Fitbit Coach, the company’s connected personal training app, has come to Microsoft’s Xbox One videogame console and other Windows 10 PCs, Fitbit announced in a recent blog post. The service — which costs $39.99 annually — allows customers to follow guided audio and video workouts in their home with additional features provided by their Fitbit wearables.
Fitbit Coach is a rebranded version of the FitStar service, which Fitbit acquired in 2015 for roughly $25 million. First launched in October, the premium version of the app gives home users a regularly updated selection of video workouts with various fitness goals.
The service also comes with a customizable selection of music courtesy of feed.fm, while its mobile version includes dozens of running and walking audio workouts for use during an outdoor or treadmill session. The free version of the app is limited to a single personalized program alongside a selection of audio and video workout programs.
By connecting a Fitbit tracker or smartwatch that includes continuous heart rate monitoring, the home workout app will also display your heart rate on the screen throughout a user’s workout session, according to the company. Further, the app offers regular device wearers specific workout session recommendations personalized to their recorded daily activities.
Continued support for Fitbit’s software offerings shouldn’t be too a big surprise for those following the wearable producer. When the product first launched last year, Jon Oakes, VP of product at Fitbit, said that the company had “plans to open the platform to second and third party partners in the future.”
Additionally, during a November earnings call, CEO James Park highlighted a 75 percent year-over-year increase in in the app’s premium customers during Q3, and the fitness platform’s ability “to deepen user engagement by leveraging data” while offering workout guidance.
“Not only does this data allow us to deliver personalized health and fitness coaching and guidance, it also has the potential to help us detect more serious health conditions, which affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide and are the source of huge healthcare costs,” he said during the call. “We believe our data gives our advanced research team, comprised of scientists, doctors and health care experts, a clear advantage to develop algorithms and advanced sensors to detect these health conditions on a scale not previously available.”
