Unlocking The Potential Of Augmented Reality (AR) In Move-To-Earn Apps

The truth is, many people find fitness quite challenging, especially at the beginning. Despite technological developments in the fitness industry, such as smartwatches and fitness apps, very few people find time to exercise despite the massive health benefits of keeping fit. 

According to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO), 1 in every 4 adults does not meet the global recommended levels of physical activity. Notwithstanding, during the global COVID-19 pandemic, people reduced their physical activity time by 32%, leading to increased overweight cases and obesity levels.  Additionally, depression and anxiety levels burgeoned during the lockdowns, an epidemic that could set the global economy back by $16 trillion by 2030, WHO reports. 

The Role of AR in Transforming the Fitness Industry

It became clear during the pandemic that new technological developments must be implemented to encourage people to work out. One such innovation is incorporating augmented reality (AR) into fitness to enhance workouts and make gym sessions more enjoyable. Simply, augmented reality in fitness provides real-time, immersive experiences via your smartphone, smartwatch, or other devices, overlaying digital images on objects and the environment as seen through these devices. 

While the role of AR in promoting fitness cannot be understated, there lies a bigger potential in the fitness industry with the merging of two of the most futuristic technologies today — augmented reality and blockchain technology. Combining AR technologies with other fitness technologies, such as move-to-earn apps, can enhance user fitness routines, user experience and engagement to promote healthy lifestyles across the globe. 

In the sections below, we focus on how AR can be incorporated into the fitness industry and how move-to-earn platforms, such as Sweat Economy,  can leverage this innovation to enhance the user experience and engagement on its platform and enhance fitness and promote healthy lifestyles across the globe. 

How AR Technology Enhances Walk-to-Earn Platforms

As explained above, augmented reality can enhance the user experience, engagement, and motivation on move-to-earn app platforms. Clearly, integrating the two technologies could have a massive impact on promoting fitness and exercise. Augmented reality adds a layer of interactivity, gamification, and personalization to walk-to-earn platforms. It enhances user engagement, motivation, and enjoyment by combining the physical act of walking with immersive virtual elements, creating a more compelling and rewarding experience.

So, how exactly can AR technology enhance move-to-earn platforms and prompt consistent physical activities? 

• A new wave of incentives

M2E projects like Sweat Economy reward users with incentives for walking or participating in physical activity. The current structure uses phones’ or smartwatches’ health app information to track the users’ mileage and calculate the rewards the user should get. 

Integrating AR has the potential to bring new virtual rewards and challenges to M2E apps. For instance,  AR can overlay virtual rewards, such as digital coins, items, or badges, onto the real-world environment as users walk. This creates a gamified experience where users can collect virtual rewards and complete challenges along their walking routes. The visual and interactive nature of AR makes the rewards more engaging and motivates users to continue walking.

• Personalized fitness routines

AR  let users personalize their walking experiences by allowing them to customize their virtual environments, avatars, or rewards. Users can choose themes, colours, or styles that resonate with their preferences, creating a more personalized and immersive experience. The ability to customize and unlock unique AR elements motivates users to continue walking and earning rewards.

Adding Ar to M2E platforms enhances the user experience, allowing them to customize their fitness routines as much as they wish. Additionally, AR technology can enhance personal fitness routines by learning the user’s fitness levels, preferences, and objectives. Whether someone wants to increase their daily step count, achieve a certain distance, or burn a specific number of calories, these platforms can tailor goals to individual needs. 

The only challenge with personalized fitness routines using AR is that users will need additional equipment, such as VR glasses or smart watches, which increases the cost of fitness. 

• Enhance user experience and gamification

Despite efforts to boost exercise, fitness apps have found it difficult to entice global adoption of fitness routines, mainly caused by poor user experience. AR can provide a better user experience to help users easily navigate their walking routes via real-time navigation guidance and overlay directional arrows or markers on the user’s view of the real world.  For instance, Sweatcoin’s app creates a walking navigation system for users, following their physical surroundings to enhance their experience and motivate them to reach their goals. 

Additionally, AR can introduce virtual characters or avatars into the walking experience, creating a narrative or storyline for users to follow. These virtual characters can interact with users, provide guidance, and offer additional incentives or challenges. AR enhances engagement and encourages users to keep walking to uncover the next part of the story.

• Community building

Fitness requires social interaction to motivate you towards reaching your exercise targets. By integrating AR into walk-to-earn apps, users can see and interact with each other’s virtual representations in real-time. Users can form teams, compete, collaborate, or simply connect with fellow walkers. This social aspect adds a sense of community and fosters engagement through friendly competition or cooperation.

Sweatcoin allows users to join clubs, participate in activities and create communities to enhance their fitness routines. Adding AR into the platform could help build stronger, bigger communities that engage and interact in real-time, making exercising easier and more fun for the user. 

• Real-time information and feedback

Finally, AR can provide real-time information about the user’s performance, such as distance covered, calories burned, or steps taken. This feedback encourages users to set goals and track their progress, fostering a sense of achievement and motivation. AR can also deliver contextual information about points of interest or landmarks as users walk by, enriching their overall experience.

The future of AR in move-to-earn applications

The future of augmented reality (AR) in move-to-earn applications looks promising and holds great potential. AR technology enhances the move-to-earn experience by overlaying virtual elements in the real world, creating a mixed-reality environment. Integrating AR with move-to-earn applications can significantly enhance user engagement, immersion, and motivation to participate in physical activities.

AR in move-to-earn applications holds immense potential for enhancing user engagement, promoting physical activities, creating new opportunities for earning rewards, providing real-time feedback and information etc. The merging of the two technologies provides a working solution that could push people towards achieving the global recommended physical activity levels.