Mobile physical activity planning and tracking: a brief overview of current options and desiderata for future solutions

Abstract

Consistent and enjoyable physical activity (PA) can be a crucial component to improving or maintaining one’s overall health status. Using advanced features on smartphones (GPS, Bluetooth, motion sensing, etc.) coupled with an app or game that is able to assist mobile users to not only track location, but also to interact socially with others based in real-life (IRL), virtual reality (VR), or alternate-reality (ARG), has the potential to give health experts better tools to encourage higher compliance to protocols, rehabilitation, behaviour change and health outcomes. This paper outlines the available mHealth apps that capitalize on pervasive smartphone features coupled with sensors, and suggests which features might impact future PA patterns. The authors argue that the ultimate mobile PA planning and tracking app/platform will be the one capable of supporting both precision and accuracy health (offering truly individualized PA advice and coaching while preserving user privacy) and precision and accuracy public health (providing public health decision makers with community-level PA indicators obtained from app data aggregates of user populations).