The company Samsung Electronics announced the introduction of a new feature to its popular application Samsung Health, called Group Challenge. This option allows users to create contests with up to nine participants, who can compete in who will move the fastest or longest and whose ultimate goal is to promote a healthy life in a friendly environment. Group Challenge will be available within the application by January 12, 2021 [1] of all Samsung Galaxy smart phones, smart watches and personal monitoring devices after updating the Google Play Store or Galaxy.
Users will be able to use the Group Challenge [2] option through the Together section of the Samsung Health app, once they have created a group whose members will then compete who will take the most steps in a given time or who will be the first to reach the set number of steps. This option does not require other participants to have the Samsung Health app installed on their smart devices, so users can easily invite their friends, family or colleagues to a healthy challenge.
“In our fast-paced daily life, and especially in the current circumstances of distancing ourselves from each other, staying in good shape and maintaining good health is not at all easy. For this reason, we will continue to upgrade the Samsung Health app with additional features to provide our customers with a quality digital platform for a healthier life,” said TaeJon Jay Yang, Vice President and CEO of Digital Health Solutions at Samsung Electronics.
Challenge as real motivation
Data collected from the Samsung Health app show that users taking part in challenges cover 22 percent more distance than average, which shows that competition is the best motivation to stay in shape. With the Group Challenge, users already have access to features such as a 1: 1 challenge challenge challenge for two, as well as the Global Challenge to compete with users around the world. The latest plugins allow users to be administrators of multiple challenges at the same time, ie to compete with multiple friends independently of each other.
Health at a higher level
Since the application was launched in 2012, Samsung Health has significantly expanded its capabilities with a variety of health, wellness and fitness programs, as well as a number of expert videos and options for monitoring sleep, heart rate and blood pressure. In 2020 alone, the app was used by over 200 million people, and last year users burned a total of 3 billion calories and made 78 billion steps. For comparison, the stated number of steps is equal to the distance between the Sun and the Earth that Samsung users have walked 200 times.
[1] Availability depends on markets. [2] Requires a minimal version of the Android M operating system.
