Apple Upgrades Fitness+, Integrates Strava

Apple Fitness+ is branching out.

What’s happening: Apple enhanced its digital workout platform with new modalities, pickleball conditioning, celebrity partnerships, and Strava integration.

• New programs include progressive strength training, yoga, and breath meditation.
• Professional pickleball champion Catherine Parenteau leads sport-specific sessions.
• Upcoming Artist Spotlights feature Coldplay, Kendrick Lamar, Bruno Mars, and more.

Expanding its reach, Fitness+ will now share detailed workout metrics with Strava while courting the app’s members with a free three-month subscription.

Common ground. Competing for users, digital fitness companies are embracing cross-platform partnerships to reach new audiences.

Vying to be the definitive activity hub, Strava lets users upload content- and training-agnostic workouts. For Fitness+, it’s hoping some of Strava’s 135M members will stick around post trial.

Elsewhere… Playing nice, Peloton partnered with lululemon, Fitbit, and TikTok. Aggregating apps, Samsung’s smart TV features workouts from Technogym, F45, and obé Fitness.

Punchline: As platforms compete for market share, some will seek to own the ecosystem while others enhance it — creating a showdown between compatibility and exclusivity.