The idea of creating a fitness application that is a part of the top trends in fitness is a great one. Why? Healthy lifestyles have been a popular trend for a long time and are set to continue growing in popularity. Fitness is becoming more popular as people are choosing wellness. Businesses also consider the best way to create a fitness application that stands out. In the first and second quarters of 2020, more than 1 billion users downloaded fitness applications. The Mobile market is supporting the trend towards healthy living by offering solutions for all situations. Custom Fitness app development offers new opportunities in the healthcare sector.
Artoon Solutions will focus on fitness app development, highlight important points about modern fitness tracking solutions, and list its must-haves. Also, you will learn how to create a social network for a fitness app we developed to combine multiple fitness experiences.
Choose Fitness Application Category
Three main types of fitness apps exist today. Fitness app developers may combine different features and types to attract users. However, in general, all applications can be classified into one of three categories. Their differences will be evident in how they store and process data. We will also tell you below about the subcategories for each type of fitness application development.
Sports Activity Tracking App
These apps are popular because they appeal to a large audience. Fitness tracking app development is available to everyone, whether or not they visit the gym. Users can ensure they are getting enough exercise in their daily lives.
These applications are often paired with sensors or wearables to monitor all physical activity. The devices rely on GPS to share data about walking distances, running speeds, and other activities. This is the main purpose of fitness tracker apps.
Fitness apps are popular with US citizens. 15% of them run or jog.
Sleep tracking is a very popular tool that can be included in a fitness-tracking app. This feature measures the quality of the user’s sleep and awakens them during the right sleep phase to make it easier for people to wake up.
Some sports applications have a unique mix of features that make their projects stand out. Strava is an example of a successful social media and tracking solution for athletes. Users can motivate one another by sharing their achievements. When you are thinking about how to make an app for fitness successful, consider these possibilities.
The tracking activity application has several subcategories:
- Running apps can analyze routes, distinguish between activities like running and walking, send safety alerts, and provide coaching. Pacer and Runcoach are two examples of these apps.
- Users of cycling trackers like Strava, MyWindsock, and Komoot can record or create routes, as well as get information on free roads.
- Fit Notes and Strong, two apps that track workouts, help users to analyze their progress. Apps collect data from sensors, GPS, wearables, and timers.
- Yoga trackers can be used to analyze your progress by tracking goals achieved, training sessions completed, and much more. Glo, Track Yoga, and Asana Rebel are popular fitness app developers.
Nutritional Fitness Apps
Diet apps help with meal planning, calorie counting, checking water balance, coffee consumption, and other features to help you lose weight or follow a healthy diet. Fitness apps of this kind can include features from activity tracking apps. However, diet apps need to have specific functionality that analyzes dietary factors.
These apps are designed to help people set and achieve weight loss goals or improve their diet. Diet apps can also include shopping lists and recipes, which will help users make better decisions at the supermarket.
It is also a good idea to incorporate gamification into the process of creating a fitness application.
There are two major subcategories for nutritional apps, even though they share similar ideas.
- Apps that help build muscle combine targeted exercises with special nutrition to maximize the user’s focus on building muscles. MyFitnessPal and Dr. Apps like Muscle and MyFitnessPal are popular examples.
- Weight-loss apps can help users track calories, including how many they consume or burn. They also collect recipes and shopping lists that are healthy and balanced. Apps like 8fit and My Net Diary, for example, are popular apps to lose weight.
Workout Fitness Apps
Users who are searching for workout apps, plans, or guides will need them. A fitness app that includes audio and video instructions is a good idea. This will allow consumers to see the exercises and complete them with ease. They can also keep track of their sports routine. When we think about fitness app development, the first thing that comes to our mind is workout or exercise apps. This solution has been very popular with users.
When users connect these apps with sports wearables they become custom solutions that give recommendations based on collected data. This helps them reach their desired goals. These apps are personal trainers users can carry anywhere and use whenever they want.
Let’s take a look at Sworkit, a great example of implementing a fitness application for workouts. Users can choose which body part they want to work out first. Users can choose from a variety of options, including exercises for the upper body, lower body, core strength, and full body. They can also select “Anything Goes” to create a random mixture.
