Apple has just announced Fitness+, a kind of Netflix for exercise videos that also monitors your personal metrics. Peloton is probably sweating, and not in a good way.
Revealed at today’s Apple event, Fitness+ lets you watch workouts on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV while your Apple Watch records your heart rate and calories burned. These metrics will be displayed up on your screen in real time, though you can turn them off if you want to enjoy your workout without fretting about analytics. Fitness+ will also display Apple’s familiar Activity rings, complete with fireworks animation when you close one.
As tech commentator Marques Brownlee noted, Peloton’s stock noticeably dropped at Apple’s announcement.
Wow Apple Fitness+ might be the biggest disrupter to come to fitness in a while. $9.99 a month with most of the popular work outs. Are services like Peloton and Beachbody in trouble? #AppleEvent pic.twitter.com/gD2brvho3s
— Danny Winget (@superscientific) September 15, 2020
Fitness+ will have 10 types of workouts to choose from: Treadmill Walk, HIIT, Treadmill Run, Rowing, Dance, Cycling, Yoga, Core, Strength, and Mindful Cooldown. Videos will vary in length from five to 45 minutes with new workouts added weekly, recorded by a team of fitness trainers selected by Apple.
You can choose whichever workout you want, but the service will also suggest trainers and workouts based on how you use Apple Watch’s Workout app. If you’re completely new to exercise, Fitness+ will have an Absolute Beginner program to help you get started.
The service works with Apple Music as well, with playlists curated by the trainers specifically for their workouts. This lets you pick a workout according to what you feel like listening to, and also save the music to listen to later.
There’s also a competitive element to Fitness+, in case you need that bit of extra motivation to feel the burn. Displayed onscreen, the optional Burn Bar shows you how you’re doing compared to other people who have done the same workout. It’s the virtual equivalent of silently picking out an unwitting rival in your spin class.
Friendly competition is in our DNA. Welcome to the world of digital fitness, @Apple.
— Peloton (@onepeloton) September 15, 2020
You’ll need an Apple Watch Series 3 or later in order to use Fitness+, and it won’t work with an iPhone older than the 6s. The latest OS is also required, but you should be keeping your OS updated anyway.
Fitness+ arrives in late 2020 and will set you back $9.99 per month, or $79.99 for an annual subscription. Apple Watch owners will get a one-month free trial, or three months if they buy a new Watch.