THEOne of our biggest complaints with Apple’s new Fitness + service when it was launched was that it didn’t support AirPlay, which means you couldn’t stream workouts from your iPhone, for example to your (non-Apple) TV. It was a mind-boggling choice, as Apple Watch and iPhone owners without Apple TV were forced to stream workouts on a tiny screen. Users were too no to delighted. But, rejoice! It looks like Apple is also adding the ability to cast Fitness + workouts to any AirPlay compatible TV.
The new feature was noticed in the current developer update for watchOS 7.4 and iOS 14.5, which have not yet been rolled out to the public. Adding AirPlay 2 compatibility is not only convenient, but it’s also a step in the right direction. While Fitness + is relatively affordable at $ 10 a month, it requires a hefty hardware investment to get the best experience. While you could get away with it only an Apple Watch and iPhone, it is much better if you also have an iPad and Apple TV. (Because of course That’s it.) Allowing users to cast to an AirPlay-compatible TV opens the service to a much wider range of users.
There is one caveat, however. According to TechCrunchit seems that while you can cast both audio and video via AirPlay, you’re missing out on the on-screen stats. In Fitness +, a big attraction is that you get to see your A.ctivity rappears directly on the screen, along with your heart rate, calories burned and the time remaining in a workout. For certain cardio workouts you can also use a ‘Burn Bar,“ that is a visual representation of how you are doing compared to everyone else who has done the workout before. Those stats were probably why Fitness + didn’t initially launch with AirPlay compatibility, because the Watch sends those stats to Apple’s devices via Bluetooth.
That’s a bit of a shame, but at the same time, the most important part is seeing the training video itself. You can always look at your wrist to see your heart rate, calories burned and your progress with the workout. A bigger question is whether your ability to control workouts (eg, Pause and Start) from the wrist is affected via AirPlay. In any case, it’s encouraging to see Apple not waiting to add updates to Fitness +. Last week it added a new one Time to run function, and now this.
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That is not the only update we can expect. The iOS 14.5 developer beta also appears to include a new feature called Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch. As long as you have an unlocked Apple Watch, you can use FaceID on your iPhone. This would be hugely helpful in situations where you can’t remove your mask and still need to unlock your phone or use an authentication feature.or, for example, if you are in the supermarket and want to use Apple Pay.
Again, this is Apple. To use this feature, you will need an Apple Watch and non-Apple Watch users will not have a good option. However, as always, this is not the last version of these features. Although it is more than likely they will eventually find their way to consumers, they may take a slightly different form after getting feedback from developers. In any case, both updates are very welcome fixes for some large pets.