My favorite Apple Watch app for fitness tracking just got a big upgrade – here’s what’s new
- Gentler Streak offers a more measured approach to fitness tracking
- The app has been updated to include sleep analysis and insights
- This should make it more of a health hub than a purely fitness-focused app
Gentler Streak has long been one of the best fitness apps for iOS thanks to its sensible and, frankly, less extreme approach to maintaining a streak than some rival apps. Long before Apple started allowing you to have a day off, Gentler Streak was all about encouraging rest days and recovery, while its activity suggestions are cleverly tailored to what your body needs at any given moment.
Now, Gentler Streak has received one of its largest-ever updates, and it’s one that transforms it from a fitness tracker into a full-fledged workout hub. The idea is to give you a central place to understand your overall wellbeing.
One of the largest additions in the new update is sleep analysis. Wear your Apple Watch to bed and every morning you’ll get a summary of your sleep quality, including duration, the amount of restorative sleep you got (this comprises deep sleep plus REM), the time you fell asleep and woke up, and the different sleep stages you went through. You can also view past nights’ sleep analyses to understand if there are areas you need to improve.
That last part – understanding how to get a better night’s sleep – is aided by Gentler Streak’s new sleep insights feature. This consists of seven different areas, including guides on getting more restorative sleep, comprehending sleep cycles, the importance of napping, and more.
Missing features
The app’s developers have opted not to include any kind of sleep debt measurement in Gentler Streak, and that’s because they say it “lacks solid scientific backing, and it’s more of a patch to the wound than allocating and addressing the source of pain.” Instead of trying to repay your sleep debt by getting more rest at the weekends, Gentler Streak wants to encourage you to get consistent sleep throughout the week and thereby improve your overall sleep hygiene.
There’s more to the Gentler Streak update than just sleep metrics, as the Wellbeing section has been rearranged with a new design that should make it easier to use. The Health area at the bottom of the Wellbeing tab displays sleep and period data, while key stats like heartbeats per minute and body temperature sit in the Body Metrics section. If you want to learn more, there’s additional information in the Gentler Streak blog post.
Overall, these changes should make Gentler Streak an even better way to track your health and fitness on your iPhone and Apple Watch. I’ll be reviewing the new app soon, so be sure to check TechRadar soon to find out all you need to know about it.