Smartwatch Fitness Tracker App Development: Key Features and Costs
The secret to a happy life is a healthy life. Most of you might already be acquainted with the phrase, “Health is wealth”. This is why, today’s generation takes their health and fitness very seriously. Today, people are generally more aware of different facts and information regarding their health and they possess the knowledge of what they have to do in order to improve their fitness.
This trend has not only been spotted by the digital world, but these tech companies have also played a major role in making people more inclined to keep track of their fitness. Yes. This is indeed a buzzing market and with the introduction of smart wearables such as smartwatches, the fitness app industry has been widened up further.
Now people can receive and track all the necessary details of their health and fitness. From reading your heartbeat to measuring your body temperature, from tracking how many steps you walked to calculating how many calories you burned – these smartwatch fitness tracker apps have brought everything within your fingertips – or should we say your wrists?
Innovation is the way forward, and if you have an innovative idea that can bring a boom in the world of smartwatch fitness apps, then why wait? You can now take your ideas to an efficient and experienced mobile app development company, such as Strivemindz who can shape your ideas into reality. Still, having doubts regarding the process and costs? Let us guide you through the features and costs of developing fitness tracker apps.
Types of Smartwatch Fitness Tracker Apps Based on Compatibility
Smartwatch fitness tracker apps majorly come in two different variants: stand-alone apps, and companion apps.
Stand-alone apps
The stand-alone smartwatch fitness tracker apps are installed in your smartwatch and do not need a mobile application to function. These apps are self-sufficient and run on WiFi. With just a few taps on your smartwatch, you can access and use these apps, which make them much more convenient and quick.
Companion apps
The second type of smartwatch fitness tracker app is the companion app. These basically refer to those applications which can be paired with a mobile device. These apps have a companion mobile app that helps pair the smartwatch with your smartphone and provides more use cases for the users. These type of applications involve continuous data sharing between the smartwatch app and the companion mobile app, and thus the security needs to be more tight and sound for the companion apps.
Types of Smartwatch Fitness Tracker Apps Based on Installation
The smartwatch fitness tracker apps can be installed in your smartwatch through two possible mode –
- Installed from an app store for wearable apps
- Installed from a smartphone
- Installation not required
Installed from an app store for wearable apps
Some of the fitness tracker apps for smartwatches can be installed directly from a wearables App Store. Usually the apps which can be installed from the wearables app store happen to be stand-alone apps and do not require pairing with your mobile device.
Installed from a smartphone
Some smartwatch fitness tracker apps can be installed from the smartphone or mobile devices. These apps can be found in the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. Usually, the smartwatch fitness tracker apps that are installed through a phone are companion apps. A companion smartphone app follows these smartwatch apps and they usually connect with each other via Bluetooth, or sometimes even via a common WiFi.
Installation not required
Some smartwatch fitness tracker apps do not need any installation in the smartwatch. They are installed in the smartphone instead and from the smartphone these apps can be paired or synced with the smartwatch. These apps pair with the smartwatch and help users track their fitness and activities easily, and along with they also usually send push notifications and reminders to the smartwatch which helps users remember and track their activities and fitness goals.
Features Offered in Smartwatch Fitness Tracker Apps
The smartwatch fitness tracker applications have captured the interest of the generation Z and the millennials because of the unique and useful features that can be accessed through these apps quite easily. So which features should these smartwatch fitness tracker apps have? Here is the list –
- Sign up and log in
- User profile
- Step counting
- Exercise monitoring
- Sleep monitoring
- Heartbeat/heart rate tracking
- Body temperature measurement
- Blood pressure measurement
- Music
- Voice commands
- Goals and gamification
- Synchronization with social media
- Synchronization with phone and mobile devices
- Settings
- Push notifications and reminders
- Payment modules
Sign up and log in
The first and foremost feature that the smartwatch fitness tracker apps offer, or should offer is the signup and log-in features. These apps can offer users to sign up using their social media handles or contact addresses such as email IDs or phone numbers. Plenty of social media accounts can be used for signing up, which include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and so on. Signing up can help users to keep hold and access to their accounts and on top of that this feature also helps users to prevent any loss of data while they are switching devices.
User profile
Post signing up, the next feature that the fitness tracker apps can offer is to help users set up unique user profiles. Creating user profiles would be specifically helpful and easy if you have a companion smartphone application. The user profile can include factual information about the user such as their name, age, gender, height, weight and so on. This feature will also help users to keep a record of all their exercise history, completed workout goals, subscription plans and so on.
