Future of Apple Fitness+ 'Under Review'

[Takeo]

Not letting me turn the music off is and always has been a 100% deal breaker. Add that featured and I’d sign up tomorrow.

Also, everyone I know that loves online fitness does real time social classes with chat and a leaderboard… not canned prerecorded classes.

 

[yodb]

I know a hell of a lot of people with Apple Watches who do fitness stuff. None of them use this. I get the feeling there just isn't a market for it at all.

I’m a fairly active person who works out 6-7 times a week with an Apple Watch. I also love and use AF+. True, not every time I do sports, but to me it’s important enough to pay for Apple One Premier, especially since my partner uses AF+ too. Without AF+ there’s a high chance I would stop paying for the other Apple services altogether. And I think that’s exactly what they see as a small but devoted fanbase.

 

[gigapocket1]

Honestly. The app is too dark for fitness… Also needs the MyFitnessPal food stuff integrated into it. It needs to be a one stop shop…
More workouts for free weights and machines that are auto curated / non video. Also needs to be easier to create my own.

 

[jbc25]

I love Fitness+ but I think there's a lot of people who don't even know it exists. They really need to advertise it more.

I also think that requiring an Apple Watch for metrics in the first year or so of the service was a mistake. That limited its usefulness for a lot of people.

 

[jbc25]

It's a little too American for my taste. Very polished and a tad creepy how much they all smile during the workouts.

Lol this is a fair point. I also get a little tired of all the cutesy sign language. Isn't that what captions are for?

 

[SBlue1]

I love it. The only Apple Service I pay for, besides the mandatory iCloud storage upgrade. I use it without an Apple Watch and it's great, cheaper than the gym and you can work out any time you want. The only thing is don't like is the exaggerated happiness and all love you are great talk.

 

[jdclifford]

Perhaps Apple should finally buy Peloton?

 

[tennisproha]

Fitness+ has so much potential that’s being held back by Apple’s inability to let them innovate. There’s not support on Mac, the new weekly exercises are too repetitive, the app is poorly organized, and besides showing Apple Watch metrics on screen there’s no attempt at actually educating users on the exercises and how they’re impacting health.

Apple Fitness suffers from the same thing Apple Health suffers from; poorly organized and poor insights from the data being collected by the Apple Watch. It’s a systemic issue.

 

[orbital~debris]

I absolutely love Fitness+.
It's an excellent service, well worth paying for.
I'd be extremely disappointed if it ceases to exist, or undergoes extensive changes.

If you look beyond the admittedly US-style of presentation, you do see trainers who are focussed on the right thing – which is all around wellbeing (including mental health) and the health benefits exercise brings. In other words, if you drop your resistance to their strong enthusiasm a little, the whole process of working out can become very positively reinforcing.

I love that there's no sense of exclusion, quite the opposite – all of the trainers feel so welcoming and encouraging. And I feel like I belong as a user, instead of 'being' in a place that's not for me (which I'd likely feel at many gyms).

I loved the point another poster made about it working well for them as they live in a rural area – and to add to that this service is great for being able to work out exactly when it suits you. I've done many a workout very late in the evening, middle of the day, early morning etc. fitting around other family member's use of the living room. The tvOS integration is fantastic, as is the connection with Apple Watch.

Apple should definitely promote the service more on its own, and do so regularly (a high profile but brief marking campaign would likely not help improve use – or sustained use – of the service). Perhaps a tiered pricing structure might help, as customers would feel like they had some choice or control over spend. And expand it to anywhere that is happy to use in English initially, building out with other languages later.

I think everyone who loves the service, doesn't want to see it disappear, or has posted here saying they feel sad about the idea of it being closed down, should email Tim Cook with their comments (and perhaps any constructive feedback), as well as use apple.com/feedback. Maybe even throw in a link to this thread – there's no guarantee Apple, or the right people at Apple, are even aware of this discussion.

This is one rumour I hope is flat out wrong.

 

[drew0020]

I love it too. It’s so good and much cheaper than the gym (or classes).

 

[npmacuser5]

A big growing business, physical therapy. Need to focus on the health aspects of fitness. More moderate health directed fitness. The Peloton, gym, expensive device driven model already done. The home physical therapy a big need using inexpensive equipment guided programs a good fit. Might even get it insurance paid if done properly. Take a Doctors recommendations, build a custom workout and get paid.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

I love it too. It’s so good and much cheaper than the gym (or classes).

