In today’s time, it is possible to do almost everything using a smartphone. Whether we need to book a cab, book an appointment with a doctor, plan a holiday, buy groceries, or read books, everything is possible with a smartphone. In recent years, another capability of tracking our fitness parameters has emerged in our smartphones. As we are getting so busy, we do not necessarily have time to attend gym classes but that is not an issue anymore. With Fitness applications in your smartphone, you can monitor your heart rate, pulse, blood pressure, sleeping activity, and much more. Fitness applications have been in huge demand since recent years. That’s why in this article we guide you on how to develop your fitness application. Let’s begin.
Types of Fitness Applications
You can find thousands of fitness apps on the different App Stores. However, not every one of them is popular. There are different genres in which these apps are divided. Let’s know the different types of fitness applications that customers love and use.
High-Intensity Interval Training
The aim of HIIT applications is to provide users with a short period of training workouts. Usually, the length of the workout is 10 to 15 minutes and has high-intensity exercises. You will require very high energy to perform these exercises. It can burn a lot of calories in a very short period of time. HIIT exercises are highly effective but a novice shouldn’t perform them. You should have proper training before performing these exercises, else it wouldn’t be safer for you. Remember it while developing your fitness app. The best example of High-Intensity Interval Training is an Android fitness app Tabata HIIT Interval Timer.
Diet and Nutrition App
As the name indicates, a diet and nutrition app will help you monitor a balanced diet and track the number of calories intake. The user can choose the product he ate on the list, mention its weight and the number of calories in it. This way, the person can know how many calories are being consumed by him every day. It is his choice to gain weight or lose some kilos. If you are wishing to develop such a fitness app then you must know that these apps come with the feature of a barcode scanner which is extremely helpful for a customer as he can know before buying the product how much calories it contains.
The best example of such an app is Calorie Counter – My Fitness Pal app. It is a highly popular Diet and Nutrition app with more than 50 million downloads and 4.5 stars rating. It is free of cost available on Google Play Store.
Want to develop an app like Calorie Counter – My Fitness Pal app, consult our team now.
Activity Tracking App
These apps are capable of covering one particular sport or multiple of them. For e.g. there are activity tracking apps especially curated for cyclists, runners, etc. These apps can also track other activities such as the distance traveled, number of steps taken or climbed, calories burned, and many other metrics.
These apps are highly in demand as they can be used by professional people who are not having time to go to the gym and maintain their fitness by walking or simple jogging. If you are planning to develop these apps then you must take one fact into account that these apps can work when they are compatible with the wearable devices such as a smartwatch, Fitbit, smart ring, etc. These gadgets come with wearable sensors and can extend the functionality of a fitness application.
Social integration in the activity tracking apps is also highly required. It motivates the users to share their fitness progress with their friends and family on the social media platform. They can also find a companion to compete with. It is always great to work out with your friends or other fitness enthusiasts.
You can take the example of the Adidas Running App by Runtastic – Run Tracker. The app is having more than 50 million downloads and has 4.6 stars rating.
Personal Trainer or Studio App
These apps are developed for the personal use of fitness trainers or a studio, gym or any other health center. In these apps, the functionality is developed as per their requirement. Some of them can work like an organizer, where a user arranges or cancels his training. They can also have a newsfeed where a studio or a trainer posts some news. Live Streaming is another popular feature that is required in the personal trainer apps. Consider it if you are planning to develop a similar app. With the live session, the trainer can see how the user is performing the exercise. In this pandemic time, it is highly in demand.
Meditation App
The meditation and yoga apps include a huge number of sessions which are categorized as per the user level. The user can choose his level and program he or she wants to get. These are mostly daily sessions that means these apps have a high retention rate. You can also implement a reminder or alarm functionality. So to notify the users at a specific time interval else they will forget their classes. Daily Yoga App is a classic example of this app.
To make the fitness app successful, most of the entrepreneurs are implementing hybrid features. Let’s know in detail about the features of a fitness app.
