The Apple Watch has become a comprehensive wellness tracker and fitness monitor over the last decade, gaining new capabilities with each passing year, such as nighttime temperature sensing and performance metrics like ground contact time for runners.
But there’s one big area where it still falls behind rival trackers: recovery and readiness. While Apple provides health trends and highlights, it still lacks a score or rating that ties all those metrics together to paint a picture of your current state. Oura, Garmin and Fitbit trackers have offered this for years, and soon enough Samsung will too. The smartphone giant is launching a new feature called My Vitality Score in its Samsung Health app later this year.Â
The score collates sleep, activity, resting heart rate and heart rate variability data to determine your physical and mental readiness, much like Oura’s Readiness score, Fitbit’s Daily Readiness rating and Garmin’s Body Battery. It’ll be compatible with the company’s upcoming Galaxy Ring and its line of Galaxy smartwatches.Â
Samsung isn’t breaking new ground with My Vitality Score, but the addition should make Samsung’s wearables more comprehensive by filling in a gap it was previously missing. Wearing devices from Oura and Garmin has made me wish every smartwatch and fitness tracker had these features, and it’s another sign that Apple has catching up to do in this regard.
Read more: Smart Rings Are Picking Up Where Fitness Trackers Left Off
Why recovery is important
Samsung’s My Vitality Score was announced in January at the company’s Unpacked event.Â
Rest days are an important part of any exercise regimen. Not only do they give your muscles time to recover, but they can reduce the risk of injury and boost your performance, as a medically reviewed article from Healthline outlines.
Readiness scores in fitness apps can help you know when it’s time to take one of those hard-earned rest days. I’ll admit, I don’t always follow this advice myself….
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