How to Develop a Health & Fitness App in 2024: [Ultimate Guide]

Introduction

The onset of the pandemic brought in a revolutionary change in the lifestyle of the people, which impacted majorly the way people stayed healthy and exercised. People started being more conscious of the lifestyle that they were living and were alarmed by the negative consequences of not paying attention to fitness and hygiene. Whilst the major part of the world was locked down during the pandemic, this prompted the people to seek out alternative methods of shopping, education, exercise, medical consultation, and even employment. When all the gyms and fitness institutes were non-operating during the pandemic, people started drifting towards fitness and health apps. Between the first and second quarters of 2020, the number of daily active users increased by 24%, according to data given by the World Economic Forum. People are more eager to invest in React Native or Flutter Mobile Application Development to Build a Fitness App due to their growing popularity. You can read further to get a detailed insight into the app development features, functionalities, and processes. 

Health & Fitness Apps Market Outlook for 2023 & Beyond

Over 350,000 health-related applications are now available to consumers, according to a recent study on digital health trends conducted by the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science. Although most are still targeted toward general wellbeing and fitness, it appears that applications for managing specific diseases or health are on the rise, accounting for no less than 47 percent of all apps accessible, up from only 28 percent in 2015. Looking at the big picture, the digital health business has raised record-breaking investments in 2021, with $7.1 billion raised in the first quarter alone, significantly more than the $2.9 billion reported in the first quarter of 2020. Digital healthcare platforms that focus on on-demand models, complete primary care, behavioural health, fitness, and preventative care have seen an increase in investor interest.

The Market Value: How Well Fitness Apps Are Doing?

The Market Value: How Well Health Apps Are Doing?

By the year 2027, it is expected that the fitness app industry will rise significantly and reach USD 14.64 billion. The huge popularity and success of the Online Fitness App have brought in the huge interest of the investors and companies to start investing in health mobile app development. The market is escalating, and with each passing day, several applications are being launched in the market. As a result, app development businesses now provide android or iOS fitness app development services, which has helped them make significant annual revenue by increasing user engagement and subscriptions to diet and exercise regimens. Fitness revenue is expected to reach US$22,537 million in 2020, according to analysts. According to analysts, sales would expand at a 0.6 percent annual rate (CAGR 2020-2024), resulting in a market volume of US$23,127 million by 2024. According to analysts, sales would expand at a 0.6 percent annual rate (CAGR 2020-2024), resulting in a market volume of US$23,127 million by 2024.

How Health & Fitness Apps Have Helped During COVID-19 Pandemic?

COVID-19 has impacted almost every area, including sports and fitness. The virus has resulted in an explosion in the use of mobile fitness apps. People have adopted mobile fitness apps as a way to stay in shape while they are alone. Conclusion and solutions that include social media components and fitness instruction appear to be attracting more consumers than ever before. Health and fitness downloads increased by 46% globally between Q1 and Q2 2020. In addition, 5G enables super-smooth video communication, which can be used to improve live training sessions. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the worldwide fitness app market is booming: It was expected that by the year 2020, the budget is expected to be around $3.5 billion. By 2026, the market is estimated to be worth over $14 billion, and in the United States, there are 87.4 million subscribers.

Choose the Type of Health & Fitness App You Want to Develop

Let’s have a look at the many types of fitness applications that can be developed or are available in the market: 

Activity Tracking Apps

Activity tracking applications maintain track of all the different activities or exercises that a customer wants to do. The app keeps track of the distance walked, calories burned, distance run, or steps the users take. The users have the option of setting workout routines and tracking their progress. The built-in sensor keeps track of your daily steps and conserves battery life.

Source: Fitness App UI – Training Tracker

Diet And Nutrition Apps

Maintaining optimum health necessitates a well-rounded diet. Users can assess and refine their dietary goals with a thorough eating plan using diet and nutrition applications.  Diet and nutrition participate in an enticing communication of knowledge on certain diet plan aspects and providing information on calorie intake. These apps can help you manage your workout performance in relation to your nutrition intake.

Workout Or Exercise Apps

Users can design workout routines, interact with a virtual fitness trainer, set goals, and monitor their progress with these applications. Furthermore, many apps place a premium on delivering video or voice directions for accomplishing tasks. 

