What WWDC Tells Us About the Future of Fitness Tech

I was having a chat with Trevor Chong, Trainerize’s Product Director and co-founder this afternoon about his thoughts on WWDC (Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference). His enthusiasm on the possibilities of technology driving the fitness industry forward is contagious, and I always look forward to our annual follow-up chat on what developers like us can do with Apple. I think I look forward to the chat more than the actual WWDC itself!

Even back in 2008 as we were developing a fitness app for the BlackBerry, while I had my latest BlackBerry in hand, I’ll never forget Trevor showing me a music video of Rihanna’s Umbrella on his iPhone 1, which blew my mind away at the time, as he explained to me why we needed to get on the iPhone platform — ASAP.

First, a bit about Trevor, and why his opinion means so much to me

His title says Product Director, but I’m sure all 50 Trainerize peeps would call him our Product Visionary. He seems to connect dots together that nobody else sees, and the end result is always something useful and valuable, that delivers an exceptional experience. Sort of like Apple products… which is why he’s always been so drawn to their products, experiences, and of course, annual keynotes.

So this year, we have plenty of reasons to be excited about the keynote. We’ve started design of our Apple Watch app, and we recently launched both Habit Coaching and Studio Plans, where any club, studio, or gym can get a custom branded iPhone and Watch app in their members’ hands, driving engagement through fitness, nutrition, and habits.

So when I threw a meeting request titled “Apple WWDC Follow-up” into Trevor’s calendar, I’m sure he knew that I had burning questions in my mind! “Trev, what’d you hear yesterday?” and “Tell me what we can build!” And so we chatted, and I’m excited to share with everyone some of the early preliminary thoughts we’re having!

Sleep tracking via Apple Watch

“Everyone sleeps.” — Trevor

The simplicity of Trevor’s insight above is what makes this opportunity so beautiful and exciting! He’s right. Everyone sleeps. If you don’t sleep, you can’t do your habits, you won’t lose weight, and you won’t workout. It’s the most fundamental habit, and the most fundamental behaviour that needs to be reinforced.

With busy lives and high screen time, it seems like more and more people are complaining about difficulty with sleep. Falling asleep, staying asleep, or just overall quality of sleep. Sleep and recovery go hand in hand with exercise. For athletes, sufficient rest and recovery is essential for your body to come back stronger. For the average Joe/Jane, sleep is fundamental to functioning at work, taking care of your family, working towards fitness goals, and maintaining the mental drive for a healthy lifestyle.

In the Trainerize app, six hours of sleep and digital detoxes are some of the most-tracked habits!

With our Habits beta in the Trainerize app, we’ve already integrated with Apple’s HealthKit to surface sleep hours and duration to a trainer or coach. With watchOS 7, clients no longer need to download a separate sleep app. They simply wear their watch at night and the sleep information automatically syncs for their coach to view, for a seamless client experience.

We also envision a future where we build a new generation of sleep coaches, or even publish sleep programs for online personal trainers to grab and assign to their clients.

Sleep coaching and monitoring via an Apple Watch, connected to an online coach via Trainerize, is exciting. This integration would allow fitness coaching to adjust in real time. Watch this space, as this is just our thoughts on Day 1 after WWDC!

Custom Apple Watch faces & multiple complications

Complications are one of the ways you can customize your Apple Watch face. Previously, each app could only have one complication, but now we can have multiple complications per app! Imagine, a habit-based watch face that counts steps and sleep. Or even better, if you’re working on habits and fitness, then the client can get a habit watch face and workout watch face. This really opens up new possibilities as the online trainer or digital club can own the watch interface for their clients and members. The same way Nike has the Nike Watch experience with the fitness band and custom watch face, a fitness business on Trainerize will be able to build brand loyalty by surfacing their brand elements and widgets with their custom Apple Watch app! They can publish their own custom watch faces to the clients.

I know for me personally, I’d probably love an overall wellness face on my Apple Watch that focuses on my steps, water intake, and sleep. And I know for Trevor, who’s more of the athletic type, he’d probably want a face that focuses on calories and macros. Maybe I should compete with him this week, as glancing down at my watch right now, it looks like he’s at 1/320 calories for the day (Although it’s 11:30 PM and he’s probably sleeping…)

Ultimately, this feature alone can be a massive driver of engagement, as it allows us to really think about what we’re trying to solve, and then drive it from the engagement angle through a watch face. Who knows, maybe with Siri’s AI capabilities down the road, we could maybe even have custom watch faces dynamically change throughout the day, telling us exactly what our coaches want us to do, as we simply live our day! Ohh the possibilities…

New App Clips for immediate app access

Gym operators, this one should excite you as much as it’s exciting us! One word: discoverability. With App Clips, easier digital offering sign-ups are here. iOS users also gain the ability to get that “instant app” experience by scanning an App Clip code.

This feature is exciting because it really allows us to connect the brick and mortar club experience to the world of online training. First thought here is to allow a club to make a QR code into a sticker on the front desk. This would allow members to scan and download the club fitness app and instantly start interacting! To start, perhaps a lite version of programs within the app, and then later a more personalized set of programs that are perhaps on a paid digital subscription!

And don’t forget the custom watch faces that get downloaded to the member’s Apple Watch based on the programs they’ve purchased!

This really could define the building blocks of what e-commerce looks like from inside a club.

I know our e-commerce team is already thinking about how to design funnels with this scenario in mind, and considering integrations for other backend club systems such as ABC Financial, Exerp, and ZenPlanner.

So this simple concept of App Clips has potential. A lot of potential around e-commerce, specifically. Only Trevor would connect a dot like this, where a sticker is the start of so much magic.

Sticker at front desk to sell with funnels:

➡️ Members scan sticker

➡️ Specific programs with specific watch faces download to member device

➡️ Member iPhone & Watch have custom program and custom watch face.

Widgets offer higher, quicker client engagement

We’re hearing the “Android had this forever” response from WWDC watchers on social media, but not at Trainerize HQ! Over here, we’re hearing “How can we solve use cases for the Personal Trainer?” and “How can we design the ideal widget for the client to motivate them to move?”. Initial thoughts here are leading us to perhaps surface upcoming appointments for the trainer and surfacing tasks for clients, such as a workout, a habit to complete, or a meal to track. We aren’t fully sure what this can look like just yet, but after one day, we’re already excited for the ability to drive stronger engagement between a trainer and a client, and rely less on our app having to be opened up.

These initial thoughts are just a glimpse into some of what Trevor shared with me and the Trainerize team at a company stand-up meeting. The exciting part is that I can see the buzz around the R&D teams already, as they collaborate and build on the possibilities with a “Yes, and” mindset. Watch this space, as we’re planning on going all in on Apple Watch as the wearable of choice to connect people and personal trainers around the world.