I've never been opposed to getting my sweat on in VR, but I've found only a handful of workout apps that take a truly practical approach. After all, when you're moving with a headset strapped to your face, the content needs to be tailored to an immersive environment. But a new Meta Quest app might be the first to totally appreciate the adaptations truly needed for mixed reality fitness.
Developed in partnership with renowned XR studio Magnopus, the Alo Moves app for Meta Quest features a selection of classes led by 3D-captured coaches. At launch, the app will include pilates, yoga and meditation class types, with sessions ranging in length from 5 minutes to no more than 25 minutes.
I had the chance to demo a beta version of the Alo Moves app on Meta Quest 3, with the freedom to explore the different formats. Starting with a meditation, the app whisked me away to a gentle ocean in a rather full FOV. A gentle voice guided me through some breath work via the headset's built-in directional speakers, which are quite good by headset standards.
Ready for something with a bit more movement, I selected a 20-minute yoga practice I could enjoy in my own space as made possible by the headset's passthrough cameras. An instructor suddenly materialized in front of me with an almost alarming sense of realism — no really, I could clearly see the tattoo wrapping from her back around the side of her waist.
But that's not all. In addition to the life-sized instructor standing square on, two miniature versions of the same instructor appeared on the floor at the far left and far right of my peripheral vision.
Why do you need not one, but three avatars for a workout, might you ask? Well, for a format like yoga, you often lose sight of the instructor as you move through poses like downward-facing dog and spinal twists. In a typical, in-person yoga class, you can maybe catch a glimpse of what your neighbor is doing if you need a visual cue for a vinyasa.
Alone in VR, you might need to bend your neck oddly or break a pose to see what the instructor wants you to be doing, and that's not pleasant when you have an extra 18 ounces strapped to your skull.
Alo Moves avoids this (possibly literal) headache with the two added avatars. These smaller versions move perfectly in sync with the big one, and you can resize and move them in your space however you please.
This was perfect for those yoga positions I mentioned, as I could always have some guidance in my vision. Once I got a feel for the pace of the class, I optimized the miniature coaches' location using a simple pinch gesture via the Quest 3's controller-free hand tracking.
The Alo Moves app for Meta Quest doesn't yet have a release date, and the company also isn't yet sharing whether the pricing will be different than the standard Alo Moves app membership. That currently costs $12.99 per month or $129 per year to access content in Alo's phone and tablet apps.
Supernatural VR, one of the leading VR fitness apps, costs $9.99 per month, for comparison. It would be a compelling strategy for Alo Moves to undercut the competition with a lower fee for VR content specifically, but we'll have to wait and see.
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