Fitness is more fun with friends!
Then, we spent over one year testing 36 of the most popular devices, using them while we worked out, slept, and went about our everyday routines for over a month. We evaluated each one for its ease of setup, comfort, ease of use, accuracy, connectivity, features, and value to find the top options on the market. On the other hand, smart rings are smaller, lighter, and less obtrusive. Since they don’t have a screen, they won’t do anything to bother you during the day unless you look at your phone as well. You’ll have 24/7 monitoring for your heart rate, sleep, blood oxygen, menstrual cycle and pace of aging.
Community
You can compete against yourself or join community challenges to push your limits and achieve new milestones. You can explore popular spots via Segments and Routes, and detailed maps help you find and navigate optimal workout paths. While many apps offer this feature, StepBet aims to provide a balanced step-counting competition. MapMyRun, owned by Under Armour, is tailored primarily to runners unimeal app but also caters to athletes of different disciplines.
Ensuring App Compatibility with Your Fitness Equipment
Through continued involvement in the fitness niche, he has gained a strong understanding of how trainers and coaches build discoverability and authority online. In a nutshell, chat is an indispensable tool for any app that wants to operate efficiently, deliver exceptional user experiences, and build a strong sense of belonging. Without it, you risk your users leaving the app to have these real-time conversations on another app. By bringing live chat directly into your app, you can keep users engaged on your platform and boost your retention rates. When it comes to keeping users hooked and fired up, nothing beats the power of video-based content. With a jaw-dropping collection of over 1,000 on-demand video lessons available anytime, they’ve got you covered, even if you only have ten minutes to spare.
Fitness trackers can lead to feelings of shame, study suggests
When you start learning more about nutrition, it can seem overwhelming. For people who are interested, there is definitely a lot to learn and explore, but, in the end, basic nutrition is quite simple. It’s so simple, in fact, that we know you can eat better by focusing on these eight things. She is the chair of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine’s Registered Dietitian-Nutritionist Member Interest Group. She is active in the local Greater New York Dietetic Association and Long Island Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, too. The developer, Forge App Limited, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below.

I put these 5 shortcuts on my Android home screen and saved hours
- Now these wearables are becoming more high-tech with each release, equipped with features like personalized workout programs and the advertised ability to monitor stress or sleep quality.
- Counting steps is a favorite activity for competitive group exercises, with countless apps offering this feature.
- With over a decade of experience leading high-impact projects in engineering and operations, Saumya has a strong background in developing reliable and scalable systems.
- They explained how fitness trackers work and which metrics really matter and why.
- The Fitbit Inspire 3 creates daily readiness and stress management scores alongside guided breathing sessions to tap into zen wherever you are.
- In October, Oura announced a feature called Health Panels, which allows you to schedule a blood test with a local Quest Diagnostics location.
The Inspire 3 offers Fitbit’s best battery life, with 10 days achievable between charges. The hardware is lightweight (just 20g), comfortable, and has a 10-day battery life. Its core heart rate and sleep tracking are impressively accurate—particularly when the sensor is worn on the optional upper-arm strap. You will not get heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), stress, SpO2, or advanced sleep stage data. In-app video content is a key factor in keeping users engaged and motivated.
The pace on the watch also seemed to have some wild jumps during runs, although the overall pace measurement was usually closer to accurate. During our testing, we determined that all of our picks were high-performing and accurate. In conclusion, these social fitness apps have revolutionized the way we work out with friends. They offer a social experience, track your progress, offer useful insights, and create motivation to stick to your fitness goals.
Scaling Community Success with FitBudd
In 2026, behavioral scientists have identified that digital social accountability is the single most powerful predictor of workout adherence. By making your progress visible to a trusted circle, you tap into the psychological principle that we are naturally more driven to meet the expectations of others than ourselves. This social “safety net” ensures that one missed day doesn’t turn into a missed month. Using a group exercise app is about more than just finding a workout; it is about optimizing your environment for peak performance. In 2026, these apps serve as a digital “performance lab” where individual efforts are refined by group dynamics.
Let’s take a look at some of the best social workout apps which make it easier to exercise or compete in groups and achieve fitness goals together. The Garmin vívoactive 6 is water-resistant up to 50 meters and can withstand snow, rain, showers, diving into water, and surface swimming. It can track your activities, heart rate, and stress, and features breath work and meditation exercises, plus insight into women’s health and hormones. It measures body temperature, VO2 max, calories, resting heart rate, and active time spent in target heart rate zones like fat burn, cardio, or peak. It builds sleep profiles based on your sleep cycles and resting heart rate. The Fitbit Inspire 3 creates daily readiness and stress management scores alongside guided breathing sessions to tap into zen wherever you are.
Featured Products
Our app is free to download and use, making fitness tracking and community support accessible to all. Stay on top of your fitness goals with precise workout tracking and insightful analytics. Track progress, share motivation, and achieve your fitness goals with SocialPump. With a user-friendly interface, Love HIIT makes it easy to set up a workout and share it, perfect for a workout group that’s not too tech-savvy. Anyone with the link can use it through a web browser (desktop or mobile) and apps. The app uses GPS data from your phone, wearable devices (such as Fitbit or Garmin), or other apps to track your distance and duration.
The Oura Ring 4 Is Our New Top Pick for Sleep Tracking
Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing so you can make quick and confident buying decisions. Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time). In one of our tests, the battery fell about three days short of the advertised 10 days of life, not great but not terrible. Both authors reviewed testing insights to help create this list of top performers. Premium adds Discover, Create Studio, competitor tracking, comparison, AI insights, and faster refresh.
Which Metrics Really Matter?
Social fitness is all about motivating and helping your workout buddies to achieve more together. For a budget-conscious wearable, we think the Amazfit Active 2 smartwatch meets the mark without sacrificing performance. It has extensive smart technology, like intuitive fitness coaching and training, and sleep, food, and hormonal health insights in addition to heart rate, sleep, blood oxygen, and stress insights. No one is going to compliment you on the Band 7’s design, but it’s got a handful of cute watch faces that make good use of its OLED touchscreen.
Garmin
Modern group fitness apps are designed to work hand-in-hand with the latest wearable devices, making it easier than ever to track progress and join challenges with friends. By connecting your Apple Watch, Garmin, Fitbit, or other wearable devices, you can automatically log workouts, monitor calories burned, and keep an eye on your heart rate all in real time. This seamless integration means every step, rep, or ride counts toward your group’s fitness goals, and you can see your progress stack up on the leaderboard. The effectiveness of a fitness challenge app with friends lies in its ability to bridge the gap between “good intentions” and “consistent action. Group fitness challenge apps are especially effective for supporting weight loss goals, as they provide accountability and motivation through friendly competition and shared progress tracking.
A final thing to keep in mind is that this device is now getting pretty old, and is a good candidate to be replaced by a newer tracker in 2026. However, our main criticisms of Whoop remain its inconsistent https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/lose-weight/healthy-eating-when-trying-to-lose-weight/ HR readings during workouts and its high price. It works via a subscription rather than a one-and-done payment, making it one of the most expensive long-term wearables to invest in.


