Peloton Is Dropping Apple Watch GymKit Support

[GLS]

Another possibility, and I'm not a coder so...take it with a grain of salt.

It could be that Peloton simply doesn't want to support a subset of their equipment with an Apple only piece of tech (gymkit). I don't pretend to know the app differences, or what coding is necessary in Peloton's back end to know that I used gymkit over the Peloton app, but streamlining things from the developer side (everyone uses the Peloton app now, we are deprecating GymKit going forward) would make things more simple from their viewpoint.

 

[InVinoVeritasty]

I wonder, do Peloton's bean counters simply want to avoid a recurring licensing fee?

 

[suresk]

... but streamlining things from the developer side (everyone uses the Peloton app now, we are deprecating GymKit going forward) would make things more simple from their viewpoint.

I can see that being part of it, there is absolutely extra work involved in supporting both. That said, GymKit support was a highly-touted feature of the Bike+ over the Bike (and is still mentioned on the site today!), so it seems a little crappy to just decide you don't want to support it anymore.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I wonder, do Peloton's bean counters simply want to avoid a recurring licensing fee?

Can you blame them?
I don't like paying Apple recurring fees either (and I avoid it as much as I can)

 

[InVinoVeritasty]

Can you blame them?

Yes, Bike+ was sold at a premium price and this is one of the premium features -- still promoted today on the "compare" page of their marketing/sales website.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Yes, Bike+ was sold at a premium price and this is one of the premium features -- still promoted today on the "compare" page of their marketing/sales website.

Bike+ has several other upgrades beyond GymKit
Bigger screen, better audio, auto-resistance option, better bluetooth/CPU/RAM, etc, etc

 

[InVinoVeritasty]

Bike+ has several other upgrades beyond GymKit
Bigger screen, better audio, auto-resistance option, better bluetooth/CPU/RAM, etc, etc

View attachment 2349025View attachment 2349028

Dealer: I know we promised you air conditioning, but you did get the Corinthian vinyl and floor mats we promised!

 

[turbineseaplane]

Dealer: I know we promised you air conditioning, but you did get the Corinthian vinyl and floor mats we promised!

I didn't say something hasn't been removed, but it's disingenuous to fully discount other KEY upgrades (like a much larger screen)

Besides that -- I guarantee you Peloton has terms somewhere that everyone agreed to saying that features can change at anytime.

When Apple pulls that crap, everyone here defends it ....because it's Apple

 

[cmontyburns]

That is NOT the only difference. GymKit syncs cadence, speed, and power to Apple Health and allows you to see trends over time with that data. With the basic syncing they’re going to it will not sync it to Health.

This is a huge step backwards and I hope a class action comes out of it. Many of us got the Bike+ for this feature and them taking it away is unacceptable.

Indeed, and there are other reasons to care, as well. For example:

Peleton, like every other company wants your data. Apple GymKit, HomeKit etc allow you to collect data on your devices and store it with end to end encryption in the Appleverse and not shared with anyone. This is why there are fewer devices that support HomeKit and GymKit. The manufacturers are not content with the profit they make selling the devices. They want to monetize your data too.

Yup, with this change, Peloton gets access to the health data generated by your workouts. Not so with GymKit and everything happening in the Workout app on the watch.

This also suggests another reason to care, which I think someone else pointed to upthread. It means that Peloton and not Apple will be calculating personal metrics like calories burned in your workout and saving those to Health I have a Technogym treadmill with Apple Watch support through their app and not GymKit, and their app is way more optimistic about calorie calculations than Apple is. It might even be more correct! (Though I don't think so.) But the point is that it's inconsistent with how things are calculated in every one of my other workouts, which are all watch-based.

 

[turbineseaplane]

GymKit I believe provided more accurate active calories burned then Peloton's total calories - just from a pure accuracy standpoint this is a big loss

How do you know which is more accurate?

 

[H.E. Pennypacker]

The metics I use to tell how good my workouts are is if I’m losing weight and gaining SMM. That’s the ultimate tall tell sign on if your workouts are working. No app will tell me that.

 

[suresk]

How do you know which is more accurate?

The Bike+ has a power meter that is generally pretty accurate.

1 kcal ~= 4.2 kJ, but we are not 100% efficient at converting power to the bike. Studies put humans in the 20-25% efficiency range on the bike, so as I mentioned above, 1 kcal ~= 1 kJ is a decent approximation. Here is a recent 45 minute ride calculated via GymKit:

373 kJ - 435 kcal

And one with their One-Tap I did last night to test it:

376 kJ - 974 kcal

I'm not in the greatest shape, but I doubt I'm that inefficient!

edit to add - I believe Peloton just uses heart rate, but Apple uses heart rate + power output in some fashion. I've been recovering from a winter of covid and bronchitis so my output has been down and heart rate up, which has really inflated what Peloton estimates.

