Apple has had a big year of product announcements, one of which was a new subscription service, Apple Fitness+. The fitness service has been in development in the background for a few months, but will finally hit Australia next week.
What is Apple Fitness+?
Apple Fitness+ is a fitness experience designed to integrate with the Apple Watch. It will use live data from a user’s Apple Watch to personalise studio-style workouts into a more immersive experience. Apple Fitness+ will be a new home workout experience built for Apple users with an iPhone, iPad or Apple TV device.
At launch, Apple Fitness+ will have ten workout types, including strength, HIIT, yoga, dance, core, cycling, rowing, treadmill and cooldown. Each workout will be lead by a team of virtual trainers with a large variation in styles and will use music from some of the latest artists (without needing an Apple Music subscription).
The Apple Watch integration is pretty neat and will sync with any live workout to bring up data at crucial times – like when a trainer says to check your heart rate, or after an activity ring closes it will display on the workout screen. There’s also a competitive burn bar within certain workouts that compares the current user to those before them.
Apple Fitness+ workouts will also be customisable, allowing a choice of trainer, time, workout type and music. Plus the recommendation engine will consider a user’s history and past workouts to curate their next selection. There will also be new content on the app each week and workouts can be shared to social media.
How much is Apple Fitness+ in Australia and how can I access it?
Apple Fitness+ will be available in Australia from Tuesday, December 15.
The fitness app is a subscription service (because we need another one), with pricing as follows:
- $14.99 per month or $119.99 per year
- Apple Fitness+ is included in the Apple One Premier plan, which also gives customers access to Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+, and 2TB of iCloud storage for $39.95 per month, and can be shared among up to six family members.
Users can share their Fitness+ subscription with up to six family members and three months are included for anyone who purchases an Apple Watch Series 3 or later. One month is included for existing Apple Watch users.
Compatible devices
The app requires iOS 14.3, watchOS 7.2, iPad OS 14.3 and tvOS 14.3 to be downloaded. Compatible devices include:
- Apple Watch Series 3 or later
- iPhone 6s or later
- iPad Pro
- iPad (5th gen or later)
- iPad mini 4 or later
- iPad Air (3rd gen or later)
- Apple TV and Apple TV HD
The app will be downloadable from the app store on each device and will automatically appear on compatible OS systems for Apple Watch and Apple TV.
While gyms and fitness centres are largely open again following lockdown, this new fitness experience from Apple could be what’s needed to complement our new work from home lifestyles.