11 Features That Every Health and Fitness App Should Have
Sports have always been an essential part of the human experience, and they have become much more popular in recent years, thanks to the proliferation of fitness apps and monitors. Due to the increasing number of individuals today who are increasingly well-being, the popularity of health & fitness applications is increasing.
Under the findings of a survey by Grand View Research, Inc., the worldwide mHealth industry is predicted to develop at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 44.2% and exceed 111.8 billion US dollars by 2025.
Also noted is that users visit these programs at least twice a week and as much as ten times a week, depending on the application. As a result, this has increased the demand for fitness applications such as Fitbit. Furthermore, with the introduction of wearables such as fitness bands, consumers are becoming more driven to utilize these applications to live better lifestyles.
When it comes to those who work in the fitness business, now is the time to invest in fitness app development and reap the financial rewards of this profitable potential. First and foremost, you must be aware of the elements that might help your app become famous, which we will explore later in this article.
Must-have features for your fitness app
Before deciding on the features, you must first establish the sort of fitness app that would work best for your company. It is possible to use various fitness apps, including weight reduction applications, on-demand personal trainer applications, nutrition, and diet applications, exercising or workout applications, and others.
On the other hand, we have shed light on the fundamental aspects that may be implemented into a variety of fitness applications.
Types of Fitness Apps
Fitness applications are often classified into the following categories:
- Training and workout
- Diet and nutrition
- Branded fitness club apps
- Wellness apps
- All-in-one apps
Let’s take a deeper look at each of these categories.
Training and workout
Workout routines and videos with explanatory remarks are included in this sort of fitness application. Good apps in this category should be capable of changing their behaviour in response to the user. Example: It should be able to generate a personalized training plan based on the athletes’ goals and initial statistics while also allowing them to track their progress readily.
Diet and nutrition
It is also essential for a nutrition-related mobile app to be customized to the needs of its users and to have a universal set of tools such as the following:
- a calorie tracker
- recipe videos
- a progress tracker
- vitamins and sports nutrition tips
Branded fitness club apps
Gyms and fitness clubs use such applications to improve and increase the productivity of their interactions with their clients. Apps of this nature should be able to:
- allow for the payment of memberships and personal training in a simple manner
- providing informative articles and video demonstrations
- keep track of each individual’s progress
- live broadcasts from workout sessions or seminars
Wellness apps
Meditation, yoga, and workout applications that incorporate spiritual activities are included in this category. Most of the time, these applications upload videos and photographs demonstrating workout routines, motivating messages, and varied timers to encourage users to keep moving.
Other features of wellness applications may include the following:
- Sleep tracking
- Meditation practices
- Mindfulness
All-in-one apps
A fitness app of this sort can incorporate the capabilities of multiple different types of fitness applications simultaneously. For example, a personal app from a well-known athlete may offer the proper workout method, the secrets of a well-balanced diet, and other helpful information. The more functionalities an app has, the more straightforward it is to monetize it since you may enable each function for a different price within the app.
In this case, you may use a freemium monetization strategy that provides just the most basic capabilities for consumers at no cost (e.g., counting of steps). At the same time, you can charge a fee for access to additional functionality.
Furthermore, having a single global app rather than three separate ones is significantly more convenient for consumers. However, the cost of developing and maintaining such applications is substantially higher.
How to make an effective activity tracking app?
When it comes to activity tracking applications, the wearable market comes into play. In developing fitness applications, it is crucial to guarantee that they are fully compatible with wearable devices.
According to a recent survey, the wearables sector has seen a significant surge in years.
However, the issue arises as to how many people made it to the end. Or, to put it another way, how many people made it precisely as they had hoped/planned?
I don’t think there are many.
Here are some pointers that you, as a fitness app developer, should keep in mind throughout your fitness app development project:
1. Customized Diet Plans
The fitness applications are pretty comparable to having a personal trainer in the gym. One of the essential features that you can include in your fitness app is the ability to create personalized diet regimens. It will aid users in developing a nutrition plan that is tailored to their body type and daily activity, among other things.
It should ideally provide the ability to choose the components and guide customers through selecting the recipe that best suits their needs. Using this function, you may provide accessible and economical alternatives in your app by proposing suitable foods for your customers’ budgets.
2. Gamification
Because of this feature, your target audience will be more driven to attain their goals if your app offers them. To put it another way, one of our favourite songs is being played in the gym. Isn’t it true that we do five more pushups on this? Similarly, if your fitness app offers incentives for meeting specific training goals, it may increase the app’s perceived value and attract more users to it.
Gamification may be used for a variety of tasks in your software. While completing activities is lucrative, users are penalized if they do not finish them in a reasonable amount of time. There are two types of punishments that might be imposed: more demanding workouts or monetary fines.
