Mobile apps: A way to achieve better health and fitness

Dileep Gupta January 30, 2024
mobile fitness app

Mobile apps, the ones we often relate to games, personal use, and social interactions, have radically transformed the health and fitness industry. These mobile apps for healthcare are changing the users lifestyle in a holistic and hassle-free manner. The health and fitness app development has made healthcare services available beyond the borders of traditional offices.

Nowadays, every second person is using mobile apps for healthcare to track and monitor their overall health every day. So, if you are also planning to take your healthcare business on mobile platform, this blogpost is for you. The post will help you understand the current healthcare app market size, healthcare mobile app trends, types of fitness apps, and benefits of mobile apps in healthcare. So, without taking much of your time, let’s get started.

Health and fitness apps – A market overview

The adoption of health and fitness applications significantly increased during the pandemic, and since then the mobile fitness app industry is booming with more businesses and healthcare organizations investing in health and fitness app development. Now, let’s look into some amazing facts related to fitness and health apps.

Health and fitness apps-A market overview

This data indicates that the healthcare sector is undergoing a rapid digital transformation, and mobile apps play a vital role in this revolution. Besides this, various healthcare tracking apps have opened several opportunities for businesses to look ahead and hire a reputable app development company that offers healthcare software development services to its clients.

Now instead of uncovering opportunities that mobile fitness apps deliver, we will firstly witness different types of fitness apps that are taking over the mobile healthcare applications industry.

Types of mobile apps that rule the healthcare app industry

There are a plethora of  health tracking apps available in the market, and with an increase in demand more apps are being created and launched each day. Depending on their purpose, the types of fitness mobile apps that rule the healthcare and fitness industry are listed below.

Workout apps

This type of mobile fitness applications come loaded with workout plans, training sessions, and other content in different digital formats to enable users to do workout at their respective places. 

If you too are planning to dive into the workout app sector, check out our latest blog on how much does it cost to build a custom workout and training app to understand the costing and the factors affecting it in detail.

On-demand personal trainer apps

The on-demand fitness app allows its  users to hire a personal trainer in real-time and take required steps towards getting a fit body and shape. A minimalist fitness app design can make your on-demand personal trainer app a success. The reason is that  hiring personal trainers under one dashboard directly impacts the usability and retention time on the health tracking apps. You can implement multiple healthcare app features in your personal trainer application to enhance user experience.

Fitness tracking apps

Collaborated with wearables, NFC, and other mobile healthcare technologies, these health tracking apps enable users to track their health and fitness metrics in real-time. And eventually, take the right steps towards a healthier lifestyle.

Nutrition and diet apps

These mobile fitness applications, as depicted from its name, empower users with the solution of what to eat and at what duration for a healthier and disease-free living. Such apps help users maintain a healthy lifestyle by suggesting the right amount of carbs and proteins to intake in a day.

The diet and nutrition app further helps the users improve their diet by eating healthy, tracking overall progress, adopting new healthy habits, etc. One of the most sought-after features of these fitness apps is a built-in support system that helps the users deal with daily changes better and more confidently. 

[Also Read: Future of the wellness market in 2022 and beyond ]

Doctor-on-demand apps

The doctor-on-demand apps like ZocDoc provide users with an opportunity to search and hire doctors in real-time using geolocation technology. Doctor on-demand apps are the future of the healthcare domain as they offer various benefits to its users such as virtual doctor consultation from the comfort of your home, less paperwork, more convenience, and improved patient outcomes.

Medication tracking apps

Medication tracking health mobile apps make it easier for users to keep track of medicines in a real-time. It helps users to follow their prescription and not miss a single dose. Users can easily set alerts, reminders, and maintain a schedule of their daily dose consumption.

Clinical assistance mobile apps

These types of medical mobile applications help organizations to streamline all the associated processes and focus on delivering better services to their patients.

Now that we know about different options in the arena of mobile health app development, let’s turn towards the benefits of mobile health apps.

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Benefits of mobile apps in healthcare and fitness industry

Medical devices in healthcare industry are transforming the way users and professionals interact with each other. There are several benefits of medical apps for healthcare professionals and users. Let’s take a look at the key benefits that mobile apps bring in the health and fitness industry.

Benefits of mobile apps in healthcare and fitness industry

Higher accessibility and affordability

With the advent of various apps for healthcare , there is no need to go hunting for a yoga class or the gym in your neighborhood. Apart from this, you don’t have to hire costly trainers to maintain your health.

All you have to do is look up to a suitable mobile health app that is capable of meeting your needs. After finding such an app, simply install it in your phone and start doing exercise. Hence, it can be said that now distance and money can no longer prevent an individual from doing exercise.

