In December 2020, Apple officially launched its Fitness service, Apple Fitness+. After years in the health space, Apple's move is a natural one. Relying on its complete hardware and software ecology, Apple Fitness+ brings a different user experience from other competing products on the market around Apple Watch.
After joining the Apple One Premier package, I was able to use Apple Fitness+ without any problems. After more than a month of experience, I would like to talk with you about this new service launched by Apple, including how to start, course design and user experience, etc., hoping to provide a reference for interested sports fans.
How do I turn on Apple Fitness+?
Step 1: Own an Apple Watch. According to the official website, Apple Fitness+ can only be activated through Apple Watch Series 3 or newer Apple Watch devices.
If you haven't used an Apple Watch at all, you won't be able to use Apple Fitness+ directly, as the entry point to the service is set up in the Fitness app, which can only be activated once you've tied the Apple Watch. So, if you don't own an Apple Watch and want to try Apple Fitness+, you'll have to borrow someone else's Apple Watch and bind it to your phone once to activate the Fitness app before you can use it.
Not only that, for there is no Apple Watch but have enabled Apple Fitness + service users, if you want to change a new iPhone, it must restore the backup of the old equipment, after the new activation cannot be set as the new equipment from scratch, otherwise the application of new equipment is still not "Fitness", need to repeat the activation of the above steps to continue to use the Apple Fitness +.
However, Apple Fitness+ can be used without an Apple Watch, but I highly recommend you try it with an Apple Watch, as it's hard to feel the appeal of the service without one.
Currently, Apple Fitness+ supports a 1-month free trial; If you purchased an Apple Watch Series 3 or later after September 15 of last year, you can get up to three months of Apple Fitness+ trial; If like me, you've signed up for Apple One's Premier package, Apple Fitness+ is already included.
Step 2: Log into your iCloud account. Since Apple Fitness+ is only available in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK, and the US, you'll need an Apple ID from one of those countries and log in to an iCloud account, not an App Store account.
Step 3: Activate Apple Fitness+. If you have confirmed that you are logged into an Outer Zone iCloud account that is tied to an Apple Fitness+ subscription, you can activate the Apple Fitness+ service by opening the Health App. If you open the Fitness App and click on the Apple Fitness+ TAB and find an error, don't worry, just reboot your iPhone.
Curriculum design
Online fitness courses themselves are not a new thing, whether it is Keep, Nike Training Club, Adidas Training by Runtastic or YouTube, Bilibili, and other video websites, all contain various forms of fitness courses. So, what are the characteristics of the course design of Apple Fitness+? I think it's both personal and professional.
When I experienced some courses on health APPs or video websites, I found that I could only passively accept the courses arranged by the APPs or video producers, instead of being able to choose the courses suitable for me according to my own needs. However, Apple Fitness+ is different. It allows me to select my favorite courses based on trainers, time, type of sports, type of music, and other conditions, which fully meet my personalized needs.
Also, Apple Fitness + and an intelligent recommendation system, can according to I completed before Fitness + courses, Apple Apple on Watch other sports, and health App integration of third party information such as Fitness App, to recommend the next course, can help me to better enjoy the course or the discovery of new types of the same type, to complete the moving targets of the day.
Based on individuation, the course design of Apple Fitness+ is also professional. As the core of the course, I felt the passion, infectivity, and professionalism of the coaching team at Apple Fitness+. I used to like to follow the training course on KEEP, but the coach didn't say anything, and the voice commentary was also very mechanically synthesized, which felt strange.
The coaches of Apple Fitness+, based on ensuring regular movements and scientific courses, are also very passionate and infectious. They will encourage me to exercise with their own words and bodies. Participating in the course of Apple Fitness+ is just like taking part in the "exercise class". The coaches seem to be in front of me, so I can't help following them, and I am willing to stick to it no matter how hard it is.
In the coaching team of Apple Fitness+, I even saw old granny and disabled people. Seeing their physical posture, I often wondered why I should not exercise well.
Experience with
If Apple Fitness+ puts its heart into creating classes that other companies have put their efforts into and are still able to match, Apple Fitness+ 's unique experience is its biggest moat. As I said earlier, the Apple Fitness+ experience builds on the Apple Watch. When I put on the Apple Watch, selected the course from Apple Fitness+, and started, the linkage between Apple Watch and Apple Fitness+ began.
On the Apple Watch, the dial displays my current selection of Apple Fitness+ classes, exercise time, heart rate, dynamic calories, total calories, and more in real-time.
On Apple Fitness+, the exercise time, heart rate, dynamic calories, Fitness recording ring, etc. on Apple Watch will be displayed simultaneously on the upper left and right corner of the interface, which enables me to master my physical condition in real-time during exercise.
In addition to syncing directly with exercise information on the Apple Watch, Apple Fitness+ has put a little extra thought into the data it displays. First, Apple Fitness+ added a real-time ranking feature to Dynamic Calories, which compared how many calories I burned with other exercisers, and then displayed my ranking in a progress bar that encouraged me not to slow down and catch up.
Secondly, Apple Fitness+ adds a dynamic element to the Fitness log ring. Like "May the Force Be With You" in Star Wars, Apple Fitness+ has the same brainwashing phrase:
Close your rings.
In each class, the trainer would say this phrase repeatedly, which means that you are expected to achieve your exercise goal for the day through the Apple Fitness+ class. As the Apple Fitness+ class progressed, the Fitness log loop updated progress in real-time and exploded with fireworks when I reached my self-set goals.
Finally, I have to mention the beauty of Apple Music in Apple Fitness+. In Apple Fitness+, Apple Music is not just a library of background music, but a coach will carefully select songs suitable for each course content to help me better feel the rhythm of my body. During the class, the coach would be very excited when he heard his favorite song and invited me to the other side of the screen to move with the rhythm of the music.
In the most recent iOS 14.4 update, Apple Fitness+ added a Time to Walk module that allowed me to listen to inspirational stories from the likes of Shawn Mendes, Uzo Aduba, Draymond Green, Dolly Parton, and others from the entertainment and sports world while I walked. In the meantime, I've been able to listen to songs hand-picked by the big names during Time to Walk training sessions and jump to Apple Music to save or share playlists.
Afterword.
In general, I am very satisfied with the course design and use experience of Apple Fitness+, from which I can not only get professional coaching guidance but also get full fun from endless new courses, abundant Apple Music Music Library, and real-time synchronous human-computer interaction. If I had to pick out a few shortcomings, the first is that the subtitles are not supported in Chinese (after all, they haven't been released in Asian countries yet), and the second is the inability to project the picture to the TV 1.
Considering I have adventures in the Fitness ring on the Switch if, in combination with the Fitness Apple + service, I even consider next year is no longer a renewal gym membership because the two basic it alone can cover their Fitness needs, both have saved a large number of membership fees, and to revoke the gym time back and forth, back and forth what is there against it.
