Fitness Apps Suck

Easing the Wrong Pain Points

I use Strava religiously. When I go for a bike ride, I hit “Start”. When I go for a run, I hit “Start”. I use it for commuting, for fun, for exercise, for competitions, for fundraising events. If I’m involved in a sport, Strava is on.

I also have a Fitbit Flex. It’s awesome. It tracks my steps, my calories, my active minutes, my daily mileage, and my calories. It even tracks my sleeping habits. Its effectiveness is debatable, but it gives me some numbers to consider. At the end of the day, if I haven’t met my goal, maybe I’ll go for a short run (hello Strava!) or a long walk.

Both the Strava app and the Fitbit device solve a common pain point: tracking physical activity. Strava does some awesome things with the data, including tracking segments, GPS coordinates, and “suffer score” (with a heartrate monitor). Fitbit can tell if I’m being super active or if I’m laying around on the couch. Neat!

But where both of them fail spectacularly is where I have to interact with them physically.

In Strava, I have to open the app and hit “Start.”

In Fitbit, I have to interact to tell it I’m sleeping, track activities, and track meals/calories.

My first question is: Why?

The answer in the case of Strava is simple: it’s just an app. It’s not a device. (Hi Strava. Make a device. Thanks.) Since it’s just an app, it has to be explicitly turned on. But Fitbit has no such excuse.