn your health data into more useful information. The most visible example of this is Energy Score, which appears in the Samsung Health App each morning.

It analyses your previous day’s activity and sleep data to produce a single readiness figure, giving you a quick sense of how physically prepared you are for the day ahead.

If your Energy Score is lower than usual, the Samsung Health App surfaces personalised tips based on the specific data that contributed to the lower score — whether that is sleep quality, activity levels, or recovery.

This is where Galaxy AI health insights go beyond basic tracking: rather than presenting raw data and leaving you to draw your own conclusions, the app interprets what the numbers mean for you specifically.

Now Brief on the Galaxy S26 Ultra also integrates health data from the Samsung Health App into your daily summary alongside your schedule, reminders, and other relevant information. This means you can get a useful health and schedule overview on the Galaxy S26 Ultra without switching between apps.

^{[1] Samsung Health app and Samsung account required}

^{[2] Galaxy AI: Samsung account login is required for certain AI features.}

^{[3] Now Brief: Samsung account login and network connection required.}