Steps tracking
One of the most basic features that smartwatch fitness tracker apps offer is that of counting how many steps you walked and how much distance you covered. If you do not get much time to follow specific workout routines, you do not need to worry. Walking will help you enough to keep your fitness at a desirable level. Your smartwatch fitness tracker apps can help you track your steps and also estimate how many calories you burn during the process.
Exercise monitoring
Yes, walking is good but there is no alternative to working out when it comes to maintaining the maximum level of fitness and staying healthy. And what would a fitness tracking app be if it does not help you monitor your workout regime? An integral feature of smartwatch fitness apps should be exercise monitoring which would allow users to add training sessions, follow a strict workout routine, and even customise workout sessions as per their needs if possible.
Sleep monitoring
If you are healthy, it will be reflected in how sound your sleep is. Smartwatch fitness apps can help you monitor your sleep and your movements during your sleep. The sleep monitoring feature allows the users to understand their sleeping patterns and even modify their diet, activities, or exercise to get a sound and peaceful sleep.
Heartbeat/heart rate monitoring
Fitness and health goes beyond exercise and training. Your heartbeat also reveals quite a lot about your health. The heart rate monitors are implemented into the wristbands of your smartwatches. The fitness tracking app can use these monitors and give the users an idea regarding how healthy they are judged on their heart rate. Some users who may be addicted to certain things such as caffeine or alcohol may have a higher heart rate. Other factors for a high heart rate may include dehydration, lack of activities, stress and so on. Monitoring their heart rates can help users to eventually find out what is causing them the high heart rate and they can change their habit to lead a healthy lifestyle.
Body temperature measurement
The wristband of smartwatches may also have thermal sensors. The fitness tracking apps can use these sensors and measure the body temperature of the person wearing the smartwatch. This temperature measurement feature can help users identify if their body temperature is higher or lower than the normal body temperature. If and when users find that their body temperature is not within the normal range, they can then take further useful measures to find out the cause and bring their temperature back to normal.
Blood pressure measurement
With the help of a cuff-type blood pressure monitor, smartwatch fitness tracker apps can measure the blood pressure of their users. While these measures are not always cent per cent accurate, they still give a close idea of what the actual blood pressure of the users can be. This is in fact a unique feature that is not offered by every smartwatch fitness tracker app. It must be mentioned that the developers should be extremely cautious if they are adding this feature and it must be made sure that the readings are close to accurate and users are informed that they should always take these measurements to their doctors first before taking any step.
Music
How many of us like to listen to music while we are working out or going for a morning walk? The smartwatch fitness apps should include a feature that allows users to play their favourite tunes while they are exercising. This helps users ease down and be comfortable during the training which adds extra health benefits for them.
Voice commands
Developers should always try to make their applications easy to use and easily accessible. Thus, adding voice commands helps the users of the fitness apps to gain access easily. Tapping on your screen to perform your desired action is now slowly becoming a thing of the past as voice commands is making it even easier for users to give instructions or perform their desired activities. It can also help users who may suffer from visual impairment as they can just speak to give commands and the app will do its job.
Goals And Gamification
Another useful feature of the smartwatch fitness tracker apps includes goals and gamification. Users can set personal fitness and training goals in these apps or perform fun activities to gain points or bonuses that can make them more interested in exercising and using these apps. This results in both user satisfaction and user retention for these fitness apps.
Synchronisation With Social Media
Just like users can link their social media accounts with these fitness apps during sign in, the synchronisation with social media can go even further. These apps can have a feature that allows users to post their progress and training goals online. Nothing makes the new generation more excited than having a little opportunity to show off, and this is exactly why this feature makes fitness apps more exciting and captivating.
Synchronization With Phone And other Mobile Devices
Smartwatch apps can be accessed from your Android or iOS devices. For that, the apps need to have this particular feature which allows the smartwatch to synchronise with smartphones or other mobile devices such as tablets. Typically, this feature is included in companion apps. Operating systems such as watchOS and Wear OS have made this feature possible. For data sharing, tools such as the GoogleFit APIs can be used.
Settings
The settings is the feature that determines the appearance and functioning of your app. Adding a feature to adjust the settings of their smartwatch fitness tracker apps will help your users customise their user experience like they want. Other than app settings, a feature to update the profile settings can also be added where users can change their contact information or password or even delete their account.
Push Notifications And Reminders
The smartwatch fitness tracker apps should be able to send push notifications and reminders to the screens of the smartwatches or smartphones. This will help your users remember their activity schedules, workout routines or maybe even their sleep cycle. As a developer, you can also allow users to customise the timing of receiving these notifications or mute / turn off these notifications for a specific period.
Payment Modules
If you want to add certain paid features to your app, then you must have a payment module installed that allows users to pay and purchase these premium services. Having a payment gateway such as Google Pay is extremely helpful for your app to keep making money.
