Jawbone’s Up24 line of fitness trackers are bracelets you can wear to monitor your steps, distance traveled, and other activity. Pair an Up24 with your smartphone and you can keep track of your activity and see if you’re meeting your fitness goals.

But you don’t actually need a Jawbone Up24 to use the company’s mobile app anymore.

The latest version of Up for iOS is designed to use sensors in Apple’s latest iPhone models instead.

up for ios

If you have an iPhone 5s or later you can use the Up app to count steps andtrakc other activities. You can also connect with other apps such as RunKeeper or MyFitnessPal to share data using Apple’s Health and HealthKit integration.

There are still reasons to use a dedicated fitness tracker like the Up24. It has a battery that lasts for up to 2 weeks while you’ll probably have to charge your iPhone every day or two.

A wearable fitness tracker can also go places a smartphone typically doesn’t. You might not want to take your phone to the gym, out for a run, or in the shower, for instance. And a wearable device probably does a better job of tracking sleep quality.

But with fitness trackers like the Jawbone Up24 selling for as much as $150, a free app that works with gear you may already have (like a smartphone) could be a lot more attractive for folks with just a casual interest in the whole quantified self/activity tracking thing.

via MacRumors

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2 replies on “Beyond dedicated fitness trackers: Up for iOS no longer requires a Jawbone Up24”

  1. Interesting, I downloaded UP last night on my iPhone 5s and can’t get it to get past the syncing/pairing of a wireless or wired band (which I do not have).
    Your article makes it sound like I don’t need a band …. now either I need an app update (which is currently not showing up in my App Store) OR the band is just not required on the newer iPhones 6 and 6 Plus.
    As far as the vendor is concerned (Jawbone), they do not allow you to Sign Up (via the app) unless you have a band!
    So do it on a desktop (which barely works), and they force you to http://www.jawbone.com/updater
    At least you can link MapMyRide & MyFitnessPal to Jawbone without having a band.

    1. You need to search harder in the App Store! (See attached .png)

      Note the verbiage in iTunes:

      Two UP Apps?!
      by cconway22
      It feels odd to have two UP apps on my phone. Im no app developer but it seems strange that Jawbone wasn’t able to include a Health Kit linkage in their original UP app. This new one doesn’t require you to have an UP band but rather use your phone for all the step info. Two things; this app doesn’t write step data to Health Kit and there is no way the “sleep” bar graph will ever matter if you don’t have an UP band, which is a big reason for the app. Please, someone tell me I am completely ignorant and I am missing an important obvious detail somewhere!…More

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