With the advancement of AI models, health tracking companies are now able to leverage both structured and unstructured data for better insights. The new objective is to develop user-friendly interfaces that encourage habits like meal and workout logging, alongside having a constant AI assistant available to offer guidance on nutrition and exercise.
On Tuesday, Khosla-backed health startup Healthify unveiled an updated version of its health assistant, Ria, which allows users to interact through voice and even via the camera to get information about their food.
The new conversational feature is powered by OpenAI technology. Ria now supports over 50 languages, including 14 Indian languages, and can handle mixed language inputs like Hinglish or Spanglish. While the current release largely depends on OpenAI’s models, the company is open to incorporating other models in the future if necessary.
Through the enhanced Ria, users can request their health overview for specific time periods—like daily, weekly, or monthly summaries. The app aggregates data from various sources, including fitness trackers and glucose monitors, to provide insights about exercise, sleep, and glucose levels, as well as tailored suggestions.
Similar to Google Gemini’s Live Conversation mode, users can point the camera at different food items to check their nutritional values and log them easily.
Healthify also demonstrated a real-time conversation feature using Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, allowing users to interact with Ria and log food through the device’s camera.
The startup believes that users will appreciate the ability to converse in real-time with Ria. This enables them to perform multiple tasks in a single session, such as generating exercise plans or logging goals. If a user forgets to log their meals for the day, they can simply describe everything at once, and Ria will take care of the logging.
What’s more, Healthify aims to expand its AI capabilities. In the upcoming months, the conversational assistant will play a key role in user onboarding, helping gather insights from unstructured conversations. This approach has also gained traction in modern dating apps for better matching.
The startup is developing a more persistent memory layer over OpenAI’s models, allowing Ria to remember long-term preferences and health changes for personalized suggestions.
Healthify will also enable Ria to assist in conversations with coaches or nutritionists, allowing either party to retrieve data or ask questions when the other is unavailable. Additionally, Ria will be included in calls with coaches to transcribe and provide insights, and users can request data during those calls.
CEO Tushar Vashisht noted that Ria has been trained on years of conversational data between users and coaches to ensure grounded and accurate advice.
Beyond Healthify, other apps like Alma, Cal AI, MyFitnessPal, and Ladder offer various methods for users to input food intakes using voice, text, or images. Healthify believes its real-time conversation mode, data aggregation, and years of trained AI give it a competitive advantage. The app can even access users’ photo galleries to automatically detect food images, offering options for meals they may have forgotten to log.
“We are creating a health ecosystem focused on nutrition-driven data with other integrations. From an AI perspective, we’re implementing tools to enhance accountability among users regarding their health,” stated CPO Paritosh Kumar in an interview.
Healthify, boasting over 45 million registered users and several million active monthly users, is rolling out a new AI plan in the U.S. featuring the updated Ria assistant and meal planning at $20 per month. Previously, the company tested various plans with text-based AI and certified nutrition coaches.
The firm is also poised to announce partnerships for its GLP-1-supported weight loss programs and is looking to collaborate with health tracking device companies to integrate their data with Ria.
Vashisht indicated that the company might pursue a new funding round soon, especially given its substantial growth and adoption in the U.S.