3. Wearable device integration
Utilizing wearables such as smartwatches and wristbands to integrate your software will allow you to track users’ steps, heartbeat rate, and pulse rate in real-time and provide essential suggestions based on these data.
For example, Misfit, Garmin Wellness, and Pebble all have public APIs and developer’s kits that may be used to integrate wearables into your fitness app. Choose the most appropriate one for your app’s processing needs and look forward to putting it to use.
4. Chat Feature
Users will be able to communicate with a team of fitness professionals and receive the most tailored answers to their health and fitness issues via the use of a chat function. In addition, users will be able to communicate with other fitness enthusiasts and create daily challenges that are tailored to their abilities and requirements.
As a result, the chat function will increase user engagement and the success rate of the app.
5. Multi-device Synchronization
You can add multi-device synchronization with your fitness app as many other popular fitness apps do. The ability to work out even when the user does not have a synchronized fitness tracker would be much welcomed by those who do not have a fitness tracker.
The ability to link their smartphone with a second device will make it easier for them to exercise and benefit from your software.
6. Sleep monitoring
Sleep is a critical component of overall health and well-being. It should be a distinguishing feature of your health tracking software as well. This tracking is based on several different characteristics. In addition, the sleep tracker feature precisely measures a user’s total amount of sleep, sleep habit, active hours, and so forth.
Additionally, the sleep tracker should give users health insights and statistics based on their sleep habits. This function is trendy among those who use fitness trackers that are worn on their person.
7. Social Sharing
Who doesn’t enjoy bragging about their accomplishments on social media? In this day and age of social media platforms, it is difficult to conceive fitness applications that do not integrate with social media platforms.
Customers frequently choose to share their accomplishments with others through social media platforms. They feel more fulfilled as a result, and they are more inspired to push themselves to work out more.
And it is for this reason; fitness tracking apps allow individuals to share their daily fitness accomplishments, talk with friends and family, and participate in group-based engagement, allowing users to spend a significant amount of their time on fitness tracking apps.
In addition, fitness applications are being connected with third-party social networking apps to make content sharing more seamless for users.
8. User personalization
Personalization is an essential component of every smartphone app, but it is necessary for a fitness application. This feature refers to gathering user information such as age, gender, weight, height and creating a personalized diet and fitness regimens.Â
Using it, you can improve the user experience while increasing your profit margins. If the user believes that the app meets their specific needs and assists them in achieving their fitness objectives – rather than those of someone else – they are more likely to return to the app in the future.
Some applications go a step further and use artificial intelligence to tailor the user experience to their preferences. For example, in 2019, the Butterfly Coach fitness app was launched by the German business Plan.Net, which sets new benchmarks in personal training. Unlike other comparable applications, Butterfly Coach takes an entirely different approach to training.
Rather than offering a pre-made 12-week curriculum, the app gives users a virtual personal AI coach that can communicate with at any time. It is possible to communicate with the trainer at any time of day or night through a chatbot format, and the trainer will give ideas and advice for living an active, healthy, and happy lifestyle.
9. Geolocation
Users may use this tool to log their walking routes and keep track of their exercises. By utilizing this platform, your fitness monitoring software will be able to establish a tremendous presence in the minds of its users, as it will allow them to record their fitness activities over time.
Geolocation aids in the delivery of relevant location-based alerts to users, but it also aids in the recall of their actions in the context of their chosen location, which is very useful. This feature is handy for those who enjoy spending time outside.
10. Altimeter
It is sometimes referred to as an altitude meter, and it is used to determine the height of an item above a certain level. This device may be integrated into a fitness application to measure altitude and height changes due to a user climbing a flight of steps.
This function may be integrated into the app by the app development business to aid users in tracking their progress and results while jogging or running. Through this function, users can also view how many calories they are burning at any one time.
11. Online Consultation
Integrating online consultation and chat capabilities into your fitness app is required if you want your app to function as a personal trainer. While beginning various activities and regimens, it is conceivable that app users may have a slew of queries on their minds. In the absence of a trainer, they will be unable to obtain an answer.
The online consultation option in your software performs admirably at that location. It provides consumers with the ability to find answers to their inquiries at any moment. You may also think about incorporating a chat system to allow for real-time conversation among exercise mates. This feature lets app users effortlessly share their experiences, progress, and difficulties with others.
Final Words
The features mentioned above in your fitness application will help you stand out, but it will also open the door to new income prospects for your company. So don’t waste any time in developing your idea and investing in the development process.
If you already have a strategy and want to construct a high-performance app in a short period, experienced mobile app developers can help you. Nothing will be left to chance by our team of professionals to provide you with a future-proof software that complies with current industry standards and trends.
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