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Now that smartphones and their accessories include more sensors, there are more apps that are able to use them to measure some fitness-related activities such as the number of steps walked in a certain amount of time or track running or biking. Google released Google Fit for their Android devices about a year ago, it is available in different platforms so users can check their data across many devices. Today, the mobile app is being updated to improve its functionality. A personal trainer functionality has been added to Android Wear devices and there’s a new Fit Challenge section shows users how to properly do exercises like sit-ups, push-ups or squats. There are several difficulty levels of these exercises and the instructions come in text and in visual form.
The Activity screen show the progress towards a certain goal of this exercises, it let users know how many repetitions have they made and the amount of time it took to achieve them, plus, it displays encouraging messages to keep users going, but in case they need a break, there’s a pause button. Gesture controls allow them to repeat the tutorial or reset the challenge by swiping the screen to the right. After the routine is completed, a reassuring message will appear and the app will show a summary of the activities done throughout the day. The older section of the app will show a graph and history of the progress, this information can be seen on other platforms.
The challenges last for 30 days, and it starts with a simple routine consisting of 5 repetitions per day, it will probably get harder each day. This, being a personal assistant, will perhaps be able to alert users every day when it’s time to start their routine. Google Fit has included an analog watch face for a while now and with this update a new digital watch face is available, so users can choose whichever they prefer. The update will start rolling out from today, so those interested in getting the new functionality should check the Play Store to see if it’s already available, and if it hasn’t shown up quite yet it won’t be long before it appears for most.