19% of smartphone owners use fitness training applications to get in shape. And the way things have been in recent months, this number is soon going to increase significantly.
Do you want to get the best out of this opportunity? Are you planning to build a fitness training solution to supplement this ever-growing demand?
Let's get started.
With the fitness boom after the launch of Apple Watch in 2015, a large chunk of the population has got more conscious about their health and lifestyle.
Since then, a lot of startups and enterprises have been investing heavily in fitness applications. As a result, there are a lot of apps available in the fitness app market, aiming at different aspects of our everyday life. From eating healthier food to working out, it is possible to do all with the touch of technology.
While there are many competitors, the niche of fitness app development remains promising.
A fitness app is a great startup idea, especially for people who have expertise in the field. So, in this article, we will help you understand the types of fitness apps and give tips to build your own.
Pro Tip: Building a mobile app is a costly affair. Therefore, it is advisable to go offshore and hire a team of remote app developers, that can fulfill your business objectives, without making a hole in your pocket.
Statistics that Prove the Demand for Fitness Apps
- In the first quarter of 2020, the number of downloads of health and fitness apps reached 593 million.
- Health and fitness app statistics project that by the end of 2020 apps from this category will have been downloaded 656 million times.
- According to a Statista Survey, the number of fitness app users grew from 62.7 million in 2018 to 87.4 million users in 2020. It is projected that in 2022, the overall number of users will equal 86.3 million.
- In 2019, the number of Fitbit devices sold worldwide constituted 16 million.
What are the Different Types of Fitness Apps?
1. Workout and Exercise Apps
Workout apps can be a suitable way for people who don’t have the time or desire to go to the gym or for group fitness sessions. According to research by Flurry Analytics, workout and weight loss apps account for 73 percent of all health and fitness app sessions.
These fitness workout apps not only allow the user to take live or recorded fitness classes but also plan their own regime. Users can customize their own plan on the basis of their current health needs, their medical history, and requirements and end goals.
Most modern fitness apps sync with fitness trackers. Such as those by Fitbit and Garmin, to collect a user’s health- and activity-related data and provide personalized health recommendations.
When outlining your fitness app, concentrate on the comfort of use. Classifying workouts on different themes like fitness levels, stamina, etc is always a great idea. It simplifies the search, allowing users to find what they are looking for.
For example, Nike Training Club allows users to choose from a variety of workouts with different focuses, including strength, endurance, and mobility. Users can choose training plans according to their needs and change or adapt them if necessary.
For those who need more than ready-made plans and classes, there are personal trainer apps. A fitness app developer draws together fitness coaches and people who want a more individual approach on a single platform and enables them to train as per specific needs.
These apps basically offer a personal trainer on a smartphone. Users can pick a coach who matches their goals and start their fitness journey.
You just need to hire mobile app developers with prior experience in developing fitness solutions. As these apps are complex, building several modules and APIs for connecting them requires excellent coding experience.
2. Fitness Tracking Apps
The purpose of fitness tracking apps is to accumulate data about the user’s activities and functionalities. This data helps a user track its goals and progress they have made on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.
Tracking activities like the number of steps taken, stairs climbed, distance run, and other fitness metrics. To make it easy for users, create a fitness app that monitors progress.
Fitness tracking apps provide calendars and charts and save routes. These apps also create comparison reports for users and help them access their growth on a timely basis.
But, the compatibility depends on the connectivity of the devices which enables the tracking.
Another important feature is geolocation for tracking and saving routes on a map. This is not only convenient for tracking progress but also motivates users as they can see the routes they’ve run or cycled.
There are applications that let users set goals they want to reach, for example getting ready for a marathon, and providing training plans. To keep users on top of the game, they are allowed to participate in challenges and get rewards at every win.
3. Nutrition and Diet Apps
As a Statista survey shows, 26% of 18 to 29-year-olds use apps to track nutrition frequently, while 23% in the same age category use them occasionally. Nutrition and diet apps help users track calories they consume and burn and control water balance.
With nutrition apps, users can set goals they want to reach, such as losing, gaining, or maintaining weight. To let users observe their consumption habits, create a fitness app of a nature that should have a food logging feature.
To make your app successful, motivational and reminder message notification is a key feature to incorporate. Study shows that most of the users leave their regime midway due to laid back attitude and lack of motivation.
To reduce dropouts, the engagement feature is a must-have. This can be done by telling users how they can achieve goals, showing progress, sending push notifications, and using gamification elements like competitions.
One of the most popular apps for counting calories is MyFitnessPal. The app gives suggestions on the number of calories to consume, taking into account a user’s goals and fitness profile.
You can self add the meals and items you have consumed or scan the barcode of products you are eating. On that basis, the app will calculate the number of calories consumed and the remaining level of calories.
You can set your aims and goals and get an optimized level of micronutrition and calories to consume.
Features to Incorporate While Building a Fitness App
Often, creators ask for advice on how to create a workout app that users will immediately attract users' attention. The best way to achieve this goal is to include a lot of useful features. The best fitness and nutrition apps rely on a number of basic features and have one or two unique ones.
Let’s take a look at the fitness application features:
1. Easy Sign-Up Process
It is very important to cut down the registration process and ensure you have different login options. For example, registration with an email address and fast sign up with social media like Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
However, to get the best out of your mobile app, working with a team of dedicated offshore developers is the right approach.
2. Personalized User Account
While creating a fitness tracking app, you can include different options into a personal account. Like the ability to use an app on multiple devices with the information stored in the cloud.
Among other options that users will appreciate the capacity to add their photos, modify interface design, add their weight, height, and other physical and health conditions that will be used during the creation of personalized workout plans.