Apple has announced that its Fitness+ subscription service now supports working out or meditating together with people in other locations via the SharePlay feature.
HIGHLIGHTS
- SharePlay is now available on Fitness+ across iPhone, iPad and Mac
- Fitness+ is expanding to fifteen new countries on November 3
- UnitedHealthcare members get twelve free months of Fitness+
SharePlay launches on Fitness+
Fitness+ now lets you work out or meditate together with your friends in other locations, and SharePlay is what makes it possible. You can start a SharePlay-powered group workout or meditation with up to 32 people, and all of them can join from different parts of the globe. The workouts are kept perfectly in sync for all participants. SharePlay is also supported on Apple TV, letting you send the workout to that big screen in your living room. Read: How to share music and videos on FaceTime with SharePlay
Jay Blahnik, Apple’s Vice President of Fitness Technologies, was quoted as explaining in Apple’s press release how the SharePlay feature will make your workouts more motivating. With it, you can even “trade some words of encouragement or friendly smack talk,” while also making progress toward closing your rings.
Everyone in a group session sees their own metrics and progress toward closing their own Activity rings. At the same time, every participant gets to see and hear their friends while using FaceTime. And if someone moves ahead on the burn bar or closes their Activity rings, everyone working out will be notified so they can celebrate together.
A new Time to Walk episode, UnitedHealthcare promotion
Apple is also introducing today a new Time to Walk episode, available to all Fitness+ subscribers, with writer, educator and actor Marilee Talkington who is legally blind and has appeared on the Apple TV+ series “See”. On this walk, she talks about defying expectations and how she helps empower others to do the same.
Beginning November 1, fully insured UnitedHealthcare members “in nearly every state” will gain access to Fitness+ at no additional cost. And starting in 2022, UnitedHealthcare employers with self-funded health plans will be able to purchase an Apple Fitness Bundle. According to the UnitedHealthcare website, this bundle includes a twelve-month subscription to Apple Fitness+ along with a $25 Apple digital gift card.
Fitness+ coming to 15 new countries from November 3
Apple Fitness+ is currently available in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand. As iDownloadBlog previously reported, Fitness+ will be expanding to these fifteen new countries beginning November 3, 2021:
- Austria
- Brazil
- Colombia
- France
- Germany
- Indonesia
- Italy
- Malaysia
- Mexico
- Portugal
- Russia
- Saudi Arabia
- Spain
- Switzerland
- United Arab Emirates
Does that mean that all those shiny Fitness+ videos are localized for each and every supported country? In a word, no. In non-English speaking countries, Fitness+ defaults to English with subtitles available in Brazilian Portuguese, English, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish. For further information, visit apple.com/apple-fitness-plus.
What is SharePlay and why should I care?
With SharePlay, Apple users can share experiences in support apps right inside FaceTime. For example, you can bring movies and TV shows from the TV app into a FaceTime video call, or your favorite songs from the Music app, and so on. Furthermore, Apple has provided tools for developers to add SharePlay functionality to their own apps.
Anyone participating in a SharePlay session must be subscribed to a piece of shared content to be able to view it within FaceTime. As such, SharePlay can help developers reach new users, according to the description on the Apple Developer website.
SharePlay is a powerful way to reach people organically as users introduce your app to their friends at relevant moments. If someone in a FaceTime call initiates a group activity with an app that someone else on the call doesn’t have installed, SharePlay guides them to the App Store to download it. The Group Activities API gives you an opportunity to bring up onboarding flows for new users or special trial offers designed specifically for SharePlay users. It’s a quick and easy way to get people to try out your app experience alongside friends who already use your app.
SharePlay requires devices with iOS 15.1, iPadOS 15.1, tvOS 15.1 or macOS Monterey.