Nike today updated its popular "Nike+ Running" iOS app with a new name, "Nike+ Run Club," as well as introducing various user interface changes and features (via Fast Company). The big new addition centers around "coaching plans" that let users choose a workout and running plan, which then dynamically adapt to the specific progress made by each user.
Some of these plans include categories like "Getting Started" and "Get More Fit," which falls in line with Nike's mission statement of treating each one of its customers like a professional athlete in order to help them "reach their full potential." Within each plan there's a new "Benchmark Run" that gauges the improvements -- or slacking off -- of each user as they work their way through a workout.
With the latest version of fitness app Nike+ Run Club, for example, personalized coaching for newbie runners is central to the experience. As the app learns more about you, it tailors your workouts accordingly.
"If you have a body, you're an athlete," says Jay Lee, global head of product for Nike+. "What we've learned is that we really need to serve [athletes] as individuals if we want them to reach their full potential."
On the social side of things, Nike has made it easier to share progress with friends on social networks as well as tweaked its leaderboards tab with new ways to compare and compete with people who are also using the app. Users will also be able to use the companion Apple Watch app independently of the iOS app, since the new update allows users to "run free" and leave their iPhone behind.
The new "Club" naming style follows in the footsteps of Nike+ Training Club [Direct Link], which focuses on a wider array of weight and strength training. For anyone who has yet to download it, Nike+ Run Club is available for free on the App Store. [Direct Link]
Top Rated Comments
* Took ages to log-in/sync, wouldn't work over 4G, needed wi-fi.
* Challenges have disappeared, disappointing
* Trophies have disappeared too
* It has lost the name of my shoes
* I can't change/upload new photo ("upload error")
* It switched from metric to imperial... had to go deep into settings to set it back into metric...
* Orientation was messed up, it didn't remember my settings from the previous version of the app... boring when you wear your phone on a strap and have to fiddle through settings.
* Spotify had been disconnected, had to re-connect it manually.
* Everybody has got to manually re-opt-in to sharing in the "friends leaderboard", in settings, as a result, where I used to have about 28 friends to follow there's only one left, and "27 have no kilometres left"... ********.
* There an "inbox" with a "welcome to Nike+ run club" message but I can't open it, it says "False start". The ever-present unread message, straight from LinkedIn's book...
* All 3 running clubs are fully booked, with no way to create new ones... how social is that.
* That green icon with text is tacky on my home screen. Much preferred the old, simple red one
In other words, it's a complete mess for me so far... Feels like an early beta...
PS: can't even leave a review on the AppStore because I downloaded the Nike+ running app from the French App Store in 2011, then moved over to the UK and switched App Stores... and when I try to leave a review, an App Store pop up reads "You must buy/download this app first before you can leave a review"... Just out of curiosity, after 8 versions of iOS with the bug, are they fixing that in iOS 10?