Real-time tracking

Unlike the traditional processes, mobile healthcare applications for patients enable them to track their health data in real-time. This approach eventually lets them bring some required changes in their workout plans and other associated activities.

Hassle-free search for doctors and hospitals

There are many healthcare and fitness mobile apps for hospitals that can help you in making the search as per your geographic location. Some advanced apps even help in calling the doctor easily. You even have  a chance to see the facilities available at a particular hospital.

Time saving

Another benefit of going with medical apps designed by the best health and fitness mobile app development company is that it gives users an escape from rushing to the gym and medical service providers for every single doubt. They can clear their doubts on chat or video calls, or simply turn towards the tutorial section to get a better understanding. Something that helps them relish better outcomes in less time.

Smoother medical operations

Medical apps for healthcare are not solely delivering real-time experience to its consumers, but also helping with streamlining medical processes. This way one can enjoy peace of mind and increase productivity level of the workforce.

Improved communication level

Health fitness apps stays with users in their device day and night, that help ease the process of interaction. It also enables users, trainers, and other health organizations to connect with each other anytime, and take required actions in real-time.

This is yet another reason to keep track of the health and fitness app market size, and invest in the same market to enjoy the profits.

Increased motivation

Using the power of gamification, personalized push notifications, and other such elements, fitness mobile apps also develop a positive environment and encourage users to spend more time on the platform. This eventually helps the brand enjoy higher user acquisition and retention rate.

Social communities

Health fitness apps make it easier for fitness freaks to connect,  collaborate and share ideas and experiences with the similar people to bring dramatic difference in each other’s life.

Competitive advantage

Since many organizations are still hesitating from entering the health and fitness applications industry, investing in mobile healthcare technology can be a competitive advantage over them. Medical mobile applications allows healthcare institutions to provide better services and enhance customer experience. These healthcare mobile apps give detailed insights into patient care journey and can easily monitor health remotely. 

[Also Read: Top healthcare app ideas for startups ]

Examples of fitness apps

Here are some real-world examples of fitness apps in the marketplace. These apps are among the top competitors in the fitness industry and boast a notable user base. Most of these health tracking apps work great with free versions, while others require shelling out a few dollars to access premium healthcare app features.

Top Competitors of Health and Fitness Apps

Must-have features of healthcare and fitness apps

A feature-full app makes your mobile application stand out among the competition. However, it is completely up to you to decide what features you want to integrate into your mobile apps. In this section, we will share the key features that we consider important for all fitness app categories required to secure high user acquisition, engagement, and retention rates.

Must-have features of healthcare and fitness apps

1. User personalization

User personalization is an integral part of any mobile health app. This feature collects basic user information like age, weight, height, etc., to create customized nutrition or workout plans. If a user believes that the health fitness app they chose addresses their personal needs and can help them accomplish their goals, they keep coming back to the app. Nowadays, mobile health apps integrate disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence to personalize user experience in a smarter and accurate way.

2. Device integration

Most users use multiple devices that help them track and improve their fitness activities. It is crucial to integrate a quick and easy synchronization feature that connects various devices to your app. A few of the known examples of mobile fitness apps include fitness+ by Apple, Strava, MyFitnessApp, Mi Fit by Xiaomi. Such apps are integrated with both wearables and smartphones. Users must be able to access their profile, training programs, and other functionalities not only on smartphones but even on their personal computers or laptops.

3. Activities summary

Activities summary feature provides an overview of users’ fitness activities by day, week, month, or other time period. It helps them evaluate the progress of their efforts for a specific time period and allows them to set long term goals. For instance, Strava and Fitbit provide a weekly report that can help users view and track their workout summary.

4. Goal setting

The sole objective of a mobile fitness app is to help users see a change in their routine and body. Goal setting features allow users to set the desired results and know the process to reach the goals. A user can choose a task like weight gain, set their target by inputting a goal value or a certain date, and then specify the actions needed to achieve the goal. Many apps for healthcare show the task performance statistics for every week and how close they are to achieve their goal.

5. Tracking metrics

Metrics play an important role in the health tracking apps as tracking the numbers are very essential to judge users’ efforts.  Fitness activities can be tracked in numbers like set repetitions, calories burned, hours invested, pounds gained or lost, etc. This data is important because the user can measure progress, become motivated, and continue using mobile healthcare applications to achieve more. Different tracking metrics can be integrated into your mobile health apps, depending on the app’s objectives. For instance, if it’s an activity tracker app, the crucial metrics will be the distance covered in kilometers/miles, duration, and calories burned.

6. Push notifications

Push notifications are an integral part of a successful app’s toolbox. This feature not only helps increase the engagement but also the average time spent by users on the app. In healthcare and fitness apps, push notifications can be used to give reminders like start workout, medication time, the next mealtime, and other various important events. You can integrate marketing automation tools that automates the process of personalized push notifications based on user journey.

