Don’t Launch Without These Features In Your Fitness App

Staying healthy and fit is not difficult anymore. People can now be more active without sparing extra time from their busy schedules. Those who had no time to attend a gym class early morning can now get a gym instructor at home via the smart gym instructor apps. Similarly, health and fitness apps have taken the fitness industry to a new level where people can easily pursue their fitness goals.

Due to the increasing health and fitness app development, people are becoming more aware of a healthy lifestyle. Health issues like obesity, heart diseases, etc. are because of the sedentary lifestyle of people. 

If you asked a decade back, then health and fitness was not a priority for people. But today with increasing health issues and heart attacks people look for simpler ways to remain healthy. A health and fitness app can help them achieve that. Not only the fitness mobile apps but wearable’s are also becoming a trend these days. 

A look at the growing trend for fitness apps

There are over 250,000 fitness apps available on different app stores. The global fitness app market is valued at USD 2.27 billion in 2018 and is expected to grow at a rate of more than 29.0% over the period 2019 - 2026. 

Increasing health consciousness among people is one of the major reasons behind the growth of fitness apps. Health and fitness apps have become the most sought-after technological tool which helps people to stay active.

The personalization and visualization factor further increases the effectiveness of these apps. Individuals can easily track their growth through visual graphical data.

These apps are equipped with various sensors to track user activities like walking, running, jumping, etc. 

The increasing trend for fitness mobile apps is an opportunity for start-ups to find their way into the industry. But before you create a fitness app or hire any health and fitness app development agency, it is important to understand different types of fitness apps available in the market and their must-have features. 

Different types of health and fitness apps 

Health and fitness can broadly be divided into three categories: 

• Workout apps 
• Nutrition and Diet Apps 
• Fitness Tracking Apps 

a) Workout Apps 

Workout apps are focused on different types of exercises and workouts. Mainly, a workout app helps users try different workouts with detailed explanations or video tutorials. Workouts apps can also be divided into: 

• Personal trainer apps: These apps include different exercise routines that the user needs to complete within the scheduled time. The routines are available in multiple formats like illustrations, videos, 3D models, etc. Users can choose a routine based on their personal preferences and difficulty level. Examples include Sworkit, Asana Rebel, Cross fit, 7 minutes workout, etc. 
• Logbook apps: A logbook app allows you to plan and record personal exercise routines. They work as a to-do list and only store information about different exercise routines followed by you. 

Workout apps can easily sync with your wearable devices. Thus, all the information collected by your wearable device is shown on the screen of your smartphone. 

b) Nutrition and diet apps 

A major reason for obesity is, not knowing what to eat. Munching on junk foods or food items that are high in saturated fats can lead to several health conditions. Nutrition and Diet apps can help you track your food habits – what to eat, the nutritional value of every food item, the right quantity to consume, etc. 

Some fitness apps also let you keep a track of total calories consumed in a day and control water and coffee intake. These nutrition apps help users to achieve their personal goals like gaining or losing weight, eating healthy, etc. Calorie Counter by MyFitnessPal is one of the best examples of a nutrition and diet app. 

c) Fitness activity tracking app 

These apps can track the physical activities of the user like total steps taken in a day, stairs climbed, distance travelled, hours slept, and calories burnt. 

Developers, while working on a health and fitness app development project, need to take into account the different type of data the app will be collecting and how they plan to analyze this data. Analyzing the data is integral to the success of the app. This will help you encourage users to take desired actions or fight harder for their goals via gamification, rewards, incentives, and nudges. 

Now, when you know the types of fitness apps available in the market, let’s head towards understanding the features that make any fitness app useful. 

Features you can’t afford to ignore when building health and fitness apps 

1. Ability to create accounts

A fitness app must allow the user to sign up or log in to the app. This will help the user to track his activities and other data in the app. Some apps also allow direct login using social media accounts like Facebook. 

2. Integration and Sync 

A fitness app must have the ability to sync or integrate with other mobile apps on the smartphone or with wearable devices like activity trackers. For example, a nutrition app can sync with the fitness tracker app on the phone to automatically calculate the calories consumed and burnt. 

3. Setting Targets 

A fitness tracker app must allow the users to set individual targets based on their capacity and level of activity. For a beginner, walking 12,000 steps a day might not be a feasible goal. Hence, the app must allow him to customize the target. 

4. Gamification 

Competing against yourself can sometimes become boring. Hence, fitness apps must have a gamification feature. This is very important in workout and activity tracking apps. Gamification encourages the user to compete with other users, get rewards, and compare results. 

5. Geolocation 

This feature is very important for activity tracking apps. Activity tracker apps must implement geolocation to let users plan routes, record workouts, and track their current location. 

6. Food logging

The problem with several nutrition apps is that they do not allow users to enter a food item. There may be certain foods that are not stored in the app’s food directory. This may discourage the user from using the app. 

7. Barcode scanners

Just like food logging, bar code scanners help users to know about the nutritional value of a food item. It also makes logging food items faster and simpler. 

8. Dashboard 

Every fitness app whether it is a workout app, nutrition app, or activity tracker app must have a dashboard. A dashboard will give users quick info about their workout history, achieved targets, and other important data. 

9. Insights 

People are always on a lookout for more useful health insights and information that can help them in staying fit and healthy. Many fitness apps thus have a separate insights section that gives them useful information like – how much water you must drink in a day to lose weight faster? Or, which is the best cardio exercise for beginners?

Concluding Words

Undoubtedly, the market for health and fitness app development is on an upsurge. The coming years can witness increasing demand for fitness apps that lets individuals stay fit and be more aware of their health. It’s the perfect time for the start-ups to cash-in by building fitness apps.