There are also several subcategories of workout apps:
- Apps that help with workout planning can be used to track progress and set goals. You can see how My Workout Plan allows athletes to create customized workouts and manage their gym routines.
- Users can achieve their fitness goals using personalized training, guides, videos, or exercise apps. These apps usually provide AI-based nutrition and workout recommendations based on user information such as age, weight and height, fitness goals, and more. Freeletics, Fitbit Coach, and other fitness apps are excellent examples.
- Apps that combine yoga and gym provide a customized workout. Alo Moves is a great example of this type of application.
- Apps that offer personal training on demand allow users to work with sports professionals one-on-one. Coaches create personalized exercise programs based on parameters such as users’ health, physical strength, and other factors. This helps consumers achieve their goals. MyKanthaka, for example, allows users to choose an instructor as well as their training schedules to reach their sporting goals.
Choose the fitness app category you prefer from this list before developing your own. Mobile fitness app developers often combine features of different applications to come up with innovative ideas.
The Key Issues To Consider When Developing a Functional Fitness App
In 2020, the global fitness application market is expected to grow by 21.8%.
There are two opposing directions in the development of fitness apps: Specification and unification. The first focuses on small mobile markets, focusing on loyalty and details. Mobile yoga classes (Daily Yoga), fitness apps for children (Sworkit Kids), cardio exercise solutions (Daily Cardio Workout), outdoor workout applications (Runtastic), and more. Unification occurs when you combine different fitness apps into one project to meet the needs of clients.
Wearables are also a trend in sports, so app developers use them to develop fitness apps. The market for small, handy devices is growing. Wearable software brought in six times as much revenue over the last few years. This makes it a promising investment.
Nike Training Club is another example of a popular fitness app.
Basic Fitness App Features
Most health and fitness applications are limited in their functionality. To meet their needs, users need to download additional apps – fitness, activity tracking, and nutrition. If developers want to build a fitness application that offers clients all the information they need, functional health solutions are a lifesaver.
The basic functional scope when developing adaptive fitness applications includes:
1. Profile and Personalization
Fitness app developers must include features like profile information and customization options. Personal data, user preferences, and personalized settings enhance the user experience.
You need to integrate a payment system if you plan to build a fitness application with subscriptions and on-demand content. The billing information of the users must also be stored in their profiles.
It is a great idea to offer clients the option to register via social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
2. Reminders and Push Notifications
Apps for the development of sports competitions are reliant on push notifications. You will see many notifications when you think about how to create a fitness application. These include the right time for a workout or meal. Reminders can also help users know when to stop or switch to another activity. You can create a fitness application that sends notifications to wearables, as the Shock app does.
When thinking of how to make an app for fitness easy to use, it is important to allow users to choose their reminder frequency.
3. Goal Setting
Motivating people to live a healthy life is important. Creating landmarks can help them define their path toward desired results.
4. Calorie control and healthy eating
It is important to have a good nutrition plan, just as it is important to develop a cool fitness app. Healthy eating features include calorie counters or calculators as well as eating programs, suggested recipes, food checkers, and more.
Exercises and workouts will have less effect if a person has an unhealthy diet. When you develop a fitness application, you can include tools that give users lists of foods to avoid or eat. These grocery lists are tailored to the user’s tastes and goals.
8fit, a popular fitness app that includes shopping lists and diet plans, is an example.
5. Workout Plan
Users need workout programs created by professionals, whether you are creating a fitness application for tracking or specifically for workouts. This feature allows users to choose between different levels of difficulty or activities. Workout programs are usually based on the user’s goals and current progress.
6. Journal Record
It is essential to track your progress towards your goal. Using pictures or stats, you can create a sports journal application.
7. Wearables Support
Wearable support for Android or iOS fitness tracker apps is important, as it increases the level of engagement. Apple Watch workout tracker apps allow customers to interact more quickly with the app in inconvenient situations.
When creating a fitness application, you should also consider how to connect it to devices like TVs so that users can follow workouts downloaded on a large screen.
Yoga Studio, for example, is an excellent use case that shows how you can create a fitness application that syncs easily with a TV via Chromecast, AirPlay, or Apple TV.
8. Payment Gateway
When deciding how to create a fitness application, it is important to consider payment solutions. This will increase the app’s profit because clients can order premium services or make in-built payments, subscribe to a service, and more.