7. Social sharing

Users like to flaunt their efforts and accomplishments on social media and organizations must consider this fact. Integrate social media sharing to your healthcare tracking apps and allow users to share, chat, and interact with others on the app. Social sharing feature directly impacts your apps KPIs as users spend more time. Top fitness mobile apps such as Nike Run Club, Strava have integrated this feature into their app to increase user engagement.

8. Community

A user fitness journey is more motivating when they get competition. Building a community is the best way to engage and retain users. By seeing how other people achieve their goals with the app, users will be aware of the value the app brings. Fitbit has a community feature that helps find friends who already use the app, follow other influencers in the app, post updates about activity, and meet like-minded people by joining interest groups.

9. Gamification

Fitness gamification is the addition of game-like elements to your mobile health app. Gamification feature encourages users to interact with the app, follow their exercise routine, and take their fitness journey in a more fun way. For instance, Fitocracy, a gamified fitness app, addresses the hardest motivational challenges and uses various features such as levels, quest, badges, and points that motivate users to go the extra mile.

10. Video tutorials

In the current landscape, different users have different methods of consuming information. For instance, there are readers who love to scroll through your blog section and there are viewers who understand better in a video format. For those who perceive visually, you can implement video tutorials segments to show techniques for workouts. This will help users get a better understanding of exercise execution and will eventually spend more time in the mobile health apps.

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Tech stack required for health and fitness app development

When you are planning for mobile app health development, you need to think about its technical side as well. After deciding what kind of app you want to deploy and what features your MVP will include, you need to focus on the tech stack for the app. Let us look at the technology stack that you can use to back your fitness application.

How to earn revenue from healthcare and fitness apps?

While there are multiple ways to monetize your application, in this section, we will discuss a few most popular revenue channels that you may embrace individually or in combination to enhance customer value and earn more revenue. So, without further ado, let’s look at what they are.

1. Paid apps

If you are providing above average features in your app, then you can charge a premium for the app usage. Before any user buys a subscription, you can provide them a free trial of your mobile app. It adds an advantage and increases the chances of more sign-ups for your app.

2. In-app purchases

You can monetize your app by allowing access to certain additional features by charging some fees from users. This helps  them to customize and personalize their fitness goals and journey in the long term.

3. Advertisement

Ads are the universal way of making money with apps. You can make the app free and monetize it with right ads for your app. However, ads tend to annoy people so don’t overdo it. They should be displayed in an organized way and are relevant to health and fitness benefits.

4. Affiliate sales 

You can partner with reputed fitness institutions and brands to help sell your app at a more granular level. With more influencers and affiliates working towards the same goal, more people will align and sync with your fitness app ideology.

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Now that we know about earning revenue from healthcare apps, let’s look at the technologies used for developing fitness mobile apps.

Which technologies to use for your healthcare mobile app?

When developing healthcare mobile applications, you need to make sure you use the latest and most reliable technologies. This is because your app will be handling sensitive user data, and you need to ensure that it is secure and robust.

Which technologies to use for your healthcare mobile app

Some of the most popular technologies used for developing healthcare mobile apps are listed below:

1. Artificial intelligence 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already being used to develop mobile apps for various industries, including healthcare. Medical apps can help patients manage their health, access their medical records, and find doctors and clinics. AI can be used to develop these apps in several ways. For example, AI can be used to create personalized recommendations for individual users. 

Artificial Intelligence can also be used to develop apps that can detect and diagnose medical conditions. In addition, AI can be used to create apps that provide reminders for taking medications or scheduling doctor’s appointments. By using AI to develop healthcare apps, we can create more effective and efficient apps to meet patients’ needs.

2. Blockchain 

As the healthcare industry increasingly moves towards a digital model, the need for effective and secure mobile apps is becoming more pressing. Blockchain technology offers a unique solution to the challenges faced by healthcare apps, particularly in terms of data security. By creating a decentralized network, blockchain provides a high level of security against hacking and other cyber threats. 

In addition, blockchain-based apps can offer patients greater control over their own data, allowing them to choose who can access it and how it can be used. As the healthcare industry continues to evolve, blockchain-based mobile apps have the potential to revolutionize the way care is delivered.

3. Cloud computing

Healthcare mobile app development can be a costly and time-consuming process. Cloud computing can help to reduce these costs by providing a flexible and scalable platform for medical app development. 

It can greatly help medical professionals as cloud-based apps can be updated more easily than traditional desktop applications, making it easier to keep medical information up-to-date. As a result, cloud computing should be used to develop healthcare mobile apps to improve patient care and reduce development costs.

