With the popularity of VR fitness on the rise, rumors swirl about a possible collaboration between the two companies.
According to a new report by Bloomberg, Facebook may be working with fellow tech giant Apple to bring the Apple Health platform to Oculus Quest and Oculus Quest 2 headsets.
Based on code discovered by developer Steve Moser in the official Oculus iOS app, this new functionality would allow you to exchange data between Apple Health and Oculus Move, Facebook’s fitness-focused VR companion app for the Quest platform. You could, for instance, upload burned calorie data from Oculus Move to the Apple Health app or view Apple Health data directly from your Oculus Quest headset.
Introduced back in November of 2020, Oculus Move offers Quest users a variety of fitness-focused features they can use to track their physical performance in VR. The in-headset fitness tracker is compatible with all Oculus Quest games and apps, allowing you to monitor estimated calories burned and establish daily fitness goals.
Apple Health, on the other hand, was announced all the way back in 2014 and has since developed into a robust fitness platform compatible with multiple devices throughout the Apple ecosystem. When combined with the Apple Watch, the app can be used to monitor a wide range of health metrics, such as heart rate, sleep, and walk steadiness.
These rumors of potential Apple Health support come shortly after a French tech conference during which Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared his excitement regarding VR fitness subscriptions, adding further fuel to the metaphorical fire.
“Think about it like Peloton, where you have a subscription, but instead the device is VR and you put on your headset, and you’re in this amazing environment and you’re doing a boxing class with an instructor, or a dance class,” said Zuckerberg during the event. “It’s quickly expanding beyond games into a bunch of other use cases, and we think that this is eventually going to be a big part of the next major computing platform after phones and after PCs.”
With the global virtual fitness market expected to reach $59.23 billion by 2027 according to Allied Market Research, it’s clear that we’re seeing is just the start of a budding new industry, one that utilizes modern technology to offer legitimate fitness solutions both cheaply and remotely.
Given the inherent physicality of VR, it makes sense that these tech giants are looking to further cement their positions within this rapidly-growing sector, even if that means playing nice with oneanother.
Feature Image Credit: Facebook, Oculus