It's only cheaper if you have all the equipment that a gym offers. I don't have a smith machine, or a fly machine, 100s of pounds of plates, etc...assuming you do weight training.

Yoga classes are nice in person in that you have an instructor where you can ask questions, and they can adjust and critique your form. Video is better than not doing it all, however.

All that said, wife and I still use AF+, mainly because I get it free with my insurance. Neither of of have Apple Watches.

 

[stellaclose]

Imagine a fitness service that's been out for over 5 years, without workouts for one of the most popular pieces of gym equipment (Elliptical). No wonder it hasn't taken off.
Time to sunset this underperforming service. Other providers provide a much better service.

 

[gomichaelgo]

I use the apple fitness feature weekly. I love it. I wouldn't pay $10 per month alone for it. It comes with the family plan I am on. For me personally, I wish there were more weighted lifting routines. I also wish there were more guided plans. For example, I like doing the yoga workouts but I never know which ones to choose. It'd be nice if they had a flow to them to build progress on top of previous routines.n Additionally, for strength training, they should separate them into groups for things like upper body (push or pull), lower body, more ab focus... and have an approach that suggests a workout to you based on what you did last time (you did a push workout yesterday, perhaps you would like to focus on legs).

 

[gomichaelgo]

I think that Apple Fitness could elevate to couple with

Lol this is a fair point. I also get a little tired of all the cutesy sign language. Isn't that what captions are for?

Maybe that's the specific trainers you choose. I don't think they all do sign language all the time. Also, it could have been for specific months of awareness or something. They tend to lean into that alot.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

I think that Apple Fitness could elevate to couple with

Maybe that's the specific trainers you choose. I don't think they all do sign language all the time. Also, it could have been for specific months of awareness or something. They tend to lean into that alot.

They also tend to drop out of it pretty quickly, once they have said the boilerplate stuff. I'm guessing most of the trainers don't know signing beyond that.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

To me, Fitness feels like News in that they entered the market without any real conviction or intention.

I always remember Steve Jobs saying that Apple would only enter markets where it felt there was an opportunity to ‘own’ it or take a significant share; but I don’t see that with services like Fitness. It comes across as fake, a series of Nike commercials, and non-essential

 

[Left0verture]

Just my personal preference - I use BitGym and HASfit. I’ve tried Apple Fitneess but the whole “urban warehouse, high energy, trainers yelling at me” vibe is a complete turnoff.

 

[Infuspeur]

If (when?) they’ll finally release it in the Netherlands, I’ll get an Apple One sub. Until then, I have a monthly sub at Les Mills from New Zealand.

 

[MysteriousStain]

YouTube is stuffed with thousands of exercise videos. For free. For someone motivated they can piece together a workout and once you’ve done it a few times, why even watch?

 

[WarmWinterHat]

YouTube is stuffed with thousands of exercise videos. For free. For someone motivated they can piece together a workout and once you’ve done it a few times, why even watch?

You want specific trainers with a certain style, and you want to stick with them... plus your workout isn't paused for a 60-second commercial for car insurance.

Youtube is okay for some workouts.

 

[Apple_Robert]

It's a little too American for my taste. Very polished and a tad creepy how much they all smile during the workouts.

Having someone be sullen, detached, and arrogant cost extra.

 

[RedWeasel]

The smiling takes much less getting used to as a non-American than all the special days and months that need to be celebrated.

Happy EU Trade Barrier Month!

 

[AppleFan85!]

It's a little too American for my taste. Very polished and a tad creepy how much they all smile during the workouts.

Maybe you’d prefer if they just had a single lightbulb hanging from an electrical cord in the middle of the room? Take away some of the polish? 😂

 

[Fugabutacus]

I tried it and loved it but had to cancel because of the UI. It's probably an ADHD thing more than anything, but I needed something really organised with a clear "up next" section and clear indications of progress.

I just had a look at what it looks like now and it looks like some of that might have been fixed. But at the time I needed it, it wasn't right for me and I've moved on to systems that do work for my brain, so I've got no reason to want to try it again.