12 Must-Have Features For Every Health And Wellness App

We can’t deny that our generation has seen a much higher occurrence of health risks and diseases than previous generations. And because of the increasing rates of health problems worldwide, people have started becoming more and more conscious of their health.

People have now realized the importance of physical exercise and eating healthy balanced diets to prevent health problems. Being healthy and fit has become a sought-after trend for everyone. People around the world view a healthy person as being desirable, successful, and fit.

Another thing that has seen an emergence in our time is the use of mobile phones. Almost every task can now be taken care of by mobile phones. With technologically sophisticated apps out in the market, even functions like heart rate scanning, fingerprint scanning, etc., can be done on mobile phones.

This popularity of mobile apps created opportunities for software developers to make apps that could cater to the growing health and fitness trend. Consequently, apps can help people reach their fitness goals, keep track of their sleep cycle, create meal plans, aid weight loss, and whatnot.

In essence, these apps act as virtual personal trainers to help people maintain healthy lifestyles and. And now, the app world is flooded with such apps.

But even with numerous health and fitness apps available in the market, only a few stand out from the crowd. These are the ones that understand the needs of their target audiences and accordingly include features and functions required.

Suggested Read: 10 Employee Wellness Apps For Your Corporate Health and Well-Being

So, what are the features that Health and Wellness Apps should include?

A well-designed wellness app must be up-to-date with the latest trends to determine a successful wellness app in this fast-paced and ever-changing environment. It must offer unique features over the standard essential features.

Here are 12 features every health and wellness app should offer-

1. Compatibility and Synchronization

The first thing that every wellness app should have is compatibility with most of the devices available in the market. They should be able to run on the most popular platforms, namely Android and IOS.

Also, with the development of wellness apps, various manufacturers have started producing wearable devices like the Apple Watch, which can make the process of health and fitness tracking much more effortless. Health and wellness apps should provide compatibility with most of these devices.

A good health and wellness app should have the ability to synchronize with different devices as most people prefer to synchronize their wearable devices with their phones.

2. Step Counter/Pedometer

A step count feature is a guaranteed way to motivate users to get moving. It works by tracking the number of steps a user has taken in a day. And, by getting a numerical representation of the steps they’ve taken, they will be motivated to walk daily.

This feature can also help estimate the number of calories burned. It will enable a user to establish daily goals and track their progress.

Moreover, a wellness app can create walkathons for its users to compete in with a gamification feature.

3. Food Tracker/Calorie Counter

This feature allows users to make entries of the food items they eat and count the calories and nutrients in them. This is a standard feature of the most popular wellness apps in the market.

This is beneficial for people trying to gain or lose weight as it helps them keep track of the calories consumed and modify it accordingly. Moreover, this feature helps guide users in adopting proper nutritional habits by enlightening them on the nutritional value of different food items.

As an added feature, apps can also provide healthy recipes for the convenience of users.

4. Water Intake Tracker

We all know how essential water is for the optimal functioning of our bodies. But in our hectic daily lives, we usually forget to track the amount of water we drink throughout the day.

This is where a wellness app can step in and take advantage of the situation with a water tracker feature.

Having a water intake tracking feature in a wellness app can never go wrong. It will help users to stay properly hydrated by reminding them to get sufficient water intake throughout the day.

5. Sleep Tracker

Sleep helps us recharge our minds and our bodies so that we can function optimally. But in our stressful and busy lives, it is quite hard to get a good night’s sleep regularly. It would be very helpful if something could help us track the time we spend sleeping and the time when we were active during sleep.

Fortunately, a wellness app with a sleep tracking feature can help us with the same. It can notify us when we don’t get proper sleep, so that makes it up later. Wearable devices with newer technologies can even tell us when we are in the heaviest or lightest sleep stage.

As such, a sleep tracking feature can prove to be a hit for wellness apps. However, to make use of this feature, users will have to wear a wearable device and then go to sleep with it activated. Otherwise, the data may not be accurate or dependable.

6. Location Tracker

Having the ability to track the location of a user is a must in all wellness apps. It will help to track walking, running, or cycling distances. Also, users will be able to log and record the distance they traveled and set a guideline for future workouts.

A location tracking feature is thus indispensable as it will help users share the distance they’ve covered on the map with other users and help them track their progress over longer durations of time.

7. Personalization

A key feature that every wellness app should include right off the bat is the ability to customize and personalize their workouts and goals according to their preferences.

Right from the start, the app should gather data from the user such as height, weight, age, gender, and fitness level. After registering the data, the app should ask the users their goals and training preferences and then recommend what they should do in order to achieve their goals.

This ability to personalize and customize is very important as users may have different goals and preferences and will want to train according to their requirements. Furthermore, this ability will make the app absolutely crucial to the user as it caters to their personal needs.

8. Gamification

A gamification feature in a wellness app is a sure-shot way to improve engagement. Users can get rewarded for the tasks and targets they complete with prizes and incentives with a gamification feature.

For example, there may be a task to work out 30 minutes every day for a week, and the ones who complete it will get rewarded with prizes. Rewards can be monetary or non-monetary, like gym memberships, free lunch coupons, etc.

With a reward up for grabs, users are more likely to push harder to reach their goals.

9. Leaderboard and Chat

A leaderboard feature is a very powerful feature for wellness apps. It encourages users to be active in real life and keeps them checking in and be engaged. This feature can leverage a user’s innate competitive streak to show them how they rank against friends, colleagues, and family.

Competing against people for rankings can make users push harder to achieve their goals. Also, being able to track other users’ progress is more likely to inspire and motivate people.

Moreover, a chat feature can also be very useful as it will allow users to share their progress and training sessions with each other.

10. Push Notifications

A wellness app should have the feature to remind users of their workout sessions or meals with push notifications. Such a feature can be of great convenience for extremely busy people and may forget to work out or have a meal.

This feature can be a game-changer for app developers to increase user engagement in their apps, but it can also be a game-ender.

If the notifications are too frequent, it might annoy users and cause them to switch to other alternatives. Thus, developers need to keep in mind that this feature is not too repetitive to not become annoying for the user.

11. Online Consultation

As users may be beginners with no prior knowledge of exercise or nutrition, they might want to clarify their queries with an expert. As such, a well-designed health and wellness app should include the ability for users to consult experts online whenever necessary.

This feature can also enable personal trainers and nutritionists to provide their services to users. And, users will have a sense of assurance and motivation in terms of their training if they are under the guidance of experts.

12. Heart Rate Monitor

With advanced technologies on offer in this modern age, we now have the ability to measure our heart’s activity with the help of wearable devices or fitness apps. This feature monitors our heart rates and notifies us if something of concern is detected. It also recommends the ideal heart range according to our vital data.

The Vantage Fit App, for example, measures a user’s heart rate by using their smartphone camera. The user is asked to place their finger onto the camera lens, and then their heart rate is measured.

This is an advanced feature that can be used in conjunction with wearable devices and can be very useful in determining heart issues.

If you are looking for a good wellness app to use, then look for one with all these features or if you are a developer wanting to create a wellness app, make sure not to miss out on these!