The best Apple Watch apps for your smartwatch

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by Vivian Osei

Sign up to get the latest updates on all of your favorite content! From cutting-edge tech news and the hottest streaming buzz to unbeatable deals on the best products and in-depth reviews, we’ve got you covered. The developer, Train Fitness Inc., indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. You can trust CoachWe give honest reviews and recommendations based on in-depth knowledge and real-world experience. You can use Headspace with your iPhone, but you can also start a Headspace session directly from your Apple Watch.

Routes are curated and reviewed by AllTrails users and displayed clearly over the database’s 200,000 terrain maps. It’s all incredibly comprehensive and incredibly helpful for anyone from the casual set to the hardcore adventure hiker. The app is designed for your iPad, and what it does is offer a vast range of interactive textures and sounds that can stimulate a sense of peace and calm. The soothing background music begins to play as soon as you download and open the app.

Best for quick quitters: Streaks Workout

It dives deep into your sleep with meticulous analytics, uncovering health and sleep insights you never knew you needed. You’re either the person waiting patiently for that guy using the machine you want to stop scrolling their phone, or you are the person sat at the machine scrolling through your phone. If you fall into the latter camp and find your phone too much of a distraction at the gym, then Strong is for you. Couch to 5k was the pursuit of many throughout 2020 while the world was in lockdown. The plan promised to get those who’d only ever run for the bus confidently pacing a 5k in six weeks, although that time framing depends on the app you use.

It features 690+ exercises, as well as 130+ pre-curated workouts you can do at the gym or at home. You can also create your own custom workouts with your own images. It records all of your progress and makes it easy to track your workouts, calorie burn, heart rate, volume, reps, weight, and more. It was voted best fitness app for Apple Watch in 2023 and is uber affordable, making it a great value. The SmartGym Apple Watch app is an award-winning workout app that’s so good it even features in Apple’s own TV adverts for the Watch.

Best Apple Watch apps: Health and Exercise

Select one of the three difficulty levels, choose what you’d like to target – arms, legs, bum, abs or whole body – and the app will give you a 30-day plan to get you on the workout wagon. Intensity increases along the way, but you’re so busy you probably won’t notice. Besides video workouts, the app will also support you every day with mini meditations, health suggestions and even reminders to smile.

Best iPhone Step Tracker Apps

best free fitness app for apple watch

Tonal also features a vibrant social feed that keeps you connected with friends, allowing you to brag about new PRs as you stay focused on achieving your fitness goals. With over 500 unique walking workouts, WalkFit makes sure you’ll never hit a wall on your fitness journey. It’s Apple Watch-friendly, and elevates your fitness journey when paired with Apple Watch’s in-built features to help you stay in shape. The app prioritizes user privacy meaning you’re not going to be subject to activity tracking or have any of your data uploaded to external servers. AutoSleep is available on the App Store for a one-time fee of $5.99.

Why You Should Get A Fitness Apple Watch App

  • The app is updated each and every week with new exercise routines and can seamlessly integrate with the Apple Watch and other Apple products.
  • The GPS accuracy proved excellent in testing while a one-hour run using the max accuracy tracking burned just two per cent battery.
  • For the more ambitious, there are free, adaptive Garmin Coach training plans tied to your target race.
  • You’ll also be asked to enter your activity level, climate and personal goals.
  • These apps sync with each other and share information between devices.
  • The watch app will sync with the iPhone app to pick up right where you left off, so you won’t lose your spot.

They can also add benefits to your Apple Watch that competitors have on their smartwatches. For example, you can turn your Apple Watch into the perfect running or hiking companion. Nike Training Club is a popular health and fitness app featuring home workouts, yoga, mindfulness, high-intensity interval training, and more. Strap on the Apple Watch app and it’ll track sets and reps during workouts, as well as offering timers and recovery tracking.

