If you have a TV that supports AirPlay, and you planned on using that to display Apple Fitness+ on your big screen, there may be an issue.
As noted today by MacRumors, it appears that Apple Fitness+, the brand new subscription service Apple just launched today, doesn’t work with AirPlay. The report notes that at least one user, “scar88”, tried to use AirPlay to stream to their LG smart TV (which supports AirPlay) from their iPhone, but it wouldn’t work.
The option to stream the content from the iPhone to the LG TV just wasn’t available. Here at iDB, we tried to get it to work on our own devices, but ran into the same issue. When trying to cast a workout session from the iPhone 12 Pro to an LG smart TV, which supports AirPlay, the option to do so is not present on the iPhone.
So, as it stands right now, it appears that if you want to use Fitness+ with your primary TV, you’ll need an Apple TV connected to it. Interestingly, using AirPlay to stream from an iPhone to an Apple TV doesn’t even work. As noted in the original report, it will only cast the audio from the workout, but the video won’t cast to the Apple TV.
This is a strange move on Apple’s part, to say the least. Not everyone out there has an Apple TV, or even wants an Apple TV. So forcing those folks who want to use Apple Fitness+ to use their iPhones or iPads, rather than the bigger screen in their home, is a decision.
Is it a good one? Let us know what you think in the comments.
In related news, folks wanting to use Fitness+ on their iPad are also running into an issue. When trying to install the game from the App Store, the digital storefront prompts an error, and won’t let potential Fitness+ users actually download and install the app.