It's no surprise that fitness companies love the subscription model: it guarantees them income long after the initial purchase of a smartwatch or a fitness tracker.
Most of the big names in the business now give you the option of paying a monthly fee to unlock extra insights from your health data, and extra features for your apps and devices.
Comments made by Samsung‘s Head of Digital Health, Dr Hon Pak, have revealed that a health subscription is an idea Samsung is “exploring” as well, and it's perhaps something that will be announced alongside the Galaxy Watch 8 or the Galaxy Ring 2.
This would, of course, have knock-on effects for the best Samsung phones and all the other devices where you'll find the Samsung Health app.
While I feel like I'm right up to the limit as far as digital subscriptions go, there are a few specific ways that Samsung could tempt me to sign up for another service – but it has to make it worth my while.
I'm keen to improve my health and fitness, but I don't really know where to start: from YouTube videos and how-to articles, to AI coaching and social media influencers, there's an overwhelming amount of advice out there. What I really need is a trusted source that will help me with everything from workout plans to nutrition advice.
If that's something Samsung Health can offer, I'd consider paying for it. Whether it's through the form of videos, personalized guides, or something else, I need some clarity around what I should be doing to lead a healthier life.
I'd want to see real progress as a result of my subscription though, whether it's being able to run faster for longer, or bouncing out of bed with extra energy – otherwise what am I paying for? At least if it's a month-to-month subscription, I'll have the option of cancelling it if nothing seems to be changing.
2. Features that actually save me money
There are a handful of digital subscriptions that I happily pay money for, and what they all have in common is they help me do my job better and more efficiently. Subscriptions that save me time or mean I can work smarter are effectively paying for themselves, or even saving me money overall.
Take YouTube Premium, for example. YouTube can of course be used for free, but paying means I save a lot of time watching and clicking through ads, and means I don't have to pay for Spotify (because YouTube Music Premium is included).
So what would that look like for a health subscription? Perhaps one that has features comparable to paid-for running app, meditation app, and nutrition app subscriptions, and can consolidate them all.
To sweeten the deal even further, how about money off Samsung wearables? Surely a win-win for Samsung.
3. Data insights that are actually insightful
It's become cliche for health subscriptions to offer more advanced insights into your data: often, it's a vague promise that often doesn't really amount to much. Garmin Connect+, for example, promises something called “Active Intelligence” that apparently gives users “personalized insights and suggestions” (powered with the help of AI, of course).
I'd very much welcome genuinely insightful insights, though no one seems to have quite solved this problem yet. Fitness trackers amass a wealth of data each day, much of which never gets properly looked at, like reams of photos backed up to cloud storage.
Give me tips and advice that are actually useful please, Samsung. How much is each 5-a-side game boosting my fitness? Which days of the week do I need more motivation to exercise? Do I drink more water if I get to sleep earlier? Help make sense of the stats I'm accumulating, and I may well sign up.
What Samsung has to avoid: trapping users
Something that makes me wary about signing up for yet another digital subscription is the fear that I'll be locked into yet another product and another ecosystem – unable to leave unless I want to throw away years of data and features I've come to rely on.
It's something you may have seen in the most recent series of Black Mirror: a couple trapped in a subscription that gradually adds more and more advertising (is that you, Netflix?) and removes more and more features. The experience becomes truly awful – but not subscribing is even worse.
Samsung Health already supports services such as Android's Health Connect, and data from any extras that a subscription offers shouldn't be locked away – but available to export and use elsewhere, and in other formats.
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