As usual, Apple’s recent mega-event created quite a stir across the entire tech industry and beyond. One little-talked-about segment of the keynote looked at what Apple is doing with its subscription-based fitness service that builds upon and supplements its blockbusting timepiece. Many of the new Fitness+ features that Apple demonstrated on stage truly show the power of deep integration across platforms — and, at the same time, hold a mirror up to Google and its comparatively feeble efforts in the fitness space.
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It just works!
Outside of those creepily smiling fitness trainers and announcers, the updates to Apple Fitness+ themselves look impressive and are something only Apple could have pulled off, given the years it’s spent erecting its infamous walled garden. The iPhone and Watch are what start your fitness journey with Apple, but you also have the option to continue it across your iPad or even your living room TV. No matter your screen, Watch seamlessly syncs your metrics. But that’s yesteryear’s news.
SharePlay is Apple’s relatively new co-watching tool that was so far known to work with Apple TV+. But now the company is bringing the same capabilities to Fitness+, which basically means you can challenge your friends in real-time group workout sessions and maybe even trash talk them if they’re taking the lead. Competitive sharing has been a part of popular fitness apps for years, but what Apple is doing takes it to the next level of community experience. Another example of Apple’s unified approach is that Fitness+ has Apple Music built-in, which, as is often said, just works.
It’s as much psychological as it is perceptible, and it makes all the difference.
Apple has enormous resources to bring celebs onboard, seriously up its production quality, and keep those videos coming week after week. It even makes it easy to access all its services, including Fitness+, with its newfound love for subscriptions through the Apple One bundle. You see, Apple is going after the all-around experience and convenience with all this: something you’d want to use and keep buying Apple devices for. It’s as much psychological as it is perceptible, and that makes all the difference.
Google? …you there?
You can divide Google’s fitness services pursuit into two eras: pre- and post-Fitbit acquisition. But those two timelines don’t really feel as different as you’d expect them to be, even with several months having gone by since the purchase. Google has done nothing to bring its new possession closer to its existing and more widely used products and services, barring the obligatory switch to Google Assistant from Alexa on the latest Fitbit smartwatches.
Before Fitbit, the only mainstream health service Google had was its Fit app, which, despite several recent upgrades, remains bare-bones even after getting a taste of YouTube integration a year ago. The data points it has to offer are something you can get from the companion apps of any cheap fitness tracker. Basic tracking doesn’t make the cut anymore, unless you want to be in the lower-end of the business, and it so far doesn’t look like Google is inclined to be doing that in the long run. During its early days, Fit marked a good start for Google’s journey into consumer health services, but it’s just that the app hasn’t been able to grow out enough since then.
A capable smartwatch OS forms a base for a functional fitness and health ecosystem for consumers, but Google couldn’t even get its basics right in all these years.
The app failed at becoming a hub for all things health for Android users, like Apple offers with its Health and Fitness apps together. As consumers move up the price ladder with premium smartwatches, it’s the comprehensive experience that takes precedence. Google Fit just isn’t armed to offer that kind of user experience in its current form, and it will take a big shake-up even to turn towards that path. In part, this stems from how Wear OS didn’t quite evolve as Google intended it to when it was first announced in 2014. A capable smartwatch OS forms a base for a functional fitness and health ecosystem for consumers, but Google couldn’t even get its basics right after all these years.
Things were supposed to get better on that front for Google after Fitbit came along with an already established portfolio of products and premium services. It could have given Google’s wearable business a much-needed reset to gain back some of the lost ground with Apple-like control over both hardware and software, but so far, it seems that Fitbit will be functioning independently.
Right now Google’s got an underutilized gem in the form of Fitbit Premium — the paid service not just precedes Apple Fitness+ but is also equally versatile with guided exercises and premium content that is regularly updated. Meanwhile, with much more market exposure and recognition, Apple’s version is steaming ahead despite arriving a full year late to the party.
What’s even more unfortunate is that this balance isn’t going to shift anytime soon. Apple has already had several years’ worth of a head start with its smartwatches, while Google is even today trying to figure out how to make its wearable OS work, and it needed Samsung’s help to do that. This isn’t very confidence-inducing, but considering the incoming positive reviews about the Galaxy Watch4, it sure sounds like a good (re)start. That’s the thing: it’s a start, and Google might take years to even begin catching up with where Apple’s entire fitness game is today.
In Google’s world, the ecosystem does exist: it’s got the Chromecast, a decent music app, a whole suite of smart speakers/screens, a video calling service, a ginormous video streaming service, robust family sharing features, and the tiny benefit of several billion Android phones to leverage. The only thing that remains is reaping the benefits of actually integrating these services for its fitness services as well as Apple does.
It all feels like scattered pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that Google isn’t even considering putting together.
It all feels like scattered pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that Google isn’t even considering putting together. The search giant has what it takes to counter Apple’s might with its battery of apps that easily match or beat Apple when it comes to flexibility, content, and quality, especially with Fitbit Premium now in the house. So far, however, it’s Apple that’s leading the way on making fitness the next big thing, as Google struggles to have any meaningful cross-service integrations. In today’s connected age, that’s nothing less than an outright failure for a company that was born and lives online.
