A sedentary lifestyle, excessive pollution, and degrading food & water quality have left us with few choices when it comes to maintaining our health and improving the quality of our lives.
Needless to say, millennials and Gen Z are in desperate need to take charge of their health. Here we explain the top range of fitness app development technologies that are currently being leveraged to build fitness and workout apps of modern times.
This has led to the increased demand for fitness apps and a numerous fitness app ideas have come up lately. According to research conducted by Polaris Market Research, the global fitness apps market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 21.8% by 2026.
Key fitness metrics measurement is possible nowadays via a melange of fitness apps and wearables including wristbands, armbands, smartwatches, smartphone apps, and much more. Apps of fitness devices provide personalized fitness goals, improvement data, and other valuable insights.
Rapid technological evolution has made it possible to keep track of heart rate, sleep duration, blood pressure, amount of activity done throughout the day, and a lot more. Therefore, let us see in-depth what are the best fitness app ideas in recent times.
Fitness app ideas – the development perspective
Certain hardware requirements and tool integrations need to be met to satisfy the most desired features of fitness apps and activity tracking devices. In this section of the blog, we would discuss the development perspective of fitness apps that have been split into three subsections below.
Hardware requirements
Smart fitness wearables are providing extraordinary features and facilities that require a wide variety of sensors to transmit data to their mobile apps. Here is a descriptive list of key sensors needed by fitness tracking devices.
Global Positioning System or GPS
GPS or Global Positioning System, a space radio-navigation system is a collection of 31 GPS satellites orbiting Earth currently. The constellation of GPS satellites is responsible for broadcasting navigation signals to provide us with accurate position and time information anywhere on Earth.
Fitness apps and fitness trackers employ GPS sensors to benefit users with their position & location information, allowing them to track their motion, and monitor their speed. This is ideal for users who hike, run, walk, and ride cycles to stay fit.
ECG Sensors
Inactive life poses the biggest threat to our cardiac muscle’s healthy functioning. According to WHO, about 17.9 million people die every year from cardiovascular diseases. Cardiac problems continue to remain the most prominent cause of death in the United States to date.
Therefore, ECG sensors, in the form of optical sensors, help to measure heart rate, blood saturation changes and thereby determine the cardiac cycles. The ECP app of the Apple Smartwatch Series 4 can even generate an electrocardiogram report for users.
Barometric Altimeters
A barometric altimeter helps to measure altitude. Thus, an altimeter can measure elevation and atmospheric pressure. So, it aids in measuring the number of stairs or an elevated level climbed up by the user and consequently calculating the number of calories burnt in the process.
Gyroscopes & Accelerometers
A gyroscope measures the orientation and angular velocity of an object. Smart wearables and fitness apps employ a gyroscope, accelerometer, and a compass to measure the distance traveled by the users.
Along with this, the activity tracker also records the speed of travel to ultimately calculate the number of calories burnt by the wearer. These are essential because the detection of motion is one of the most primary functions offered by fitness apps.
Accelerometers that are mostly used to measure the acceleration of motion also help to monitor the sleep pattern and sleep duration of the user.
Tools to support a broad range of features
Now that you have vividly understood the hardware requirements of the fitness trackers, you will now look at the requisite tools to provide various app functionalities.
FitBit
FitBit tool enables app developers to integrate FitBit data with their apps.
Health Graph
This tool assists in storing fitness data on the cloud and can be used to compare it with the data of other users.
Google fitness API
This tool helps users automate their fitness data storage and utilize it in various other ways.
Garmin
Garmin provides different development options for building apps for various kinds of activity tracking devices.
BMI calculator
A BMI calculator helps to calculate the Body Mass Index of users, which as per medical science is a more accurate indicator of body weight.
MisFit
Fitness app developers can make use of MisFit to install various features into the fitness app beginning from activity tracking to sleep duration monitoring.
Jawbone UP
This is an open-source platform that helps mobile app development company USA avail multiple APIs (application programming interface) and SDKs (software development kit) to improve multiple fitness apps.
Strava
Strava is an app to motivate users towards maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Lumo
With Lumo Lift and Lumo Back, fitness app developers can access a lot of fitness-relevant data easily.
