In Virtual Reality News
January 12, 2023 – Meta has announced that as part of a recent update, users will now be able to track their fitness stats on Meta Quest, including heart rate monitoring, thanks to an Android integration.
Meta stated that VR fitness on Meta Quest is “booming” and as a result, the fitness market has become a key part of the company’s VR ecosystem. Over the last year, the company has made several announcements demonstrating its commitment to VR fitness, including the launch of the Meta Quest 2 Active Pack, as well as the integration of Meta Quest Move with the Meta Quest mobile app.
That integration enabled users to view their workout data—including calories burned and minutes worked out in VR, plus any goals set—on a mobile device. Meta also enabled Apple Health users to sync their VR fitness progress to their Apple Health app.
With this new update, Meta is bringing that same functionality to Android devices with Health Connect by Android. This will allow Android users to record VR workouts without having to manually input the minutes they exercised, as well as integrate VR workouts and stats with all other daily fitness activities on their Android devices. Ultimately, users will now be able to keep track of all their VR workouts and compile all their stats in the same place that they track any other daily activities on Android.
Meta stated that the integration will work on Android smartphones with Health Connect, and as a result, Android users will be able to sync their Meta Quest Move stats to the Meta Quest mobile app, and from there to Health Connect by Android. If users decide to disconnect from Health Connect in the Meta Quest mobile app, no new Move activity will be shared with the app, according to Meta, but any previous activity will still appear.
For instructions on how to sync Move stats to the Meta Quest mobile app (after setting up the Move app in VR), click here.
With regards to user privacy, Meta stated that it has “designed the tracking of VR fitness data through the Meta Quest Move app, and the integration of that data into both Apple Health and Health Connect by Android, with privacy at the forefront.”
Our Apple Health and Health Connect by Android integrations are opt-in, and if you choose to connect Meta Quest Move to the Meta Quest mobile app, all your Move stats—calories burned, minutes of movement, and your goals—are protected by end-to-end encryption when stored on our servers and won’t be used to inform ad targeting on any Meta services. For full details on user data and privacy with relation to VR fitness data on Meta’s devices, please read the company’s blog post.
For more information on Meta and its VR fitness offerings, please visit the company’s website.
Image credit: Meta
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About the author
Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.