Exploring the Role of Wearable Apps in Redefining Lifestyle Trends

Wearable Apps: Promoting Smart Living as Lifestyle Companions

Wearable apps have come a long way, from being an occasional purchase to becoming indispensable lifestyle companions in present times. Ranging from being a personal coach in your fitness journey to providing long distance medical services, wearable apps help to elevate your lifestyle with smart solutions curated for individual needs. Wearable devices aid users in tracking their physical activity, sleeping habits and help to stay consistent with their efforts through alerts and reminders. By gamification of daily tasks, these devices make the experience of completing tasks enjoyable and provide users with a sense of accomplishment after finishing them. They also serve as great productivity enablers, by providing useful reminders of tasks, appointments, calls and messages to users without having to check the phone constantly and reducing the possibility of getting distracted by it. Equipped with tools for breathwork and meditation, wearable devices help users to focus deeply on their work, elevate productivity and only be notified with essentials.

Their far-reaching benefits even extend to businesses, through real-time monitoring of operations and employee performance that allow them to make informed and targeted decisions for best results. For a business to develop a wearable app, careful considerations regarding its functionalities, tech stack and many other important factors must be well thought out and put into implementation. This article aims to explore the possible tech stack businesses can opt for the development of wearable apps and the numerous industries that can benefit from it.

How Wearable Apps are Empowering Different Industries With Smart Solutions

Health & Fitness: 

The health & fitness industry has one of the widest usages of wearable devices due to their easy-to-use quality which helps users maintain a healthier lifestyle. Some of the popular wearable devices include health and fitness-based smartwatches, fitness trackers etc. The main functionalities wearable devices provide to their users are activity tracking, heart rate monitoring, nutrition tracking, guidance for exercise plans, sleep tracking etc. 

They promote healthier and smarter living for their users by tracking and measuring real-time data of body vitals and physical activity, providing beneficial guidance through curated plans for nutrition and exercise, and offering reminders and alerts to perform activities that help to stay on track for their fitness goals. These devices are usually worn on the wrist or can be placed on the arm or thigh with the help of straps that measure and track physical activity movement. 

Entertainment:

The entertainment and gaming industry is always on the lookout for making the experience of the user more real, immersive and interactive. Wearable devices such as AR/VR headsets, controllers and headsets are a key driver in helping these industries realize the potential of immersive technology for a more enjoyable experience. Users can utilize these devices to watch their choice of entertainment, play games and interact with fellow gamers, and socialize virtually. 

Payments, Banking & Finance:

Wearable technology offers higher convenience, seamless transactions and real-time monitoring with an emphasis on elevating the user experience for the individual and the payments, banking and financing industry. It offers powerful solutions such as contactless payments, ATM locators, investment tracking and more that provide tailored financial solutions for the unique requirements of its diverse users.

With these devices, users can strengthen their financial management practices with real-time tracking and monitoring of their expenses, investments, loans and financial goals. Integration of GPS technology with devices can aid users in locating ATMs, banks and financial institutions near them for greater convenience and personalized location-based services. Moreover, banks and financial institutions can impart tailored financial guidance and expert tips for individual financial goals of users to deliver maximum value and help them achieve their monetary goals.

Retail

For the retail industry, wearable apps provide innovative solutions to transform the shopping experience for the user, assist with business operations and monitor employee productivity. During in-store visits, users can receive in-store recommendations for products and navigation instructions through their wearable devices for a convenient and value-based experience. While customers are shopping, they can check for product information and reviews on the business website and purchase their favorite products through digital payments made with their wearable devices. 

Businesses can streamline and monitor their business operations with these devices, especially for inventory management by providing real-time updates of stock movement, supply and demand requirements, and revenue generation and expenses associated with it. In the case of employee productivity, wearable devices can provide valuable insights into employee performance and facilitate improved communication across floors of retail stores. 

Healthcare & Medical Services:

Wearable apps serve as a reliable support system for remote patient monitoring and personalized health management that provides functionalities like monitoring health vitals, tracking physical activity and assisting in chronic disease management. They help to enhance preventive care for patients through real-time monitoring that provides beneficial insights into their health condition, physical activity, sleep patterns etc. By reminding users through medication and activity alerts, wearable devices can strengthen users' commitment to living a healthier lifestyle and improve their quality of life, especially for people with special requirements.

Consistent monitoring through such devices can also help in early disease detection and alert the user and medical services in case of any anomalies found through assessment. This can help in saving a person's life within time, as witnessed in cases where an Apple watch detected irregular heart functions of the user before it became more severe and managed to save their lives. Wearable devices can also assist in times of accidents, by automatically communicating with concerned authorities for immediate help that can make a pivotal difference in saving lives.