 

[craigmak]

I guess my fancy clothes hanger is even more useless now

 

[Predestinarian]

So I jumped on my Bike+ today - the Bike I paid extra money JUST SO I COULD GET GYMKIT integration, and I see this banner that says "Track your workouts" - "We're transitioning from Apply GymKit to Peloton One-Tap tracking with Apple Watch so you can sync metrics from all classes taken on Peloton equipment. Starting February 27."

I cannot tell you how furious I am by this decision. I already track all my workouts in Apple health with the GymKit feature. This is why I bought the Bike+. They are effectively turning my Bike+ into a Bike now. Every day, I look forward to just holding my watch up to my bike and starting an apple workout. Now that is being taken away from me - even though I paid a lot of money for that feature.

 

[Veinticinco]

Is Peloton still not bankrupt?

Give it another 12 months, max.

 

[Veinticinco]

Apple would be wise to purchase Peloton

I think this will be the end game for Peloton. Best case scenario anyway.

 

[jvchappy]

Looks like Peloton doesn't want Apple to buy it

 

[auero]

I wrote an email expressing my frustration and was told the following:

Peloton has always been committed to leveraging technology to enhance our members' fitness experiences. We recently implemented GymKit with Bike Bootcamp, a dynamic class type that combines strength and cardio exercises. Unfortunately, Apple GymKit is designed to work exclusively with equipment-based cardio workouts and does not currently support this multi-disciplinary class type.
Despite this, we want to reassure you that members can still benefit from GymKit by seamlessly syncing their cycling-only workouts to their Apple Watch from the Bike+. Your ability to track and monitor your progress remains a top priority for us.

 

[btrach144]

I wrote an email expressing my frustration and was told the following:

Peloton has always been committed to leveraging technology to enhance our members' fitness experiences. We recently implemented GymKit with Bike Bootcamp, a dynamic class type that combines strength and cardio exercises. Unfortunately, Apple GymKit is designed to work exclusively with equipment-based cardio workouts and does not currently support this multi-disciplinary class type.
Despite this, we want to reassure you that members can still benefit from GymKit by seamlessly syncing their cycling-only workouts to their Apple Watch from the Bike+. Your ability to track and monitor your progress remains a top priority for us.

That’s a boilerplate response from when Peloton had to remove GymKit from Bike bootcamp 1-2 years ago.

Someone just copy and pasted the response from that decision 2 years ago into your response today.

AKA they ignored your feedback.

 

[Fidgetyrat]

Whew, glad I bought a "dumb" bike for a fraction of the price and just use the TV it's in front of with Fitness+. Peloton's business model never made any sense.

 

[SteelLungs69]

Apple has completely given up on GymKit. It haven’t seen any mention of it since the initial Keynote announcement.

And device manufacturers never advertised it. It was one of those cool features that Apple introduced and then forgot to do anything with it.

I don’t know what gym you’re visiting, but both Lifetime Fitness and Planet Fitness have equipment that I use and sync with my Apple Watch with a simple tap. If your gym isn’t offering the equipment, it might be time for some constructive feedback or a new gym.

 

[InVinoVeritasty]

I wrote an email expressing my frustration and was told the following:

...
Despite this, we want to reassure you that members can still benefit from GymKit by seamlessly syncing their cycling-only workouts to their Apple Watch from the Bike+. Your ability to track and monitor your progress remains a top priority for us.

Is this true or is it a bit of slight of hand? I was told that I will have to use one-tap because GymKit integration will be gone.

 

[suresk]

Is this true or is it a bit of slight of hand? I was told that I will have to use one-tap because GymKit integration will be gone.

See above - that is a canned response related to when they tried to include the bike bootcamp in GymKit and had to revert it. Not surprisingly from a company that couldn't even send out a working link, it sounds like they haven't communicated this very well internally.

 

[CarlJ]

The manufacturers are not content with the profit they make selling the devices. They want to monetize your data too.

Indeed, sometimes the sales price of devices is at/near the actual hardware cost, with the expectation that they'll make up the difference in selling info about you after the purchase - this is what a lot of low-end TV manufacturers do - sell a TV at/below cost, make money selling your viewing habits to ad companies - ever wonder why you can't find a low-end TV that isn't "smart"? (I expect they also make money as a middleman selling subscriptions to various streaming services and movie rental services.)

 

[InVinoVeritasty]

Today, I cancelled Peloton All Access ($44/mo). And I subscribed to Fitness+ ($6.67/mo with annual). Verdict: I sweat just as much with Fitness+ for about $450 a year less. That's a fair trade for me. But honestly, it's not really about the money. It's about the business practice of promoting a service to sell a product, and then cutting it.