Two months ago, MobiHealthNews looked at the fitness apps that Apple recommends to consumers in its app store, pointing out that, at the time, standalone fitness apps were doing better than the apps for connected devices like Fitbit and Jawbone UP.
It's important to remember, however, that iOS isn't the only game in town. In the world of fitness apps and devices in particular, we've recently seen Jawbone and Fitbit announce Android support for their devices. Most recently, Basis Science launched the first app for their device on Android, although the company does intend to follow up with iOS support.
As a follow-up to our look at Apple's list of iPhone fitness apps, we're presenting Google's top 20 paid health and fitness apps for Android, as the company lists them on the Google Play store.
Unlike the iPhone list, this is a list of paid apps only, as Google lists paid and free apps separately. This de facto eliminates most of the companion apps for devices like Fitbit or Nike+, which are usually free to download. Google also has a separate category for medical apps, which includes most provider-focused offerings.
Read on for Google's top 20 health and fitness apps, including quite a few names familiar to MobiHealthNews readers. And don't forget to take a listen to our recent podcast on fitness apps and devices.
20. GymRat -- $2.50
GymRat is a workout tracker app from GYMR. The app allows users to track and log their exercises, routines and body metrics such as BMI, weight, body fat, pulse, blood pressure, and blood glucose. It also includes instructions for more than 500 weightlifting and cardio exercises and 17 workout routines. The app also includes a suite of "gym tools" -- a stopwatch, countdown timer, repetition calculator, BMI calculator and tools for calculating barbell plates. MORE
19. MapMyRide+ -- $0.99
Interestingly, MapMyFitness's cycling app, not its popular running app MapMyRun, is the only one to make Google's top 20 paid apps. MapMyRide "turns your phone into the ultimate cycling computer," according to the app's description in the Google Play store. With it, users can map their cycling route, track it with GPS, and track their speed, distance, calories burned and elevation. The app also includes nutrition and weight tracking, as well as a social component, ranking users on leaderboards when they bike popular routes. The app runs in the background of the user's phone.
MapMyFitness raised $9 million from Austin Ventures last year, and has partnerships with Aetna CarePass and NetPulseOne. MORE
18. WomanLog Pro -- $2.99
WomanLogPro is a tool from developer Pro Active App to help women track their menstrual cycle. Women can track menstruation, moods, weight and symptoms. The app also provides a three-month summary and an ovulation and fertility forecast. Users can track adherence to different birth control methods and set reminders on the app's calendar to take pills or even to do breast cancer self-examinations. MORE
17. Period Tracker Pro (Pink Pad) -- $1.99
Pink Pad is another period tracker with similar functionality to WomanLog. In addition, the app from Alt12 Apps includes a social component designed to connect women who are trying to conceive with one another via an online community. The app also totes its custom discreet reminders. It tracks temperature in addition to mood, weight, and menstruation. MORE
16. SleepStats -- $1.49
This app is an add-on to Sleep as Android, an app that bills itself as a smart alarm clock. Sleep as Android tracks sleep cycles and promises to wake the user more gently in the morning by waking them at the optimal time in a sleep cycle. The paid add-on includes more statistics than the free app, showing the user's "sleep length, debt, wake-up and fall asleep hours, smart early wake-ups and ratings in week, 14-days, month, quarter, half year and yearly view." MORE
15. Period Tracker Deluxe -- $1.99
The third period tracker on the list, Period Tracker Deluxe by GP International uses data visualization to convey information -- for instance the app includes a tree branch that flowers when the user is in her "fertility window". The app tracks periods, mood, and "intimacy," and has a pregnancy mode to countdown to a baby's due date. Like Period Tracker Pro, the app has a focus on discretion, showing up on the user's phone as simply "P tracker". MORE
14. Diet & Food Tracker -- $3.99
SparkPeople's Diet & Food Tracker has a food and calorie tracker with 2 million foods programmed into it and a barcode scanner to find them easily, as well as weight and fitness trackers. It's one of the five apps available on the Google Play store from online health and fitness community SparkPeople. Although SparkPeople is free, when MobiHealthNews spoke with the company last February (after a JMIR study validated the effectiveness of the website), COO Dave Heilmann said paid apps were a big part of the site's business model. MORE
13. Just 6 Weeks -- $0.99
This workout app promises to get the user to a certain exercising benchmark in six weeks: either 100 push-ups, 200 sit-ups, 150 dips, 200 squats or 20 pull-ups, or any combination of the five. Using a simple interface, the app tests your starting level and then generates a program to reach the goal. It also counts down the appropriate rest time between repetitions. The exercises don't require any special equipment. MORE
12. Calorie Counter Pro -- $3.99
This food tracking app from MyNetDiary boasts a catalogue of 500,000 foods -- 200,000 added by the company with the other 300,000 uploaded by users. It has an autocomplete search function and remembers foods that the user searches frequently. In addition to food tracking, the app has capabilities for tracking weight and exercise. MORE
11. Runtastic Pedometer Pro -- $0.99