4. IoT

Internet of Things is more proactive, personalized, and efficient. Healthcare mobile apps that use IoT technology can collect data from medical devices and sensors in real-time. This data can be used to detect potential health risks of the patients and flag them for medical staff. 

It can also remind patients to take their medication or book appointments. In addition, IoT-enabled healthcare apps can be used to track fitness goals and progress that can help doctors and patients stay motivated.

5. Big data analytics

Big data analytics is collecting and analyzing large amounts of data to extract useful insights. Healthcare organizations can use big data analytics to develop mobile apps that improve patient care and outcomes. For example, by analyzing patient usage patterns, healthcare organizations can create apps that better meet the needs of patients. 

In addition, by analyzing data from clinical trials, researchers can help provide more effective treatments for patients. In short, big data analytics is a powerful technology that can be used to develop mobile health apps that improve cost and patient care outcomes.

6. Augmented reality 

Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that overlays digital information in the real world. AR can be used to develop healthcare mobile apps that provide patients with more information about their condition. For example, AR can be used to show patients how their medication works or to provide instructions on how to perform a certain task. 

In addition, AR can be used to create virtual reality (VR) environments that allow patients to experience what it is like to be in a particular situation. For example, VR can be used to provide patients with a tour of a hospital before their surgery. Ultimately, AR and VR can be used to develop mobile health apps that improve patient care by providing more information and making it easier for patients to understand their condition.

There is no doubt that mobile apps in healthcare are revolutionizing the healthcare sector. However, it is important to note that not all mobile apps are created equal. The key is finding a company that provides healthcare mobile app development services that can create an app that meets your organization’s specific needs.

How can Appinventiv help you with health and fitness app development?

Appinventiv, a leading app development company, has aggregated a team of highly skilled developers and healthcare solution development services to build best-in-class fitness solutions. We boast an extensive portfolio and have partnered with various healthcare brands for their app development requirements and successfully delivered futuristic scalable solutions. 

For instance, we helped our client Healthe People to build an innovative platform that allows users to create comprehensive healthcare records while assisting them in finding medical caregivers for their family and friends. 

Another notable healthcare app that Appinventiv has developed is YouComm, an efficient healthcare system that is bettering the patient-caregiver relationship by empowering users to access real-time medical help. Till now, the platform has seen 60% growth in nurses’ real-time response time.

In case you are also looking for something similar, get in touch with our experts. They will guide you through the entire process and make your app development journey hassle-free.

Conclusion

In the future, the healthcare and fitness industry will experience technological advancements as more organizations will be diving towards fitness app development and cater to wider audience remotely. Integrating futuristic technologies like cloud, blockchain, big data, and artificial intelligence will help businesses get tech-enabled apps that provides users with better personalization. For building an efficient health and fitness app, ensure to connect with the reputed healthcare app development company that can deliver an efficient fitness app that integrates to your current business process seamlessly.

FAQs

Q. How fitness mobile apps can help in improving your fitness?

A. Fitness mobile apps can help track your progress, set goals, and stay motivated. They can also provide you with expert tips on improving your fitness.

Fitness mobile apps can help you get in shape by:

  • Tracking your progress: Fitness mobile apps can help you track your progress and see how you are doing over time. This is important because it can help you stay motivated and on track.
  • Setting goals: Fitness mobile apps can help you set goals and stay on track. This is important because it can help you stay focused and motivated.
  • Getting expert tips: Fitness mobile apps can provide expert tips on improving your fitness. This is important because it can help you learn new techniques and stay motivated.
  • Staying motivated: Fitness mobile apps can help you stay motivated by providing you with motivation tips and tricks. This is important because it can help you stay on track and focused.
  • Improving your fitness: Fitness mobile apps can help you improve your fitness by providing you with expert tips and tricks. This is important because it can help you learn new techniques and stay motivated.

Mobile apps are revolutionizing the healthcare sector by providing patients with a convenient way to track their progress, set goals, and stay motivated.

Q. What are the current trends in the fitness industry?

A. The fitness industry is currently trending towards more personalized and mobile-based fitness solutions. This is due to the growing popularity of smartphones and wearable devices, which are making it easier for people to track their fitness progress and receive guidance. Some of the current trends in the fitness industry includes fitness trackers, smartwatches, and mobile apps that are becoming increasingly popular as they offer a convenient way to track users progress, set goals, and receive guidance.

Q. How are fitness apps impacting our exercise habits?

A. Fitness apps are impacting our exercise habits by making it easier for us to track our progress, set goals, and stay motivated. This is because we can now easily access these apps on our smartphones and wearable devices. Additionally, fitness apps are providing us with expert tips and tricks on how to improve our fitness.

THE AUTHOR
Dileep Gupta
DIRECTOR & CO-FOUNDER
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