According to the latest Power On newsletter from Mark Gurman, Apple is working towards turning its upcoming non-AR smart glasses into another platform for health and fitness – though these features likely won’t debut with the first generation model in the coming year.
Per his reporting, Apple had already been working towards using Vision Pro as a health platform. The company was apparently working on a version of the Fitness+ app that would run on the headset, allowing users to watch workout videos, track their movement, and close their rings inside of Apple’s first generation spatial computer.
There was going to be some special body tracking analysis to set it apart from something like an iPad or Apple TV. However, due to the weight of the headset, the company abandoned its plans:
One initiative was a version of Apple Fitness+ that could run inside the headset. The idea was to let users wear the device while working out and following classes, with the headset using its body-tracking technology to analyze movements. But this never launched due to technological hurdles and the headset itself being too heavy.
Nonetheless, the company is revisiting a similar idea with its upcoming smart glasses – though it’ll have to be a bit different due to the lack of displays.
Fitness on smart glasses
It isn’t super clear what exactly Apple has in the pipeline for smart glasses, though we do know Apple is hiring for it. From the report:
Its Vision Products Group, the team developing glasses and future headsets, is looking for that hire to “define the future of health, well-being and fitness experiences across vision products.” This person will need to “translate ambiguous opportunities at the intersection of spatial computing, wearables, consumer health and human behavior” into a clear product direction, Apple said.
To me, two things that come to mind are the Workout Buddy feature that Apple released on the Apple Watch last year, in combination with a potential heart-rate sensor embedded in the glasses, similar to what debuted in AirPods Pro 3. That sort of setup could likely make the glasses a useful companion for runners.
The cameras could also come into play for different activities, allowing the system to understand what you’re doing right and wrong, then help you improve your workouts.
Time will tell what Apple will bring to the table. As stated at the beginning, these features likely won’t debut in the initial generation model – so it might be a couple years before we see Apple’s full vision here.
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