Meet Moov, the fitness tracker that’s also an interactive coach

When it comes to wearable tech, there’s really only one kind of product that has found a market everywhere across the world: the fitness tracker. For the casual exerciser or the fitness enthusiast, there are dozens of fitness bands available to choose from, but one of the most interesting options is Moov. Moov is, like most fitness bands, a data tracker that keeps track of various kinds of exercise. But it’s also a portable coach that can drill you, motivate you, and improve your form.

Right now, the Moov has two parts: a wearable sensor and a smartphone-based app library. On iOS, Moov offers apps for running, swimming, and cardio boxing, with more on the way. Although it was previously iOS only, Moov launched its running app on Android just yesterday.

Moov founder Meng Li told Tech in Asia that the company’s three founders met while doing research on motion controls for Microsoft back in 2006. “It wasn’t really going anywhere,” she said of their research, but it gave them experience with motion-sensing technology. At the time, the sensors were too big to be easily integrated into anything wearable. But by 2013 when the group met up again, motion sensors had gotten a lot smaller and cheaper.

Li said that around the same time, she hurt herself while working out, and it occurred to her that while she exercised a lot, she didn’t really know how to do it correctly. The Moov team figured that lots of other people had the same problem. They began work designing a new wearable fitness tracker, one that would track your activities but also motivate and correct you in the same ways a real-life coach would.

While Moov’s founding team does have some fitness in their background, their strength is in the software. So to create their virtual coaches, Li says the team partnered with professional fitness coaches and organizations to collect data and be sure that their apps were making corrections correctly. In return, fitness professionals can get data from Moov about the ways that people move, which helps with research on topics like injury prevention. “I would say right now most of our matrixes are based on research and coaching expertise, but there is a portion there that’s very new that we sort of invented [based on data from Moov’s tracking] and we’re working with those coaches and organizations to understand it more.”

“That’s what we call the big Moov movement,” she laughed.

Moov’s running app in motion

So far, users have been buying into it. Moov sold US$1 million worth of trackers in just two weeks during its initial crowdfunding campaign, and Moov says that early users have said the product really has helped them feel more comfortable exercising, and it has been motivational. One user completed a half marathon after just two weeks with the running app, Li said. Another posted a review of Moov on Facebook that said he’d lost eight pounds in just a couple weeks using the Moov device and apps. “That guy who lost eight pounds, he was not into running before,” Li told me. “He said that. Because running is boring.” By giving users feedback and motivation via its virtual coaches during runs, she says Moov has made running less boring.

A lot of the feedback Li shared with me came from social media, and a quick search of my own bore out her claims. The first tweet about Moov from a user that I came across: “Just used the Boxing app! Amaze! [sic] I got in a great workout!”

Up next for Moov, according to Li, is further Android expansion, and new apps for bodyweight workouts and cycling. But the company is also eyeing Asia. Meng Li herself is from China, and she said that although Moov isn’t officially available there yet, there are already a lot of Moov users in Asia. “I can’t really say when,” she said, “but it’s in our plans to get Moov to officially launch in Asia.”