I didn’t think I needed a “friend” to make me happy during workout when Apple first announced his new workout friend’s feature in Watchos 26. Nevertheless, this is an AI -powered sound that spreads you with positive feedback (or when you do a lot of activities), I was imagining a non -new trainer that would drive me out of my comfort zone. But after examining it and talking deeply with Apple, I am starting to think about how it works. Exercise friend is much more than just a hypeman, and it represents an important turning point in Apple’s health journey.
Exercise friend turns your Apple Watch into a friendly voice that appreciates your achievements during exercise. The Watch OS 26 feature is not a completely blowing fitness coach that can guide your training plan, but that does not mean that Apple is not going there. In fact, exercise friends can still be a clear signal that Apple is laying the foundation for something bigger in terms of fitness tools and AI.
At a time when investors and fans are important about the company’s AI efforts, especially compared to competitors like Samsung and Google, Apple has a chance to show how it is meaningful in a meaningful way. After Apple Intelligence’s abusive debut on the iPhone, the workout is the first time we see what can do with AI on Apple Watch.
The public beta version of Wachos 26 is out. I recently tested the workout Buddy at Wachos 26’s developer, and was really surprised at how he felt me after a walk. I talked to Jay Bilank, Vice President of Apple Fitness Technologies and Dadri Calidback, Senior Director of Apple Watch Product Marketing, to find more clarification about this feature, and open the tech and philosophy behind it. And the feeling I received from them is that Apple’s marathon is just starting towards intelligent coaching.
Don’t call it coach yet
When Apple introduced exercise Buddy in the WWDC in June, many Apple Watch fans (including themselves) were rushing to criticize the Buddy of Exercise for being more hype man/woman than a trainer. Compared to rivals such as Fit Bit, Garman and recently Samsung, all of them already offer some form of AI -powered adaptive coaching plan, with its real -time feedback, like Buddy, more than a strategy.
It is easy to focus on what Apple has fixed, what a workout friend is not. This feature is designed for a stimulus during your workout, not drill sergeant. It makes the context, personal motivation that originates in real time in eight supported exercise types: indoor/outdoor walk and runs, outdoor cycling, HIIT, functional strength training and traditional strength training.
“We didn’t want it to be just a pro -tool,” Black told me. “We wanted to be accessible to more and more people.”
You need to wear a headphones for a workout friend. I am a Freelas runner, who uses 2 extra minutes to work instead of looking for a headset and choosing the perfect playlist (Wachos 26 will soon take care of it). So I was not sold with my Apple Watch to use my regular speed and heart rate warnings on the wrist, instead of using the thought of exercise Buddy. And while I am still not running completely with the need for whole audio gear, I have no objection to having a workout friendly version of my alert in my ear that reminds me that I have reached my tour range (ie my target training zone).
Activate a work friend in the developer’s Watchos 26’s son.
When I started my first walk workout, I togelled the workout Buddy and was welcomed with a quick summary of my week. “This is your fourth walk this week,” he reminded me, and in this context, he prepared how close I was to close my thumbs. It was not ground breaking, but surprisingly, instead of burying this context in a graph, it should be presented in a conversation tone.
“It’s not a coach, but it’s designed to take your data and try to get it to you at the right time,” Blackk explained, “In this way that affects you and does not come on the way.”
My workout Buddy started to become a little more proud, though when I hit some hills during my walk and my heartbeat began to rise. Since my HR was constantly teasing up and drowning under my target, the warning was hitting my ears every few seconds. Fortunately, you can completely compose or disable HR warnings for each individual exercise. My personal sweet space includes just eliminating high HR alerts.
A decade -of -sweat -aweight and a team of trainers
Exercise Buddy was not just a serious creation of Apple that was done to prove that the company could do AI for health and exercise. Calidback told me that this is a decade -long fitness data, an impressive team of fitness plus trainers, and the result of Apple Intelligence’s technical elevator.
“It was a great time to happen because three things came together,” said Callebback. “Ten years of sweating equity, your personal fitness data. Our fitness plus trainers. And Apple Intelligence, which provided us with technical skills to advance it.”
I can feel all three in the final product. The sound I have heard is not just a common audio prompt, which is why I was accustomed to such features on other devices. It is a generative model trained on the sounds of 28 original fitness plus trainers. The tone, energy and phrases feel deliberately and personal.