Fitness technologies upcoming trends
Below we have elaborated the upcoming trends in fitness technologies that fitness app developers must consider while designing new fitness apps. These include artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, and streaming services.
Artificial Intelligence
AI is already taking the world by the storm and revolutionizing the fitness industry. Artificial Intelligence can be integrated into fitness apps in the form of a virtual personal trainer.
Also Read: AI Apps For Android
With the help of AI, fitness companies are able to offer personalized training at home for affordable rates. Aaptiv, a fitness platform has recently launched its new AI coach that is capable of curating personalized fitness goals for the users based on significant health data. It is also able to monitor user activities along with providing prompt recommendations.
Other companies that have designed AI-based personal training assistants are Boltt Sports Technologies, Robotbase, Ensa, and Hacarus.
Virtual & Augmented Reality
AR & VR is no longer limited to just exciting video games. Wouldn’t it be fun to play fitness games? AR & VR are capable of transforming the way we work out.
Kopin SOLOS glasses leverage AR for sports enthusiasts. It helps runners and cyclists to keep track of elapsed time, speed, heart rate, and a lot more.
VR headgear can help you work out in a new way. For example, Runtastic utilizes the Oculus Rift headset to create a virtual environment for fitness seekers who can train with their trainers visible virtually.
Further, YUR.Fit app of Oculus Quest can transform any video game into a fitness experience for people and ultimately, make it easy to keep track of calories lost across any fitness app.
Streaming Services
Personal trainers are expensive and difficult to find these days. Gyms are often difficult to fit into busy schedules. Therefore, streaming services or digital trainer apps are serving to be great alternatives to personalized trainers.
These services are far more affordable, convenient to use as per one’s schedule, and provide complete and effective fitness training. One more benefit offered by digital fitness coaching is training videos with and without equipment.
This is quite useful for fitness enthusiasts who work out at home and don’t have access to treadmills and other fancy gym equipment.
Essential features of fitness apps
The fitness app industry experienced a boon in 2014 when fitness wearables made their way into the global market. Fitness trackers and fitness apps have found use in different forms starting from nutrition tracking, activity progress tracking, sleep tracking, etc. Here are the must-have features that fitness apps must be laced with nowadays.
Cross-platform compatibility and multi-device integration
Cross-platform compatibility is an essential aspect of fitness apps as users want to be able to access their fitness data from anywhere and at any time. Thus, Android and iOS platform compatibility is indispensable for fitness apps these days.
Further, multi-device synchronicity is a desired feature for fitness apps. The greater number of wearables and smart devices the app can integrate across easily, the better is its ease of use.
Multiple tools
The most desired tools of a fitness app are calorie burning and diet tracker, sleep tracker, activity tracker, pedometer, heart rate monitor, etc.
Friendly user interface
An intuitive and engaging UI of health and wellness apps is necessary to help a wide range of customers using smart wearables and fitness apps without hassles.
Customization features
Users of health and fitness apps must be able to customize the tool as per their requirements. They must be able to create their user profiles with adequate information about their gender, age, BMI influencing factors (body weight and height), and most importantly what are their health goals.
On the basis of this data, the fitness app must be able to generate a personalized fitness routine, diet plan, workout plan, and daily progress reports.
Geolocation
Geolocation enables users to monitor their progress every day by helping them monitor their steps, cycling, or running routes.
Push notifications
Without push notifications, users won’t be able to keep track of their activity, sleep, and eating habits. Therefore, it is crucial for users to get timely notifications from the fitness apps regarding their fitness goals.
Chat features
If users can interact with their fitness experts and get hands-on customized solutions, then working out can become one of the most satisfying experiences in the world.
Incentives
Getting perks & rewards while shopping can be so exciting. Similarly, rewards and incentives can induce more fun to your fitness regime. Several apps nowadays have started this trend. One such app is Sweatco.in which offers crypto tokens as rewards to the users who achieve their fitness goals.
In Conclusion
So, you just came across the best fitness app ideas in respect of its development side and utility. This article also gave you a fair idea about the various must-have features, tools, and hardware requirements of fitness apps.
Developing sports and wellness apps is a profitable yet complicated business where developers need to be mindful of various functionalities and users’ needs while building fitness apps.