Personal Trainers App:

Personalized Trainers apps have become a popular concept that encourages people to improve their fitness without leaving their homes. These applications provide dynamic features that enable users to learn through virtual avatars and video tutorials that enable them to discover crucial tasks that they will need to conduct in their quest for good fitness.

Must-Have Features of a Health & Fitness App

Here is a compiled list of common user-friendly elements that you should include in your fitness application development strategy.

Login/Signup

The login and signup feature is one of the most quintessential features of any application. As a result, users may set up a personal app account and use that account’s credentials to log in and utilise the app. The feature of logging in via the social networking sites account and google accounts should be available for the users.

App Customization

App customization is one of the flexible features important for Health App Development. The customization feature can be extended to a large group audience, including people of various ages, groups, gender, and others. The users should have the feature of themes, contents, videos and other essential functionalities. In addition, users can customize their workouts within the programme to meet their own goals, diet plans, and other targets.

User Profile

The users should have the feature of creating their profile in the application, which would require them to enter their names, weight, age, gender and demands, and routines. These features shall assist them in choosing the best exercise or workout that suits their body.

Workout Tutorials

The workout tutorials or the videos are generally overlooked in the early stages of your physical fitness app development. This provides the feature where one can view the video instructions found in the fitness app and use them to guide one’s training so that it does not go wrong. In addition, the option of subscribing to the content should be provided to access it.

Rewards and Admiration

This is one of the best options to incorporate in your fitness routine if you have clear objectives for achieving in your fitness journey. You can provide customers incentives for achieving their objectives on time, such as rebates on their membership, or subscriptions, bonus rewards, vouchers, and so on, to encourage them to meet their objectives on time and with a positive attitude.

Tracking Your Location

If you want to develop your health app in an upgraded manner with advanced features, you’ll need to include the feature of “tracking location”. For example, the user can plan routes for walking, running, or cycling workouts and chart the entire journey in a picture and the number of kilometres, travel duration, and several halts, among other things.

Also Read: Factors Affecting the Success of Mobile App Development in 2023

Device Compatibility

The fitness applications should be compatible with a wide range of devices such as smartphones, tablets, TV screens. Wearables and other smart devices. This shall make it easier and more convenient for the users to use them wherever they want. The fitness app developer should ensure that the apps must function correctly in various device configurations and conditions.

User Activity Tracking

When creating your health and exercise app, this feature will enable the customers to get accurate results based on their demands and requirements. This feature allows the user to keep track of their workout progress and the status of the objective that needs to be met.

GPS

The high-quality and interactive location-based features are available to app users and administrators. Customers of the application can find classes or programmes in their immediate area thanks to a GPS connection. In addition, it allows app administrators or business owners to build location-based adverts and promote their services to a large number of clients.

Payments

You must include different payment gateways to the users to ensure safe and secured payments. You can include simple transactions with an integrated invoicing and payment system. In addition, you can disclose more payment information about the programmes that app users have purchased.

Trendy Features that Make Your Fitness App Stand Out

Some of the trendy features that can be included in your mobile health app development to make it stand out are:

Direct Messaging

The feature of ‘direct messaging’ is an interactive messaging system within the application architecture that allows users to engage with their trainers, counsellors, and even other people.

Gamification

Incorporating game aspects into fitness apps makes the app more user-friendly. It integrates aspects like leaderboards in workout sessions, strength exercises, and mindfulness to provide a more streamlined user experience.

In-App Community

The fitness mobile app development company that you hire can add community feeds to the iOS or Android health and fitness app development to allow users to follow other users, fitness trainers or fitness influencers, share their achievements, join similar groups, discover friends, or post announcements in the community. This will help them engage in a similar community, and your app will also gain more significant value.

Push Notifications and Pop-Ups

To ensure that the users are organized and consistently motivate them towards their objectives and goals, your app development fitness application might send notifications of scheduled workouts or even send reminders. It can also show data or motivational pop-ups.

Visual Tutorials

Visual tutorials, such as films or animation, are essential, and it is an advanced feature that can be included during fitness mobile app development. This is because badly performed workouts might cause more harm than good and visual tutorials would provide an outlook to the users of how to perform the workout. It may also stimulate users to observe another individual confidently execute a tough exercise.