Choosing the Right Tech Stack Framework To Build Your Wearable App

If you're looking to develop a wearable app and device for your own business, you need to first decide on key functionalities, features and technologies it will provide and utilize to achieve its goals. Before deciding on the technologies for developing the app, key considerations regarding device compatibility, user experience, features, security, integrations, compliance, updates and maintenance must be decided. With key considerations decided and finalized, the following tech stack can utilized for developing your wearable app and device:

1.  Hardware Components: For building your app, the hardware components you will be using will be primarily dependent on the type of device that is being made for and the functionality it will provide. But the basic components that all wearable devices have are processors, display batteries, microphone and speakers, sensors and the technology that will provide connectivity with other devices. 

Especially for sensors, developers can integrate technologies such as GPS for location tracking and mapping functionality, accelerometers and gyroscopes for movement orientation, light sensors to adjust brightness and specific utility-based features like heart rate monitor, altitude sensor etc. For the connectivity aspect, Bluetooth and WiFi are the most prominent technologies for establishing connectivity. As a whole, it is important to ensure that all hardware components align with the functionality and purpose of the wearable device.

2. Software Components: To develop an optimized and robust wearable device, appropriate software tools must be utilized and integrated that can effectively support its intended purpose and deliver seamless performance to the user. Software components for a wearable app and device involve diverse categories that ensure the app is able to function in the way it is supposed to. These include:

A. Integrated Development Environment (IDE): IDE provides tools and features for comprehensive software development that offers debugging, testing and deployment facilities. Depending on whether you're developing an Android-based app or an iOS-based app, you can utilize Xcode or Android Studio for software development of the application. 

B. Cross-Platform Frameworks:  If you're seeking to develop a wearable app that can be deployed on multiple platforms, then cross-platform frameworks are your best bet. Some popularly used frameworks are:

Flutter: You can build native applications with Flutter that are suitable for mobile, web or desktop. It's an open-source UI toolkit platform developed by Google that can support both Android and iOS for app development.

React Native: By utilizing JavaScript and React, it supports both Android and iOS wearable app development, especially for mobile devices.

Xamarin: Created by Microsoft, it also supports both Android and iOS and uses C# and .NET for app development.

C. Programming Languages: Depending on the platform and functionality your wearable device will provide, the programming language to develop the application should be chosen accordingly. Factors that must be considered for choosing the right programming language are your platform's native language, development team's skills and the requirements of the app.

If you are developing your app for Android Wear (Wear OS), then Java and Kotlin can be utilized. However, if you intend to use iOS or Apple Watch (watchOS), then Swift is the recommended language for wearable app development. But for cross-platform development, Dart for Flutter, JavaScript for React Native and C# can be used for Xamarin. 

D. Backend Development: Backend languages dictate functionality, data processing and communication with frontend and databases. Choosing the right backend language will be decided by the functionality, expertise of the development team,  infrastructure considerations, scalability and the requirements of the the wearable app. Some of the prominent backend languages that can be used to create your wearable device are Node.Js, Python, Java, Ruby, PHP, Golang and .NET.

Frameworks for Backend Development to create wearable apps include Express, Django, Spring Boot, Ruby on Rails or Laravel.

 

E. APIs:  For any app, APIs are integral for seamless communication between the device, the mobile and the backend servers. Some of the API solutions include Google Fit (For Android)  and Apple HealthKit (for iOS) for Wearable API, Bluetooth and NFCs for Communication APIs, Google Cloud APIs and Apple iOS for Cloud Storage APIs, Google Maps (For Android) and Core Location Framework (For iOS) For Location APIs, Custom Backend APIs for RESTful APIs and more depending on the functionality, compatibility with the platform and ease of integration.

F. Databases: The right database technology must be opted for based on the data being managed, scalability requirements, and the team's expertise. A few of the popularly used databases for wearable app development are MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB and Firebase.

G. UI/UX Design Tools: To build a visually appealing, interactive interface for your app, you can utilize design software and tools including Adobe XD, Sketch, InVision, Marvel and Figma that align with your app's utility, business vision and branding.

H. Security: Providing digital immunity against lapses and online threats would require stringent measures such as data encryption, secure authentication and authorization controls, safe coding practices, regular security audits vitals and encryption protocols. 

Also Read: Creating Wearable Apps with Voice Recognition and NLP

Final Thoughts

Rapid evolution in wearable technology will witness increased integration with advanced technologies including AI, machine learning, and deep learning which will enhance the capabilities of devices even further to provide users with intuitive, personalized and intelligent solutions. Wearable devices share wide popularity due to their ability to improve lifestyle with fitness, productivity and health-based tools. 

Businesses can look to capitalize on this wide-shared popularity by developing their own wearable app to improve the experience for customers and refine business processes. With the right tech stack, the wearable app will have the required processing capabilities to perform vital monitoring functions and support their users' lifestyle as a daily companion through smart solutions. If your business is looking to develop a wearable app or specialized tech solutions for specific requirements, we'd love to be a part of your journey. You can contact us here, and our experts will contact you within 24 hours.