Runtastic is one of the few fitness app makers that has developed its own tracking hardware, launching a pulse watch and heartrate strap last year. The company's paid pedometer app focuses on getting its users to reach a goal of walking 10,000 steps per day. The app perpetually tracks steps in the background of the users phone, as well as tracking speed, distance, and step frequency. Users can share stats on social media. MORE
10. Zombies, Run! 5K training -- $1.99
Zombies, Run!, from British developer Six to Start, has a focus on using story and gameplay to encourage people to be active. At a recent Games For Health keynote, writer Naomi Alderman said that when the company decided to make a 5K trainer as a complement to their existing app, they decided to fold that into the story as well as a prequel of sorts. In this app, Runner 5, the protagonist of the Zombies, Run! app, is being trained to run future missions shortly after arriving at Abel Township, the setting of future games. The program runs eight weeks and includes 25 workouts. MORE
9. Instant Heart Rate Pro -- $1.99
Azumio's Argus app debuted last week for iOS only, but its other apps are available on Android, too. Instant Heart Rate, the app that first put Azumio on the map, tracks the user's heart rate by detecting color changes on the user's finger using the phone's camera. MobiHealthNews pointed out last year that a CBS spot on mobile health showed the app being used in a medical context, raising some questions about whether apps like Instant Heart Rate should be FDA cleared. At present, Azumio is still not. MORE
8. White Noise -- $1.99
A white noise app seems like an odd inclusion on a health and fitness list, but this one, from TM Soft, is recommended by TV physician Dr. Mehmet Oz to improve sleep health. The app description boasts the following benefits to white noise: It blocks distractions, relaxes and reduces stress, pacifies fussy and crying babies, increases focus while enhancing privacy, soothes headaches and migraines, and masks tinnitus (ringing of the ears). MORE
7. JEFIT Pro -- $2.99 (on sale, normally $7.99)
JEFIT is a workout app that allows users to manage their workout routine including built-in or custom exercises. Users can track workouts and schedule routines in a calendar. They can also create a profile to share their workouts with other users, or to take and share progress photos with their phone's camera. The app's database includes more than 1,300 exercise instructions, animations and tips and the app can track cardio, weight lifting, fitness and strength training exercises. MORE
6. Fitness Buddy: 1700 exercises -- $1.99
Originally developed by SkyHealth, Fitness Buddy became an Azumio app when the company acquired SkyHealth last July. At the time, the iPhone version of Fitness Buddy was the top selling paid app on iTunes. The app contains instructions, including some animations and videos, for 1,700 different exercises. In addition, users can track body weight and metrics and graph their fitness progress. Users can find routines based on their goals and the equipment to which they have access. MORE
5. Zombies, Run! -- $3.99 (on sale, normally $7.99)
At a recent keynote, Zombies, Run! creator Adrian Hon talked about the decision to charge for Zombies Run!
"People thought we were crazy, but we believed in what we had done and we thought we could charge fair value for it," he said. "So far we've sold over half a million copies of it. It's still selling solidly."
The game, which began as a Kickstarter project, takes the form of a zombie-themed audiobook that plays while the user runs. At certain points in the story, the hero is chased by zombies, prompting the user to run faster in order to outrun them. The app tracks runs with the phone's GPS. Users can also collect power-ups while running that they can use in another section of the app. Six to Start, the app's developers, just released the first seven missions of the second season of Zombies, Run!, which will eventually include 60 different missions. MORE.
4. Runtastic Pro -- $4.99
"Runtastic PRO uses GPS to map & track sports and fitness activities, such as: running, jogging, biking & walking," says Runtastic's Google Play store description. "The Runtastic PRO app tracks cardio workout progress (time, distance, elevation, calories & more) to help you reach training goals." The app includes voice feedback during workouts, heart rate and interval training, and integration with Google Earth. It also has social sharing capabilities and integrates with the user's MyFitnessPal account. MORE
3. Couch-to-5K -- $2.99
This app from The Active Network is designed to get the user ready for a 5 kilometer (3.1 mile) race in nine weeks. The program has users work out three times a week for 30 minutes each. The app has a gamified component, including a choice of five animated "virtual coaches" with different personalities. It also uses the phone's GPS to plot routes and calculate distance and lets the user log workouts and share progress on Facebook or on Active.com. The app was originally developed by Cool Running, a company which The Active Network acquired in 2007. MORE
2. Scientific 7 Min Workout Pro -- $0.99
Scientific 7 Min Workout is a High Intensity Circuit Training app, which means it's aimed at burning a lot of weight in a short time without special equipment. The app includes a simple user interface, voice and text instructions on how to complete the workout, and a log for tracking workouts. MORE
1. Endomondo Sports Tracker PRO -- $4.99
Endomondo is one of the more well known fitness tracking apps, making headlines in June 2012 when it passed 10 million downloads. The app tracks duration, distance, speed and calories for any outdoor sport, and can use connected devices such as a Polar Wearlink transmitter or a Zephyr heart rate monitor to track heartrate. It also integrates with SonyEricsson's SmartWatch. Endomondo includes an audio coach, and will even read you live peptalks entered by your friends on Endomondo's website. It has a social component on both Facebook and Endomondo.com. MORE