Barcode

You can create a fitness app where the users could use smartphones to scan the barcode and gain access to all connected information required to keep track of their health. It is a useful feature that helps speed up the process of inputting food items into a fitness program.

Social Features

A social aspect of fitness software is a must-have feature. This feature encourages users to interact with one another and is an effective user engagement tactic. In addition, emphasis on sharable material, such as completed goals, personal files, personalized music playlists, and motivating posts enables people to engage with each other’s content.

Live Streaming

Integrating a live streaming application feature with the fitness app is essential. Because most individuals work out from home due to a pandemic, people require online and live supervision from fitness specialists. Live broadcasting also makes your workout regimen and training experience more interactive.

Educational Content

You can integrate educational content that will inform and teach users about leading a healthy life. Users must grasp the fundamentals of fitness, and the feature provides them with all of the necessary educational information. Your medical app development company that you hire can help you achieve this. 

Health and Fitness App Development Stages

You have concepts, you’re aware of the features and budget, and you’re aware of the other crucial variables that go into making a successful app. Now you can focus on putting ideas into action and utilizing all available resources to pave the way for a comprehensive fitness tracker app development. Here are the steps for the development of your fitness app:

Market Research

The first stage of app development is comprehending what the consumer wants and understanding the market needs. This stage requires you to conduct in-depth research to understand the market’s competition and the rival strategies and apps. 

Identifying Target Audience

You need to figure out your target audience rather than considering the entire population. You need to narrow down your intended audience population so that you can focus on their needs and demands rather than aiming purposelessly. You can research the competition apps’ services to this audience and look for their demands that you can incorporate in your application to make it better.

Also Read: How Much Does it Cost to Develop an App in 2023?

Make an MVP Plan

If you have a restricted budget and timescale, you might aim to produce an MVP showing the target audience your project’s main features. In addition, an MVP can assist you in obtaining constructive market feedback from your early clients.

Discovery

You can discuss the viability and feasibility of your application with any fitness app development agency that can provide your feedback and consultation and help you in the development process. The fitness app developers would create an application prototype and share it with you to see how the final product will look.

Development

At this stage, you need to develop the features and put them together into a full-fledged fitness app that handles all of your fitness needs. You receive a comprehensive team of professionals who have researched, created, developed, and even promoted apps available when hiring any health app development company. With the correct technological stack in place, you’ll be able to meet results in a more sophisticated manner. Your app’s UI/UX features must be in sync with your application concept and the interests of your target audience. The design and page flow needs to be streamlined and seamless, and the customer experience should not be cluttered.

QA Testing

After passing the developmental stage, you can proceed towards the testing phase. This is important to ensure that the app is functioning properly. Here, you examine the features, responsiveness, flexibility, usability, designs, and debugging. The app’s performance and features also need to be thoroughly tested in accordance with the established requirements.

Monetization

Any businessperson’s primary goal is to generate a profit. When creating an application platform, it’s essential to know exactly how you can monetize the application. Nowadays, there are a plethora of monetization options.

• Advertisements: An approach based on collecting money from advertisements is one of the most common monetization strategies. If you choose this strategy, you should promote products relevant to the app’s customers; otherwise, adverts may upset them.
• In-App Purchases: Enabling in-app purchases is the 2nd most frequent revenue approach. Customers can be charged for diet recipes, exercises videotaped by celebrities or well-known athletes, and so forth. In addition, company owners may occasionally allow users to purchase sports equipment or other commodities through the site in exchange for a portion of all money transactions.
• Freemium monetization model: The freemium monetization approach delivers health and fitness services to users in exchange for monthly donations. The software may be downloaded for free, but only a restricted set of functionalities are available to users. However, users must pay to access extra features or remove advertisements, which is another monetization method.

Launch

Now that your product has been thoroughly vetted, it’s time to launch it considerably. App distribution platforms such as Play Store, GetApps, App Store, and others can be used to promote the fitness app. Email marketing is another effective technique to reach a broad audience with your software.

