Google Now tracking activity.

First it was Samsung's SAMI, then Apple's HealthKit. Now Google is, according to a report from Forbes, preparing to launch its own software platform for aggregating fitness and health data.

According to Forbes, Google will follow Apple's leads and announce Google Fit at its own developer conference, Google I/O, June 25 and 26. The software will aggregate data through open APIs, and Forbes says they will also announce partnerships with particular wearable companies. It's unclear whether it will be a standalone Android app or an integrated part of its next Android operating system. It's even possible it will be integrated with Google Now, which quietly added activity tracking way back in 2012.

Samsung announced its offering at its Voice of the Body event at the end of May: Two new digital health projects, including Simband, an “investigational device” — not a product – that is stocked with a variety of health sensors and room for third party developers to add their own, and Samsung Architecture Multimodal Interactions, or SAMI, which it described as a “data broker” that future devices based on the Simband and other third party health tracking devices could upload data to, that could then be used by app developers to create new apps. 

A week later at its WWDC event, Apple announced the HealthKit developer tool and companion Health app for iOS8. Health is a built-in tracking app that will allow users to track multiple health and fitness parameters and pull in data from various third party devices, very similar to Google's rumored announcement.

For its part, Microsoft hasn't made any moves to announce a new fitness or health tracking app, but then, it already has several. Microsoft's PHR offering HealthVault, which emerged around the same time as Google Health, is still up and kicking, although its focus is a little more on medical records than patient-generated health and fitness data. Microsoft also launched Bing Health and Fitness, a built in app that includes health, fitness, and diet trackers, with Windows 8.1 last year.

Google has a long history of health products, littered with as many failures as successes. MobiHealthNews put together a comprehensive timeline of its moves in the health space last year. In addition to its Google Health PHR which some believe failed simply for being ahead of its time, Google is known for its Flu Trends project, which has recently come under scrutiny for inaccuracy. Another app, Google Body, was shut down and sold off in 2012.

Lately, Google has provided fitness tracking with its little known Google MyTracks app for Android, included a number of health-specific behaviors in its search algorithm, and opened the door for both health and fitness consultations via Google Helpouts. Google is working on a still largely mysterious effort called Calico, to slow human aging.

And, of course, Google's newest, buzziest wearable -- Google Glass -- has begun to see more and more actual uses in hospital settings and big name CIOs like Beth Israel Deaconess's Dr. John Halamka are calling it the successor to the iPad as a must-have accessory for doctors. A Glass app for Google Fit, which could directly display vital signs and fitness metrics to a runner or cyclist on the go, seems a very likely direction for Google.