Fitness trackers are getting more personal and more powerful in 2022 and beyond

The first fitness tracker you’ve ever owned, whether it’s one of the first fit bit, the now defunct Jawbone, a simple pedometer or heart monitor strap, probably did little more than record your steps and calories burned. Early Smart Watchesmeanwhile, essentially felt like phone companions rather than standalone devices.

But fast forward to 2022 and a lot has changed. Wearables are no longer niche devices for early adopters or fitness freaks. The Pew Research Center reported in 2020 that about one in five American adults regularly uses a smartwatch or fitness band. Global smartwatch shipments grew 47% annually in the second quarter of 2021 according to strategy analysisindicating the fastest growth rate in the industry since 2018.

Today’s wristband devices are full-fledged fitness devices capable of take an ECG reading from the wrist, controlling the quality of sleep and measure oxygen saturation in the blood, among other things. That opens up a world of opportunities but also makes things complicated. We have more access than ever to data about our heart rate, how sleepy and active we’re getting, and our overall well-being. However, some newer and more advanced health metrics can be difficult to understand, which begs the question of whether they are really useful.

So context and personalization will be key for current and next-generation wearable devices, according to conversations with medical experts, technology executives and industry analysts. The medical community is also excited about the potential for future fitness devices to detect more advanced metrics, such as changes in glucose levels, and the role of wearable devices in preventive care.

Better understand the health data from our fitness trackers

The biggest improvements likely to come in the near term will involve making health data more useful and personalized. Oura, Howl Y fitbit they are already helping to steer the industry in this direction with their respective scoring systems, some of which require a paid subscription.

Both Oura and Fitbit, for example, readiness scores to offer that help users decide if it’s time for a heavy workout or a rest day. Those numbers are based on metrics like heart rate variability at rest, sleep, activity, and other bodily signals. Whoop has a similar recovery score that provides insight into whether a user’s body is ready for strenuous exercise.

by Oura The readiness score embodies the company’s overall approach to health tracking, which is that devices should provide context along with numbers and data points, according to Chris Becherer, Oura’s chief product officer. He added that Oura will keep that focus with newer features, like the period prediction tool it launched in October and will only expand to new types of health tracking if the company can provide similar useful information.

“We’re not going to do it just to do it,” Becherer said. “And we’ll make sure it fits in with the easy-to-use, holistic experience Oura is known for.”

Fitbit sees another opportunity to add more personalization and specificity to health metrics: exploring the link between mental and physical well-being. Fitbit is already diving into mental wellness with its EDA applicationavailable in the Fitbit Sense Y charge 5, which measures changes in sweat to see how the body might be responding to stress.

Fitbit also allows users to record their mood to accompany those readings, so users can see how they felt when the measurement was taken. Analyzing that kind of data over time could help Fitbit better understand what changes in the body mean for a person’s overall well-being, leading to more granular insights.

“Over time we can get more and more correlation between this idea of ​​’How do I feel?’ compared to ‘What’s my physiology and what are the metrics telling me?'” said Jonah Becker, director of design at Fitbit. “Which I think is a powerful thing.”

The ability to measure additional bodily signals, such as electrodermal activity (i.e. sweat readings from the EDA app), could also lay the groundwork for future Fitbit Features. Eric Friedman, co-founder and vice president of research at Fitbit, takes aim at Fitbit sleep stages functionality as an example. That feature, which tells the user how much time was spent in light, sleep or REM sleep, is only made possible by other previous metrics like heart rate and movement measurements.

“Imagine taking that and EDA, and you… start building things together to start overlaying these health metrics, moving on to the next thing,” Friedman said.

Blood sugar monitoring could be the next big step forward in health tracking

What exactly that “next thing” is remains unclear. But reports and expert predictions point to blood sugar monitoring on wearable devices as an area of ​​interest.

However, that doesn’t mean diabetics can rely on smartwatch readings to calculate insulin doses. That will still require more invasive, skin-breaking devices for the foreseeable future, says Dr. Steven LeBoeuf, president and co-founder of Valencell, which makes health sensors for wearable devices.

Instead, a future glucose-monitoring smartwatch could make broader observations about whether the wearer is in a low, normal, or high blood sugar state. That could help users understand whether diet or exercise changes are affecting their blood sugar, or whether the user should use a glucose meter, says Dr. LeBoeuf.

“That has all sorts of positive implications,” said Dr. LeBoeuf. “So I think you’ll see that technology in wearable devices as well, whether it comes from Valencell or from some other entity.”

Dr. Zahi Fayad, director of the Mount Sinai Institute for Imaging and Biomedical Engineering, also sees a lot of potential in this space. Glucose monitoring capabilities like the ones mentioned above could help wearable devices deliver more personalized nutritional advice. That’s important because current recommendations are generally based on large population studies and therefore lack personalization according to Dr. Fayad.

“Everyone’s gut microbiome is different and reacts differently to food, or reacts differently to lifestyle changes,” Dr. Fayad said.

However, it’s unclear when or if this kind of functionality will come to everyday smartwatches or fitness trackers. Apple has been working to add blood sugar monitoring to the apple Watch, according to reports from Bloomberg Y The Wall Street Journalthough both reports suggest the technology is in its early stages.

Roberta Cozza, senior analyst director at Gartner, believes there is still a long way to go. Although research is ongoing in this area, she believes accuracy and medical clearances present a challenge.

“I think for this, you’re going to have to have something that’s doctor-approved,” he said. “So it will take some time until we find something that is really useful and reliable.”

Smart watches and fitness trackers are already starting to blur the line between medicine and wellness devices. Adding more sophisticated metrics like glucose readings means tech companies will need to consider how users might interpret these readings.

“Maybe vendors need to find new ways that they can be clearer with consumers about what expectations they might have using some of these devices,” Cozza said. “Because this is going to get more and more complicated.”

Fill in the gaps between doctor visits

The medical and technology communities seem to share a common goal when it comes to progress in the field of wearable devices: to help people take better care of themselves between doctor’s appointments.

“Instead of having one data point per year, you have continuous data points for every part of your day,” Becherer de Oura said.

That’s part of the inspiration behind the new features and capabilities that have come to recent wearables. For example, Amazon Halo The health app includes a tool to estimate body fat percentage from images taken with a smartphone camera, which it analyzes using machine learning and computer vision. The feature has been something controversial when it comes to personal privacy.

But Melissa Cha, vice president of Amazon’s Halo division, says the goal behind this feature is to help people keep track of their body changes, another tool for monitoring progress between doctor visits.

“You have a long-term record that you can then share with your care provider or doctor if you want to look at changes in your body composition over time,” Cha said.

Dr. Devin Mann, associate professor of population health and medicine at New York University Langone Health, thinks we’re seeing more of a crossover between medical and consumer devices. That’s because each side has something to learn from the other.

Commercial wearable devices are gaining more advanced health monitoring capabilities as medical device manufacturers seek to reach broader audiences.

“We’re seeing those two streams coming together,” Mann said. “And there is more overlap between them.”

In the long term, some experts are excited about the potential of using wearable devices to help detect disease early. That kind of functionality is still in its early stages, but Paul Friedman, MD, a cardiologist with the Mayo Clinic Cardiology AI Task Force, is encouraged by the progress the industry has made so far. A few years ago, most doctors would not have relied on data from health trackers to help inform medical treatments, according to Dr. Friedman. But that is changing.

“The answer would have been no; nine out of 10 when surveyed said no,” Friedman said. “Now it’s almost the other way around.”