Tech Stack for Health and Fitness App

For a Fitness App Builder, the factor of the tech stack is quintessential. This is determined by the functionality of the fitness or mental health apps that you plan on developing and the target audience. There are several reasons as to why they are an essential consideration:

• The tech stack assists you in determining your mobile application’s fundamental strengths and flaws.
• A tech stack may limit your digital health app development capabilities.
• The cost of developing a unique health and fitness app will be influenced by your decision.

Furthermore, the two operating systems, Android and iOS, have different architectures and thus, because of this, they necessitate their technology stacks.

Native Apps

The mobile app developers use Swift and Objective C programming languages to develop iPhone apps and create iOS applications; the developers employ two essential tools: Xcode and App Code. Developers also utilize UIKit and SwiftUI to create user interfaces. 

However, the most critical languages for designing Android smartphones are Java and Kotlin. Furthermore, Android Studio and Android Developer Tools (ADT) are fantastic tools for developing Android apps. Moreover, Android comes with Android UI software pre-installed, and as a result, developers can effectively develop user interfaces.

Also Read: Flutter vs React Native: Which is Best for Your App in 2023?

Hybrid App

Cross-platform app development is the best solution if you wish to create an app for both Android and iOS platforms. The interfaces and customer experience of the two principal operating systems are identical in a cross-platform application. You may create hybrid mobile applications using a variety of cross-platform frameworks available on the market. Frameworks like Flutter, React Native, and Xamarin are the most widely utilized in these apps.

How MultiQoS Can Help in Developing Health & Fitness Applications

MultiQoS is the best Mobile App Development Company specializing in healthcare application development, starting from fitness to mental health app development. We understand that developing a fitness app can be a strenuous task when you are confused about what you should include and how to design it. This is why we are here to save you time and resources. We have a wealth of experience curating outstanding digital success stories by connecting with clients all across the world. Our professionals offer a full variety of development services for entrepreneurs, small enterprises, and medium-sized businesses all around the world.

We have a team of expert professionals who have excelled in every development field and have worked on diversified areas catering to years of industry experience. We can complete your fitness app project to your specifications and within your budget by incorporating your demands. As the industry changes or your business objectives change, MultiQos can help you leverage the most appropriate, up-to-date solutions. You can get in touch with us to start with your Online Gym App Development today.

How to Launch a Successful Health & Fitness App in the Market?

Here are some of the steps for launching a Successful Health & Fitness App in the market:

Social Media Launch

Make an effort to generate interest in your fitness application before it is released. A soft launch of your application is one way to accomplish this. You can do this by posting a teaser on social media and inviting solicit reviews and comments from prospective customers. This will also aid in the download of your software by users. You may also use social media sites like Facebook and Instagram to run targeted advertisements that link straight to the app’s download page. But first, establish a budget for paid adverts to avoid excessive spending.

App Store Optimization

Ensure to employ ASO also called App Store optimization, if you wish to successfully launch your fitness app and wish it to be noticed by users in app stores. It entails optimizing your app with keyword phrases that are relevant so that consumers can locate you. For example, you could include clear pictures of your application’s most typical uses. Furthermore, irrespective of the platform you choose, such as any social networking site or blog, you can include the URL for downloading your app.

Launch Event

Using a conference or webinar to host a digital launch event for your fitness application is can be another best promotional idea. Your launch event can include your business contacts, journalists, affiliate marketers, bloggers, famous fitness trainers, influencers, tech reviewers, and a variety of others. For example, to generate hype in the marketplace, you might show them a demo video of your fitness tracker and give them special discounts and prizes for installing it.

Conclusion

The fitness market is a thriving place and shall grow exponentially in the coming years due to increasing awareness amongst the people. Businesses are ready to invest in this attractive area as additional chances become available. However, it is quintessential to understand that by responding to your intended audience’s demands and understanding the market, you can differentiate yourself from the competition. We hope that this article has provided you with an insight into the detailed guide of healthcare application development. For a successful fitness trainer app development, you need to focus primarily on research and planning and understand the market and rival apps.

Furthermore, knowing your target market, carefully assessing your objectives, and assembling the correct team will significantly improve your chances of creating successful fitness software. You can also hire a health and fitness app development company to provide you with comprehensive Mobile App Development Services. You would be capable of providing attractive solutions to consumers and acquiring revenue and reputation if you focus on their requirements and demands.