How to Monetise Your Smartwatch Fitness Tracker App?
Just developing an application is not enough. Yes it might be very engaging and interesting for your users but is it able to make money? If not then how are you going to grow your business through your app? You can try different monetizing strategies for your fitness tracker app that will keep your revenue stream intact.
- Paid features and subscriptions
- In-app advertisements
- In-app purchases (other than subscriptions)
- Other commissions through collaboration
How Much Will It Cost to Develop a Smart Fitness Tracker App in 2022?
Developing a top-quality app is not easy, and it is especially tricky when it comes to smartwatch fitness tracker apps. You need to hire a dedicated team of developers who possess enough skills and experience in wearables app development solutions. One such brand would be Strivemindz which holds a reputed team of experienced and skilled developers who can bring your idea to reality.
Coming to the cost of your project, it is not possible to quote a fixed amount before the company has heard your pitch. Strivemindz application development solutions are one of the most cost-effective ones that you can opt for.
For your smartwatch fitness tracker app development project, you would need a team that includes –
- A Project Manager
- UI / UX Designers
- Android and iOS Developers
- Back-end Developers
- Quality Assurance Manager.
Tech Stack Required to Build a Smartwatch Fitness Tracker App
There are multiple platforms for smartwatches and on top of that these platforms are device-specific. These smartwatch platforms include Apple WearOS, Android Wear, Samsung Gear Fit, and so on.
Knowing just these platforms is not enough. You need to be aware of every other technology that you want to put in your app such as APIs, SDKs, programming languages etc. Android Wear supports Java or Kotlin while Apple watchOS supports Swift or Objective-C.
For your smartphone companion app, keep track of the following tech stacks –
- Front end development: HTML5, JavaScript, Angular JS
- Android client: Kotlin
- iOS client: Swift
- Back-end development: Python, PHP
- Cloud hosting: IBM SoftLayer
- SDK or framework of the app: Android SDK, Spring Framework
- API: Runscope
- Performance monitoring: New Relic
- Code collaboration: GitHub
- Geolocation services: Google Location API(Android), Core Location (iOS)
- Push notifications: Google Cloud Messaging (Android), Apple Push (iOS)
- Data sharing and syncing with smartwatch: ELCIES Connected Services
- Payment gateway: Stripe, PayPal SDK, Apple Pay
Steps to Develop Your Own Smartwatch Fitness Tracker Apps
If you have an idea of a smartwatch fitness tracker app that you think can take the market by storm then why are you waiting? Strivemindz is more than happy to listen to your ideas and then turn your ideas into reality if the market permits. Are you curious about how will your idea come to fruition? Let us note down the steps for you!
Make a Detailed Plan
The first thing that you need to start developing your smartwatch fitness app is to plan your project accurately. Perform thorough market research, analyze what your competitors do, analyze your target audience and the feasibility of your app’s USP, and lastly check if your idea is fit for the market. Extensive research work will help you define the use case of your app better and provide you with a plan to start your venture.
Hiring a Team
Now after you have a plan, pitch your plan to a development company, like Strivemindz. The experts at Strivemindz will further analyze your idea, determine the development process and check for possible flaws. At this stage, key decisions will be made such as the platforms of the app, and the tech stack that will be chosen. Once this stage is over, your plan will be foolproof and the chance of success will increase by a significant margin. Upon the validation of your idea, the expert team at Strivemindz will start working on your project and move on to the next crucial part.
Developing The UI / UX
For smartwatch apps, the user interface and user experience happen to be different from the mobile apps. However, you are lucky as the UI / UX developer team at Strivemindz hold enough expertise in working on wearable devices such as smartwatches. With their help, the UI / UX of your smart fitness app will be ready in no time.
Develop Your App
Once the UI / UX is designed, now the main work will begin and the expert developers at Strivemindz will continue to work tirelessly to bring your smartwatch fitness tracker app idea into reality. Strivemindz’s time-efficient services mean your app will be ready as soon as possible and you can finally launch your project out in the world.
Service And Maintenance
Just creating an application is not enough, it must be maintained properly to prevent any unwanted technical glitches or lagging issues. Even security issues, battery consumption and heating issues will be addressed during the maintenance of your app. The development and quality assurance team of Strivemindz will make sure that your project is 100% functional and user-friendly.
To sum it up
The health and fitness industry and the technology industry are two of the blooming sectors in today’s world. Having your own smartwatch fitness tracker app allows you to merge these two sectors into one box and have them tied on your wrist through your smartwatch. The field is practically set for new ideas and if your idea is exciting enough then Strivemindz will be more than happy to hear you out. Contact Strivemindz and shape your dream into a reality with our application development solutions!