“This is not a recording,” Calledback emphasized. “There was no script here. It was born at that moment using your workout data and sound model, and it would be different every time.”
When I first set up a workout Buddy on my Apple Watch Series 10, I was pointed out to choose one of the three separate sounds. He was not a hard -looking trainer I imagined that he would put me in the best form of his life, but he felt as if I would trust me to get there. Authentic, energetic and strange man. In other programs I have encountered the telemarket is far from the voices of the style robu coach.
There was a moment when the exercise Buddy told her because she was less than a human being. It came during a mailmark check, right later when I considered the standing hill. He reported my figures: “In one mile, the benefit of 230 feet high.” Then he stopped and announced, “It’s a Mild Advantage of Elevation! “The tone was so loud, you think I have just scaled Everest. It was not the message that stood. It was a delivery. A real person was in fact a” light “matter. But he felt the happiness of such a pleasure that he felt like that, at least because of his sadness.
Personal nature, mainly with privacy
The personal nature is not just about your data, it is about how it is supplied. Exercise friend can also adapt to your habits, preferences, and daytime.
“It is really worth noting that what they are saying is unique for the moment, and that you are not going to mobilize the same phrase again the next day, even if you have done the same thing.” Black said.
At the end of the walk, the workout Buddy summarized my stats, distance and calories. And he shared a meaningful nog: My walk was my speed in four weeks. He hit me much more hard than expected. I am coming from a knee injury that prevented me from running away for five weeks, and hearing that the little benefit was the moment when I realized that I was on his correction. It was the vision of this kind of context that I usually have to dig myself, in this case my ear came out without thinking about it.
Under the hood, Apple is balanced in the proximity of the exercise, with its long -standing privacy point. This feature uses on -device processing (both on your watch and iPhone) and a private cloud counting combination to create a reaction in real time. None of your personal fitness data is shared externally.
“We know this is your personal data,” said Callebback. “So we wanted to treat it properly, but still provide you with powerful insights.
This cautious approach is important. The trust will be the basis of any future health coaching that provides Apple via AI.
Apple got a new AI -powered training partner for you.
A vision that is only on the initial line
Although exercise is only available for people who have Apple Intelligence -assisted iPhones, all Apple Watch users will still benefit from other updates in Watchos 26. This limit is not about immunity, it is about processing power. Real -time requires a type of device performance to create a personal sound opinion that the current Apple Watch hardware cannot handle alone. At least not yet.
The Apple Watch Workout app has reviewed the largest navigation since it was launched in 2015. Basic features such as intermittent training and pace alerts, which were previously buried in the menus, are now front and center. Media integration has also improved, with the dynamic tips of your general exercise -based Apple music that you will start as you start exercise.
“We have focused on making these features personal and as easy as possible,” Black said. “Pushing the exercise app more than ever.”
That frameing; Focusing on simplicity, leakage and personalization, the key to understanding Apple’s strategy. While other companies run to launch fully developed AI fitness coaches, Apple is taking a more deliberate path: it is building an infrastructure to handle your data and translate it into meaningful, real -time guidance.
Apple has been here before the local sleep tracking at the Apple Watch. The company waited until it was medical and consequently a reliable implementation with the warning of sleeplessness, while rivals had longer offered the basic features of sleep tracking.
“We really make our features easier and easy to add and easy to use,” Blaink told me. We understand that there is a really bright future where it can be. “
Apple’s tall game
Of course. Apple will never tell us where its eyes are placed next, but you don’t have to become a rocket scientist to attract all this to attract.
“When we think about the future, all the ways with which we can put this feature even and even personalized, we understand that it’s really, really interesting.”
Exercise can now look lightweight, but this proves that analysis of real -time data on Apple Watch is already a possibility, and it can provide them with the stimulation and deeply personal. More importantly, it is checking water. It is accessible, friendly and non -danger. Even an initial thing can be inclined to use.
This is determining what can happen after this: an AI -powered coach that only helps you understand all your data out of the exercise app to help you encourage you and build healthy habits that will lead to measuring improvement. If Apple plays this right, a long game can actually pay. Because creating trust, providing real insights, and meeting people where they are, how do you win the marathon?
