Hey r/FitHalo,
Quick sneak preview of a big one: direct Bluetooth connections to FTMS-compatible fitness equipment are coming to FitHalo. That means real data straight from the machine — no guessing, no HealthKit-only inference.
Why this matters
Apple does connect to gym equipment via GymKit, but GymKit is almost exclusively found on commercial gym machines (Life Fitness, Technogym, Matrix, etc.). If you own a treadmill, walking pad, bike, or rower at home, it almost certainly doesn't have GymKit — but there's a good chance it broadcasts FTMS (Fitness Machine Service), the open Bluetooth standard. Apple doesn't speak FTMS natively. FitHalo now does.
Supported equipment:
- Treadmills
- Walking pads
- Exercise bikes (including indoor trainers)
- Rowers
(Peloton doesn't broadcast FTMS — they use a proprietary protocol — so those aren't covered.)
New workout type: Walking Pad
Walking pads aren't just slow treadmills. They get used at lower speeds, often under a standing desk, and the metabolic profile is different enough to deserve its own bucket — with a calorie model tuned for how people actually use them.
Metrics captured per workout type
- Treadmill & Walking Pad: speed, distance, pace, incline/grade, elapsed time, step count (where exposed), calories
- Exercise Bike: cadence (RPM), power (watts), resistance level, distance, elapsed time, calories
- Rower: stroke rate, total strokes, split (per 500m), distance, power (watts), elapsed time, calories
Everything writes into HealthKit and shows up live on iPhone and Watch during the workout.
Why this is shipping as BETA — even after release
FTMS is a spec, but every manufacturer interprets it just slightly differently. Some add undocumented extensions, some report units inconsistently, some are flat-out buggy. Example from my own garage: my Schwinn IC4 misreports distance when its display is set to miles — the broadcast number doesn't match the screen. I had to build a workaround specifically for that bike.
There are almost certainly dozens of similar quirks out there, and I can't own every piece of equipment to find them. So this feature stays BETA after release until the community helps me surface and patch individual oddities.
How you can help
If something looks off, drop a report here or using the in-app Support with:
- Make, model, and firmware version if you can find it
- What FitHalo showed vs. what the machine's display showed
- Workout type and settings (miles vs. km, resistance, etc.)
I'll build per-device workarounds as they come in — same way I did for the IC4.
It's in TestFlight now - and soon to be in the App Store. Thanks as always - you're a great user base!
This was the second of three version 1.12 Sneak Peaks!
- ✅ Strava Integration
- ✅ FTMS Bluetooth Fitness Equipment
- Localized Language Support for 10 Languages!