Apple Watch can now sync up with your gym equipment during a workout
Want the exact same workout results on your smartwatch as your treadmill?
The Apple Watch's new feature, GymKit, allows users to connect their workouts with gym equipment, for more accurate data.
Apple's now rolling out the feature as part of the watchOS 4 update, first announced in June 2017 at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference.
Launching on Thursday, GymKit allows Apple Watch wearers the ability to pair their device directly to treadmills, stair steppers, ellipticals and indoor bikes with one tap of an in-built pad. The watch will sync only with machines from a handful of global manufacturers, such as Life Fitness and Technogym. Apple's partners provide 80 percent of equipment used in gyms today, the company said.
According to Apple, the ability to sync data seamlessly between smartwatch and fitness machine is an industry first. Accuracy is the main focus for the platform, made possible with less device interaction and paired datasets — the two devices will instantly record and combine your speed, pace, distance, floors climbed, incline, calories burned, without you having to fiddle around with apps or menus.
"We wanted to simplify the cardio machine experience and make it more accurate than ever before. With a quick tap on your favourite cardio equipment, you’ll see for the first time, two-way data exchange in real time that will result in the most accurate measurements possible with less device management,” said Jay Blahnik, senior director of fitness for health technologies at Apple in a media statement.
"Now when Apple Watch customers view metrics during their workout, the metrics on the machine match what they see on their wrist.”
To be rolled out globally, the platform was showcased on Thursday at Sydney gym Fitness First, one of the Australian businesses to adopt the platform. They'll be introducing GymKit-enabled cardio equipment in select Fitness First gyms around the country, starting with Bond Street in Sydney's CBD, followed by Bondi Junction and Barangaroo, then Richmond in Melbourne.
It's another significant chapter for Apple's Health and Fitness arm — the watchOS 4 update also features an enhancement of the Workout app, including motion and heart rate algorithms for High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workouts, and auto-sets for pool swims.
Apple surpassed Fitbit as the world's top wearable company earlier this year, and they're seemingly not wasting the opportunity.
Topics Apple Apple Watch Health
Shannon Connellan is Mashable's UK Editor based in London, formerly Mashable's Australia Editor, but emotionally, she lives in the Creel House. A Tomatometer-approved critic, Shannon writes about entertainment, tech, social good, science, culture, and Australian horror.
