Apple doubles its Fitness + offer with new Apple Watch content “Time to Walk”

Today, Apple launched a new component of its Fitness + personal health subscription service: “Time to Walk”. With it, users who own an Apple Watch can do a walking exercise with tracking while listening to inspiring stories or discussions from “influential and interesting people”.

These presentations will automatically download to users’ Apple Watch, as long as those users subscribe to Fitness +. When users start listening to one of the 25-40 minute episodes, the watch will begin a walk workout. For wheelchair users, Time to Walk is called “Time to Push” and instead offers outdoor wheelchair walking training.

The ad states that “Each episode of Time to Walk is shaped by the personal and defining moments in the guest’s life and includes lessons learned, meaningful memories, deliberate thoughts and gratitude, moments of lightness and love. ‘other thought-provoking topics, recorded while walking outdoors, or in places that are meaningful to them. “

Stories and chats obviously involve the audio of the figure speaking, but Apple says this feature will also cause photos to appear on the Apple Watch at specific times during chats to illustrate the stories or points.

In addition, the lectures are followed by short playlists of songs that gave the speaker “motivation and inspiration”.

The first episodes of Time to Walk come from the following guests: country singer Dolly Parton, NBA player Draymond Green, musician Shawn Mendes and actor Uzo Aduba. New episodes will air every Monday “until the end of April”.

The announcement came with this statement from Jay Blahnik, senior director of Apple Fitness Technologies:

Walking is the world’s most popular physical activity and one of the healthiest things we can do for our bodies. A walk can often be more than just an exercise: it can help clear the mind, solve a problem or welcome a new perspective … Even during this difficult time, one activity that has remained available to many is walking. With Time to Walk, we’re bringing original content to Apple Watch weekly in Fitness +, which includes some of the most diverse, fascinating and famous guests, providing inspiration and entertainment to help our users continue to use the power of walking.

Experts and organizations like the US Department of Health and Human Services advise people to get 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity exercise, which some might include walking, but many Americans don’t. do not come together.

Increasingly, personal technology products such as smartphones and smartwatches are now part of the battle against this problem in the United States and elsewhere. Apple launched Apple Fitness + in December, its first subscription focused on health. There are also plenty of third-party apps on the iOS and Android app stores that offer similar content and functionality, and there are plenty of other big tech companies looking to make waves in personal health as well.

List image by Apple