While Apple Intelligence and Siri’s glow-up – visually and functionally – largely stole the show at Apple’s opening WWDC 2024 keynote, mentions of enhancements to Apple Services were sprinkled throughout the unveilings of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, watchOS 11, macOS Sequoia, and tvOS 18.
Things like the addition of hiking and walking routes in Maps or the fact that you’ll be able to tap your iPhones together to send cash quickly and digitally were also teased during the tvOS 18 debut. A redesign for Fitness Plus was also revealed, and we finally have a bit more info on it.
New ways to find classes
Arriving on tvOS, as well as iOS and iPadOS, later in 2024 is a redesigned Fitness Plus layout that aims to help you find the perfect workout among a library filled with thousands of options.
The list of workout types – meditation, Strength, HIIT, Yoga, Core, Pilates, Dance, Kickboxing, Cycling, Treadmill, Rowing, and Mindful Cooldown – will be replaced by new categories aimed at helping you find the right type of class, essentially curating the experience a bit more.
For You, Explore, Library, and Search – displayed as a simple magnifying glass icon – will be the new top bar for Fitness Plus. The first section, For You, will present a few classes front and center, acting as a starting point based on previous workouts you’ve completed, but below that, you’ll see additional choices broken out by class type and length. For instance, if you frequently take cycling, yoga, and rowing, you’ll likely see those in the mix.
Explore will showcase any specially-themed content based on the time of year or potentially a new Artist Spotlight Series that has dropped. You’ll also be able to find new workout types and new classes. The last new tab, Library, is pretty self-explanatory but will be a way to see all of the classes available and can be organized by workouts, your favorite, and custom plans you created. If you want to search for a class by instructor, workout type, or even music genre, you’ll hit the search icon.
Of course, this new layout will be front and center on tvOS or iPadOS, where Fitness Plus has its own application, but on the iPhone, you’ll get this new experience within the “Fitness” app. Regardless of how you get this, this update is all about letting you find more classes and giving you easier access to instructors and class types you like.
Alongside the Fitness Plus enhancements on the Apple TV, tvOS is also ushering in new screen savers that look a bit like an iPhone when it is in StandBy mode, a new enhanced dialogue feature that will lower background sound and improve the clarity of voices, as well as a new InSight mode that’s pretty similar to Amazon Prime Video’s X-Ray functionality.
A Venmo replacement?
‘Tap to Cash’ on the iPhone might make folks ditch Venmo or Zelle for quick cash payments with a promise of being able to pay someone back or easily split a meal by tapping two iPhones together. It looked pretty neat when demonstrated during the keynote. You can select a cash amount, and, like NameDrop for contact exchange, you can send an Apple Cash payment to a friend.
Another enhancement is viewing rewards from a credit or debit card, as well as finding out about installment plans within the Apple Play window when you’re checking out. This should make it easier to complete a payment in an online checkout. It also positions Apple Pay as a more convenient competitor to other point-of-sale systems.