Additional Features for a Fitness App That Will Stand Out
How can you make your fitness app stand out? The first thing that comes to my mind is to add extra features to your app. It is important to analyze your audience and make surveys to decide how you can make a fitness application more engaging.
When developing a fitness application, consider some advanced features that can increase the interest of your audience. Continue reading below.
1. Various Social Media Features
To develop a fitness app, it is important to create an engaging user interface. Incorporating social sharing features into your fitness app could be an excellent way to keep users motivated. Strava, for example, became popular because it created a fitness app that would be a social media platform for athletes themselves.
It is also important to implement tools that allow users to share results or other data via Twitter, Facebook, and other popular social media.
2. Education Content Features
If you want to create a fitness app that is both educational and encouraging, you could provide video or audio tutorials on exercise, tips for a healthy lifestyle, or positive thinking. When creating a fitness app, it is popular to teach users the basics of diet.
Here are some tips on educational elements:
Connect tutorials and other materials with the achievements of users in your fitness app to create an educational tool.
Use blogs, videos, audio, or images to provide consumers with a variety of bite-sized tips.
Create fitness app teaching materials according to your audience.
3. Gamification
Developers can create a fitness game to motivate the audience. This will become a regular part of consumers’ daily lives. This feature may include competitions or rewards for reaching goals. It could also include status badges and other motivating tools.
4. Symbiosis with Other Apps
This element is often overlooked by fitness app developers, but that doesn’t mean it is any less valuable. This symbiosis allows users to see their progress across multiple health, fitness, and wellness apps. Create a fitness application that integrates data from the devices and applications that your customers use.
This customization was the core of the RockMyRun app, which offers clients playlists that adjust music automatically based on workout intensity. This solution is a great example of how to engage users in a fitness application. It integrates with Strava and Nike+ as well as Apple Health.
These features may be the main reason users create a profile for your fitness app and make it a regular part of their daily routine. It is important to balance the essential features with those that are optional when developing a fitness application.
Main Monetization Strategies to Make Your Fitness Project Successful
The business owner must apply a monetization plan to convert simple applications for tracking workouts into commercially successful projects. The basic models that have proven successful on the market today include paid apps, in-app purchases, freemium subscriptions, ads, and sponsored content.
1. Paying Apps
It is easy to use a paid app model – the user pays before they can use your product. The price of the fitness app is determined by the type of the app, its features, the mobile platforms it supports, the content, etc. Customers are attracted by the fact that they can use it for free forever after purchasing.
2. In-app purchases
In-built purchases are another popular strategy for monetization. This is useful when a business wants to attract customers by offering a free version and making vicariously a profit. In-app purchases can range from buying large items such as professionally designed healthy lifestyle programs to small items like meal recipes or equipment.
3. Freemium
The freemium model is good for covering a wide range of audiences, as it provides solutions to both modest and sophisticated sports enthusiasts. Free downloadable applications usually have basic functionality suitable for beginners. Features that are more advanced (such as a personal coach, workouts and nutrition tailored to your needs, etc.) Only premium accounts are available.
4. Subscribe to our Newsletter
The subscription model is very similar to the one described above, but there are some slight differences. This strategy is different from fitness apps that do not require subscriptions. It involves annual payments. Customers who can only afford to pay part of the amount at once may choose a subscription instead.
5. Advertisements
Ads are the most common monetization method since they allow you to attract clients while also collaborating with other agencies. Business runners can offer fitness software as a free product while integrating partner companies’ ads into the project. They will receive money if there are clicks or conversions.
6. Sponsored content
Sponsored content strategy is close to ads, though it is more partnership-oriented. Business owners sign contracts with gyms, nutritionists, or coaches who will distribute exclusive content to users. This model is not only useful for establishing new partnerships but also for creating new activities.
All the models above have advantages and disadvantages. The business manager will decide which strategy is best to use for fitness app development.
Fitness Social Network App Development Experience
Theoretically, knowing all the development processes may not be sufficient. It is usually more interesting to learn about the creation of a project. We will now focus on this.
When Did Solid Fit Start?
