Michal Marek Developer studio Runtastic, which is behind a number of popular fitness apps for iOS, has expressed its enthusiasm for the HealthKit platform introduced by Apple and at the same time promised its full support in its apps. The adoption of the new health platform presented at WWDC is generally very positive on the part of the developers, and the authors of other applications such as Strava, RunKeeper, iHealth, Heart Rate Monitor or Withings also expressed their support for the platform.
A big benefit for developers is that HealthKit allows their apps to access various health information from other apps of other developers. Until now, such access to information could only be possible through special partnerships between individual development companies.
Runtastic representatives told the server 9to5Mac, that they are pleased with how Apple and HealthKit care about the privacy of their users. Runtastic's head of iOS development, Stefan Damm, said that Apple has created a truly transparent system where the user can always see what data is being shared with which app and so on. According to the company's executive director Florian Gschwandtner, he is also pleased that more people are finally becoming interested in exercise and health in general, because until now the percentage of people with such an interest is only between 10 and 15%.
According to Gschwandtner, Healthkit is a big leap forward for both consumers and fitness app developers. According to him, the health and fitness industry is becoming more and more important, and when Apple focuses on such an industry, it will confirm its potential and allow it to become mainstream. At Runtastic, where they have more than 15 fitness apps for iOS, they get the ability to provide important data through HealthKit, but also get it through third-party apps. The entire Runtastic team is very excited to integrate the HealthKit platform into their apps, and Gschwandtner is confident that HealthKit for the end customer will be a big win.
Stefan Damm added the following:
Apple has done a really great job with HealthKit. As developers, this tool will allow us to easily connect with other apps… This will promote trust and surely increase the number of shares. If the user is then willing to share the information, it will be very easy to combine data from different sources and applications and thus obtain a more comprehensive view of the overall state of health and physical condition. I think we will see many applications that will process this data, analyze it and give recommendations to the user on exactly how to improve their lifestyle.
It is pleasing that all the developers who have been contacted so far have welcomed the arrival of the HealthKit platform and promised to integrate it into their applications. Apple could thus gain a relatively large advantage over the competition in the field of fitness and health, as the applications available in the App Store will have significant added value thanks to HealthKit and the Health system application. The connection of their applications with Apple's new health ecosystem has already been promised by many developers from the leading positions of the App Store rankings.
You can also look at it from the other side. Do development companies have a choice? :) they just have to cooperate with apple, otherwise it can be a big risk for them :)
Karel: He doesn't have to. They can sell hot dogs on street corners. And if they did, Apple would have no one to work with and no one to offer, there would be no WWDC.
In doing so, I offer a different perspective on COOPERATION, from which everyone involved benefits. But it is definitely not about zero choice for development companies.
I do not know. I use Runtastic Road Bike and graphically it looks like iOS 6 and below, so with the support of new technologies I wouldn't see it as fast.
What does layout and graphic processing have to do with "supporting new technologies"? Although I don't know if I would call a piece of software a new technology.
There isn't much in common, but I would like to point out that I would take this statement with a grain of salt if you need a road bike, in the two years I've been using it, it hasn't brought much new.
I guess I understand you