As the fitness industry continues to evolve, one technology is poised to transform the way we think about mobile marketing and fitness: Augmented Reality (AR). Gone are the days of simply choosing between smart glasses and gym memberships; AR will bridge the gap between traditional fitness activities and gaming, making it an exciting future for the industry. As a former CEO of a mobile gaming company, I'm thrilled to see where this technology takes us.

The Gamification of Fitness

The pandemic has been an earthquake for the fitness industry, with many people moving their workouts outside or into the home. Smart bikes, smart mirrors, wearables, and other home fitness equipment flourished, with sales in home fitness doubling to $2.3 billion. As vaccinations move along and lockdowns lift, schools and gyms are slowly re-opening. Some people will continue to enjoy working out from home, but many miss the social aspects of exercising together. Successful post-pandemic mobile marketing strategies will allow people to do both – livestream and workout with others digitally while remaining safely at home.

Companies like PhotonLens are creating AR headsets for various fitness applications, such as boxing, ping pong, and yoga. These apps add a new level of interaction, celebrity trainers, safe immersion in active gaming environments, and most importantly, gamification of your fitness routine. At PhotonLens, we take gamification seriously – our founders are all former mobile gaming company leaders.

Neuroscience Research

Neuroscience research shows that people are more likely to make habits out of activities they enjoy, and repetitive tasks can get boring quickly. Studies suggest that 44% of inactive people don't exercise because it's not fun. The stakes for promoting fitness now are high – studies show people did 32% less physical activity during the pandemic, and obesity among young people increased as life became more sedentary.

Previous mobile marketing strategies have either tried to simulate activity (treadmills) or inform you about what you're doing (fitbits). While these devices make exercise easier and more convenient, they don't do much to make the experience more fun. AR has the power to make exercise more exciting by gamifying your workout, with reports showing incredible returns.

XR Fitness Games

XR fitness games are burning calories during typical play, with studies finding that 15% of VR games qualify as medium to intense exercise. Fitness and sports games make up 5 of the top-selling games on the Oculus Quest store.

AR builds on the core strengths of VR fitness, along with a number of practical advantages over other forms of mobile marketing technology. Unlike VR headsets, which can cause dizziness and pose some safety issues in fitness, AR headsets mix your physical environment with virtual projections, allowing you to stay present in and aware of your real world.

Technological Gateways

To make this dream a reality, three things must happen: the tech must work, consumers must buy in, and companies must deliver. I'd argue that the tech works – advances in the newest generation of AR hardware open the door to these possibilities in fitness.

New AR headsets are lightweight enough to support fitness and active gaming. Rapid body and head movements are difficult and strain the neck when a user is wearing a heavy headset. New consumer-facing AR glasses weigh in at around 80g, making for easier cleanup and air flow around and between lenses.

Controller capabilities also have a major impact on fitness uses. Older generations of AR headsets supported single TV-remote-style controllers, supported by hand and gesture recognition. These older controllers were useful for presentations and office collaboration, but for use cases where precision matters, hand gesture recognition often isn't enough. For AR controllers to rival the power of VR controllers, they must be dual, wireless, and have 6 degrees of freedom (6 DoF).

Lightweight devices with dual 6 DoF controllers are the most obvious gateways for the widespread use of AR in fitness, but as AR nears the tipping point of consumer adoption, there are a host of important "background" technologies that are also improving drastically. Computing power matters – AR hardware needs to use next-generation platforms built for XR uses (such as the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2). SLAM technologies need to be good enough that devices can recognize a variety of hand gestures and create maps of a user's environment to mix with virtual media.

Connection speeds also make a difference for AR's long-term growth – current home wifi speeds can support good VR and AR software now, but 5G speeds will be important to support advances in SLAM, better AR software, and lightweight standalone AR headsets.