Best Apple Watch apps: Entertainment

Not only that, but the quality of apps available is outstanding, to say the least. In this post, we will give you a detailed look into what we consider to be the best 3 fitness Apple Watch Apps, and then narrow that down to THE best of the best. We curated this list of the best Apple Watch apps based on hours of experimenting with dozens of different programs available in the wearable App Store. Not only did we pore over user reviews — we used the apps ourselves to confirm they live up to claims and work well from our wrist. The watch app will sync with the iPhone app to pick up right where you left off, so you won’t lose your spot. Audible requires listeners to pay for credits, so you can’t download unlimited audiobooks for free.

Disable them and the app won’t include them in future workouts. Streaks makes it a cinch to build a custom circuit fit for a champion. The Garmin Connect app must be installed on the iPhone from the App Store for the pairing to work. The app manages syncing and allows the user to grant noom app review permissions for notifications. It also offers health and wellness tracking, which the user can share with Apple’s Health app. However, if you want full smartwatch features like replying to texts or deep app integration, an Apple Watch may be a better fit.

The 12 Best Apple Watch Fitness Apps for 2025 (Tested on Series

For complete access to the Calm treasure collection, you’ll need a premium subscription. If the review leans towards the red end of the scale, you don’t need to scan every single brand of the same item to find the best one. Before you toss a product in your cart, you can fire up the app to scan its barcode and instantly receive a detailed analysis and rating of the item. Yuka offers complete transparency and refuses to let brands or manufacturers influence the information provided to you. Whatever you see is objective and honest data accumulated based on nutritional value, organic components, additives involved, and authentic scientific research.

Intermediate exercises

The Watch Fit Pro 4 is a smart fitness and health-focused watch that works with iPhone and Android, punching well above its price tag. At 30g, it’s exceptionally light and well built with a slim profile. The large, brilliantly bright, snappy 3,000-nit AMOLED display is protected by sapphire glass, a minimal titanium alloy bezel and an aluminium alloy case. Garmin smartwatches offer seamless compatibility with iPhones, enhancing the user experience by integrating health and fitness data with the convenience of staying connected on the go.

The best health apps for Apple Watch

Setup is very simple too and its vast range of health and fitness features alongside excellent smartwatch functions make it a great all rounder. Before you choose a fitness watch, you need to understand your goals. If you just want the basics like steps, sleep and resting heart rate – something to encourage you to move more – a budget-friendly tracker may be enough. Meanwhile runners, cyclists, swimmers and gym goers optimising their training will need GPS, a reliable optical heart rate sensor and a wider suite of training, coaching and recovery insights. Garmin Vivomove Trend is a stylish hybrid smartwatch that combines the look of a traditional analog watch with modern fitness tracking and smart features.

best free fitness app for apple watch

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition recommend 150 to 300 minutes of moderate physical activity a week. That depends on which model you choose and what you do when wearing it. Broadly speaking, the Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch SE 3 need to be charged daily, while the Apple Watch Ultra 3 can last a couple of days. Becca attended Southern Connecticut State University, where she studied technical theater and design. She has a background in carpentry and fabrication and has worked in specialty shops, using a wide variety of tools and materials, for more than 20 years. Voice instructions mean you can keep your focus without looking down, too, so you can visualise your happy place in peace.

Can these apps share data with Apple Health?

Behind its simple exterior, there’s a feature-packed watch offering strong value. It supports 164 sport modes, including strength training with auto-rep counting and a HYROX Race mode. The AI-powered Zepp Coach delivers customised training plans and a wide range of training and recovery insights. These include daily readiness scores, heart rate variability, sleep and activity tracking, which are powered by a suite of sensors you don’t often find on a watch at this price. The Apple Watch Series 10 is a premium smartwatch that offers advanced health, fitness, and connectivity features.

Primarily a running app, Strava tracks essential stats like distance, pace, speed, elevation gained, your average heart rate, and calories burned. But with the right apps, your wrist-borne personal health assistant can do so much more than you ever imagined. Try these 17 wellness apps for Apple Watch to up your health and fitness game.