From Monday, October 24, Apple Fitness Plus will be available to anyone with an iPhone, whether you’ve bought one of the best Apple Watches or not, Apple has confirmed.
What's more, anyone who has bought an iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV since September will be eligible for a three-month free Apple Fitness Plus trial. If you’ve never used the service, you’ll be able to sign up for a free month-long trial from Monday.
Anyone running iOS 16.1 in one of the 21 countries where the service is offered will find Apple Fitness Plus fully integrated into their iPhone from October 24. You’ll be able to access the workouts from the middle tab in the Fitness app. iPhone users will have access to the entire service featuring more than 3,000 studio-style workouts and meditations.
In the Fitness app, iPhone users will be able to see the progress of their move ring — the red ring on the Apple Watch that shows how many active calories have been burned. In the classes, users will be able to see this ring on the screen, as they work to close it during the workout. You can also expect onscreen guidance, an interval timer, and estimated calories burned, based on your height and weight. (That's information you provide Fitness when setting up the app.)
What are the best Apple Fitness Plus classes to try?
One of the benefits of Apple Fitness Plus is it’s variety. There are HIIT, yoga, meditation, core, strength, Pilates, dance, cycling, treadmill, rowing, and cooldown classes on offer. When you log into the service, you’ll be able to see new workouts, Artist Spotlight collections (these show workouts with playlists from chosen artists) and the Time to Walk and Time to Run episodes.
There’s a lot to choose from and as a fitness editor, one of my favorite things about Apple Fitness Plus is the ability to add workouts to the My Library section of the app to save, download, and do later. If you’re looking for inspiration, check out the Collections, which have a series of workouts based on a goal.
Whatever you’re into, whether you work out at home, or in the gym, if you’ve got an iPhone, you can get one of the best workout apps for free for a month, and that’s worth shouting about.
After the free trial, Apple Fitness Plus is available as a subscription service for $9.99 per month or $79.99 per year and can be shared with up to five other family members. Read our Apple Fitness Plus review to find out more.
What if you've already got an Apple Watch?
If you've just bought the Apple Watch Series 8 or the Apple Watch Ultra, or any of the best Apple Watches, you'll also be eligible for a three-month free trial of Apple Fitness Plus.
Unlike Apple Fitness Plus for iPhone users, the metrics on the screen will be slightly different, showing the progress of all of your rings, and your heart rate. One thing to note is that if you do own an Apple Watch, if you choose to do an Apple Fitness Plus class without your watch, the Move ring on the screen will not affect your Move progress on the Watch. For now, Apple is keeping those two things separate.
What else is new?
If you’re already an Apple Fitness Plus user, not much will change, but there are some new things coming to the app on Monday. On October 24, a new Taylor Swift Artist Spotlight will launch — new workouts featuring music by Taylor Swift will appear across workout types including Core, Cycling, Dance, HIIT, Pilates, Rowing, Strength, Treadmill, and Yoga.
Apple is also launching a Yoga for Every Runner workout program, featuring US ultramarathon runner, Scott Jurek. The 10-minute yoga classes, led by Fitness Plus trainer Jessica Skye, are designed to act as a warm-up or cooldown for runners. "Whether people are new to running or seasoned veterans, I hope these 10-minute workouts in this program on Fitness Plus will help users feel more confident and comfortable incorporating yoga into their training and recovery," Jurek said.
