The Under Armour Connected Fitness Team recently launched upgrades to major apps for the recently released iOS 8. The upgrades consist of new health and fitness features, including 24/7 activity tracking. The app suite, which already includes MapMyFitness, MapMyRun, MapMyWalk, MapMyHike, MapMyRide, and Under Armour Women can be downloaded from the App Store.
With these new updates, Under Armour is allowing users to accomplish better activity tracking. Using the new 24/7 Activity Graph feature, users can have a better grasp of their daily activity level, in terms of number of steps taken, hours slept, workouts done, distance covered, and calories burned, among many others.
Any information related to activity level is collected by connecting a compatible activity tracking device (e.g. Withings Pulse, Jawbone UP), or with the use of the M7 or M8 motion co-processor present in the iPhone 5S, iPhone 6, or the iPhone 6 Plus.
Another unique component of the upgrades is a data unification feature. It purpose is to give the user a unified view of his or her fitness, at the same time, getting rid of redundant data that is being collected by two or more fitness tracking devices or apps.
Naturally, this feature is in demand, particularly by athletes who track their activity levels using different apps, e.g. activity trackers for daily fitness, GPS capabilities on MapMyRun/MapMyRide for tracking workouts.
Interestingly, the MapMyFitness suite of apps alongside the Under Armour Women app can be integrated with over 400 fitness tracking devices, apps, and wearable devices. The prominent device and app partners highlighted include Jawbone, MyFitnessPal, Armour39, and SUUNTO, to name a few. Furthermore, all the apps under the suite are optimized for the new iPhones' larger display screens.
"From day one of our mobile business in 2008, our team has understood the need to provide an open product and platform. Giving athletes the ability to connect to the apps and devices that matter most to them has proven to be important to the community," said Robin Thurston, Senior Vice President of Connected Fitness & Digital. "By capturing 24/7 data and expanding our third-party device compatibility, we're providing a snapshot of health and fitness data in a whole new way."