Mobile fitness apps are usually divided into three distinct categories: exercise or workout programs, activity tracking, and diet planning. The functional scope of a fitness application is limited because each category has its target audience and a specific aim.
Our client wanted to expand the market by expanding features and increasing the audience. He came up with the idea to combine three fitness applications into one custom fitness solution. Solid Fit was to be a social fitness network that provided users with nutrition plans, nutrition programs, and exercise programs created by nutritionists and dieticians.
The Challenges of Overcoming
Our primary goal was to create a fitness application with a new fitness-oriented ecosystem that would satisfy the needs of customers and provide efficient functionality. Our developers were looking to develop a fitness application that would include features such as online specialists, planners, and progress-tracking services. The interface had to be intuitive and easy to customize.
Applied Solutions
Digital landscapes are crowded with apps that create high competition, so it is important for business owners to carefully consider the functional scope of their platform. We implemented solutions that were carefully designed to make users feel satisfied and attract them.
1. High-Level Customization
Our application is user-friendly and has a manageable design, as it combines multiple objectives. Clients define priorities, based on what they want to achieve. Individual eating and workout plans can be created. All data is saved within the app, so the customer can access it whenever they want and make changes to the settings.
2. Easy Communication
Users can communicate easily with each other or subscribe to their favorite gyms, nutritionists, coaches, or trainers within our fitness social networking solution. Direct interaction between client and specialist improves the efficiency of fitness plans due to an individual approach. If a client does not wish to speak to experts directly, many ready-made solutions can be tailored to their needs.
3. Goals Tracking
We had to develop a fitness application that would help create daily and monthly sports loads (repetitions, sets, frequencies, etc. ), calculate meals and calories, track progress, and reach goals.
4. Photo Reports
Our fitness app developers realized that photos are the best way to show your progress. They have integrated this into their functional scope. Users can create or download photos to compare and observe their results.
5. Progress Statistics
Statistical data can be equally motivating as photos. It helps visualize progress and makes the tracking process easier and more enjoyable. Photos and statistics can be used together to highlight current results.
6. Track your daily activities
This is a great example of a fitness application that can help you control everyday activities such as sleeping, eating, and drinking. This app becomes a fitness diary, tracking the user’s water consumption, calories consumed, and sleep schedule based on set goals.
7. Smart Eating
Our project is a fitness tracker and calorie counter app. It’s responsible for creating healthy meals. It has the same visual representations of food and ingredients as other nutrition or dieting programs. The meals recommendation engine provides users with recipes and the best ingredients to cook healthy dishes. It can also be customized by adding meals and/or ingredients that will be used in the final menu calculation and stored with the original meal set.
8. In-Built Payments
Integration of a payment gateway is helpful for customers to make a deal and receive services from their preferred expert/organization without any hesitation.
9. Recommendations
It provides customers with ready-made suggestions when creating a meal plan, modifying goals, or selecting an activity. The information is usually sorted chronologically to make it easier for users to navigate through the suggested options.
10. Reminders and Notifications
Our team planned carefully how to create a notification system for fitness apps that will help customers stay engaged and complete workout plans on time. Our developers also implemented a feature that keeps users motivated about their next workout or delicious meal.
11. Results Storage and Share
This fitness app allows customers to improve their results by using videos, photos, and other media. To illustrate their results, they can save or create media reports. Media reports can also be used to develop fitness apps, as coaches can observe and analyze the results of training sessions. They can then adjust the activities accordingly.
Technologies and Development Team
The development of a new fitness social network app required the application of several technologies. Firebase, React, and Redux were the core components. Rest API and Algolia were also included. The stack we implemented enabled us to build a fitness application that was compatible with both Android and iOS platforms.
Three team members were involved in the development of the fitness app: two developers and a project manager to manage the workflow.
You can see that a custom software application has many benefits for your business. It will improve user engagement, provide personalization, and make it easier to access workout/nutrition material. Before you decide to jump into the creation process choose a software development partner who can bring your idea to life.
Explore the Field on Your Own!
Understanding the market, and the basic principles behind functional fitness app development are the first steps to becoming a successful member of the fitness industry. Do not hesitate to consider our experience! Your unique fitness app idea can be a niche-setter! Contact us now to build a fitness application that will go viral together.
