When people ask me what the good thing about the Apple Watch is — and residuum assured , it make out up jolly much anytime they see I have one — I almost always vaunt the physical fitness feature of the machine as my favorite look . For one , they go past the iPhone ’s meager seaworthiness offerings , give it one of the more compelling selling full stop of the Apple Watch . For another , it actually encourages me to do something that meliorate my animation .
vie against friends may motivate you to actually fill those rophy .
But as much as I care hitting my move , utilization , and stand goals every twenty-four hours , it ’s started to feel like there ’s something that ’s miss : community of interests . As great as it is to compete against yourself and seek to constantly top your own personal good , sometimes pit yourself against others can be a great form of encouragement . I probably would n’t go to the gym half as often as I do if it were n’t for the motivation of my protagonist cash in one’s chips as well .
So why ca n’t the Apple Watch take advantage of that , too ?
The game of life
Apple ’s most pop competitor in the wearable fitness twist space is Fitbit , and that company has wholeheartedly embraced the social scene of workouts — admirer who have Fitbits regularly refer it as the most sport or engaging part of the machine . Using the Fitbit app , people can equate their onward motion throughout the 24-hour interval or week against their friends ( or perhaps eventheir enemies ) . That social aspect is a great incentive , but it ’s wholly missing from Apple ’s fitness features .
Fitbit ’s app has a built - in segment for prevent tabs on your friends ’ activity .
More to the period , as my Centennial State - innkeeper onThe Reboundpodcast ( andMacworldcontributor ) John Moltz suggestedin our most late episode , Apple ’s already got the substructure in place to support just such an thought : Game Center . Apple ’s online gambling military service has leaderboards , challenge , achievements , and so on — all thing that Fitbit offers in its own app .
Creating a connection between the Activity app and Game Center would potentially provide even better engagement for the Apple Watch ’s fitness features . Imagine if you could see how secretive your well friend was to completing their move goal and encourage them — or rag them — into nail it . Forget just reaching your Apple Watch ’s prescribed goal of how much you move in a day : Do n’t you need to outdo your parent or siblings ?
The Activity app already propose achievement for physical fitness finish achieved with the Apple Watch , so gamifying it seems like a instinctive extension of both the wellness feature of the Apple Watch , as well as the often lusterless Game Center .
The (Game) Center will not hold
Apple ’s play service is one of those permeant art object of technologies that sometimes feels like it ’s on aliveness support , only outlast because , well , it belongs to Apple . But it ’s hardly a address that users flock to , and for most the great unwashed it ’s probably most affiliate with the annoying dialog box that seems to down up at random time and prompt them to access .
Neither game nor social have ever peculiarly been Apple ’s strong suits , and while Game Center ’s finish of providing a one - stop - shop for gaming - come to tasks probably helps developer who do n’t desire to reinvent the wheel , it ’s not really a compelling place for mostusersto visit . But close in the fitness aspects might actually give hoi polloi a reason to check into those leaderboards , or to see how their friends and family are doing at fitness labor . Perhaps one could even unite forcefulness with other Apple Watch owners to complete grouping goals — I’ve known a few workplaces that have done walk / measure challenges , and this would surely simplify it .
Were Apple feeling particularly generous , it might even look at open up some of those physical fitness challenges to iPhone owner , too . While the smartphone does n’t have the same degree of sensors and tail information as the Apple Watch , it does at least act as a pedometer , and Fitbit ’s prove that there ’s plenty of stake in simply tracking your steps .
Fit as a fiddle
Apple ’s emphasis on fitness in the Apple Watch has been a vast part of the gimmick ’s substance . There ’s the fact that one of the manakin is called the “ Sport ” or that Tim Cook convey up Christy Turlington Burns to spill about foresightful length running using the Watch . Tim Cook is himself a bit of a fittingness nut , which to my head explains the attention seaworthiness has gotten — the Apple Watch is to Cook as the original iPod was to the previous Steve Jobs : A equipment that personify a personal passionateness . Just as Cook has pushed Apple towards more charity work and improved diversity , he ’s pushing the caller and its client towards better health and fitness .
But it ’s often toilsome to do that alone , and while Apple has n’t always stand out at the social scene of technology , this seems like one place where the company is well positioned to further its drug user — who themselves often feel like they ’re part of a closely - pucker residential district — to shape together towards that vulgar goal , and , moreover , to have play doing it .
