In an email sent to users Monday evening, Peloton revealed that starting February 27, it will begin transitioning Apple Watch users from GymKit tracking to Peloton One-Tap tracking.
GymKit integration was marketed by Peloton as an exclusive feature for the more expensive Bike Plus, but it has become less attractive in recent years. The company launched Apple Watch integration in 2022 that brought Apple Watch calorie and heart rate tracking to any Peloton device, similar to many other fitness apps.
As a result, if you've recently linked your Peloton to your Apple Watch, you may not notice the change. It was the company Orient users To only use GymKit if they have not installed the latest software updates on their device.
Like GymKit, the Peloton app integrates data from each workout into the Apple Health app. As with GymKit, you can still track distance and speed and see heart rate metrics on the screen. It doesn't use Apple's Fitness Equipment API, so if you have the latest updates installed, things shouldn't change much. However, it's still understandable that people who bought the more expensive Bike Plus for the now-disappearing GymKit integration will be upset about the change.
As Victoria Song explains here, metrics like calorie burn can vary widely depending on the user and type of exercise, so changes in the accuracy of the data provided may not be significant. Although users can enter their weight, gender, activity level, and other variables that affect the number of calories burned, wearables like the Apple Watch make an educated guess, at best.
But some fitness enthusiasts still enjoy tracking their workouts over time and seeing their aggregated health data on the Apple Health app — and now the only way to do that will be through the Peloton app.