Basic Features of a Fitness App
Let’s know the features that you must include in your Fitness App Development:
User Login & Sign Up
Users need a very high level of personalization in fitness apps. That’s why a fitness app must have Sign-Up and login functionality. You can also provide Login & Sign-Up through social media platforms such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
Social Integration
Social integration shouldn’t be limited to Login & Sign Up but the user should also be able to share his fitness progress on his social media accounts. Also, it makes it possible to combine some functions of the social media platforms onto the app.
Personal Account
There should be an account for the user with a user’s dashboard. The users would be able to check how many calories he had burnt in a given time and other parameters with easy charts.
Device Connectivity
It is highly important that the app should be compatible with wearable trackers. Fortunately, wearable producers and mobile platforms give mobile fitness app developers such a chance.
User Activity Tracking
This point is completely related to the previous one. Traditional fitness activity applications that were focused on running, cycling, walking, etc. show the number of calories burnt, steps taken or climb, miles run, time, heartbeats, and other parameters.
GPS
You must have heard of a GPS device for tracking the way to reach your destination. It uses satellites for mapping the routes, knowing the position, and measuring speed. How many fitness tracking devices are using GPS for runners, cyclists, and hikers. Apple Watch Series 4, Sony SmartWatch 4, Fitbit Ionic, and Mobvoi TicWatch E2 do boast built-in GPS functionality.
Real-time notifications
The Push-Notifications integrated by the fitness apps developer informs the user when they’ve achieved their goals or when you should start working out.
Setting Target
Another noticeable feature of a fitness app. The users should be able to set goals (achievable) and come forward to achieve them.
Workouts
These may differ depending on the type of app. Most of the tracking apps allow creating your own workout or choose among offered ones.
Settings
It is up to you how many settings you can provide. Make sure to make the app customizable and convenient.
Fitness App Development Trends
The most trending features in the Fitness App Development are:
Gamification & Motivation
People abandon exercising and fitness programs due to a lack of motivation. Obviously, exercising is an arduous task that requires a lot of effort. That is why you need to make training with your app very interesting and entertaining.
What to do? Try to create an app in which the achievable goals should appear like a game. Give rewards to the user when they achieve a goal.
We have already mentioned this. Fitness has created a new fuzz across the world. On social media platforms such as Instagram, people are uploading photos of their abs, workout sessions, etc. When the app will have social media integration, you can create pages and gather people, engage and encourage them
What to do? Add as many social media features into your app as you can. The more you add the more free advertising you’ll get. Let your users share their results in social networks, invite friends, or set a competition via these services.
Virtual Reality
Not every fitness app is leveraging Virtual Reality but it is having a huge potential for your app. VR can create an experience like a video game in your app. It gives a very exciting experience and the users will never get bored.
What to do? VR can’t be an additional functionality but you have to develop the complete app focusing on it. It requires VR headsets and a special environment where a user can’t hurt himself or others.
Steps for creating a fitness app
Here are the complete steps for creating a fitness app. Follow these steps:
1. Choose the type of fitness app you want to develop
2. Do an analysis of the fitness app market
3. Create a competitive analysis
4. Select the features you want to implement in the MVP app
5. You should be sure the functionality of your app allows it to stand out
6. Find a mobile app development company who is having experience in this field
7. Get an estimation of the development project
8. Finalize a budget
9. Take part in the planning stage of fitness app development
10. Check the readiness of the app by testing its demo
11. Developers will publish the app on the app store
12. Get the source code of the application
Read more: Boost in Online HealthCare due to Coronavirus
Why choose us?
Fitness mobile apps have gained a lot of popularity and are taking over the market. Now every fitness freak looks for an app to stay fit & healthy. People are realizing the importance of physical fitness and this awareness turned into a modern fad or craze that will continue for years to come.
If you are an ambitious entrepreneur you must cash in this opportunity by consulting a mobile app development company with expertise in Health & Fitness Apps. At Amplework, we are having expertise in developing Fitness Cross Platform apps.
