Discover how building in-app fitness communities boosts retention and user engagement for workout apps. Learn from top industry examples.

Any app has a big goal: to retain users. If your users try your app and never return, no other big goal will work. Each app has its own mission. For health apps, the mission is to help users stay active and healthy. If users don’t return after trying

Why do fitness and workout apps so crucially need in-app communities?

<div style="font-size:18px;line-height:1;" id="toc">Table of Contents<div style="font-size:14px;line-height:1;" id="toc"><a href="#motivation-gap">The Motivation Gap: What Fitness Apps Lack</a><a href="#Hyper-Socialisation">Hyper-Socialisation: A Natural Fitness Trend</a><a href="#app-features-that-drive-retention">Fitness Communities: App Features that Drive Retention</a><a href="#win-win-of-community">The Win-Win of Community Building in Fitness Apps</a><a href="#get-in-touch">Get in Touch</a><hr>Any app has a big goal: to retain users. If your users try your app and never return, no other major goal will be achieved. Each app has its own mission. For health apps, the mission is to help users stay active and healthy. If users don’t return after trying your app, your mission has failed, as have their goals of becoming healthy with your help.A study by Endeavour Partners reported that more than 70% of health app users stop using the app in two weeks or less. This indicates that only a small percentage of users successfully build a habit with well-being apps, often losing motivation and failing to achieve their goals. This is not the users’ fault—it’s a problem with the app’s development. However, it becomes the users' problem because if an app fails to engage them, they may lose interest in pursuing healthy habits altogether.<figure class="image" style="margin-bottom:1vw;"><img style="aspect-ratio:1982/1310;" src="https://cdn.eu.watchers.io/fcde8167-a15f-48de-83f0-a01cccf7f393.webp" width="1982" height="1310"></figure><h2 id="motivation-gap">The Motivation Gap: What Fitness Apps Lack</h2>Why does this happen? What discourages users, and what are fitness apps missing? The answer often lies in a lack of motivation and a sense of community.People who give up on health and sports apps need more than an internal drive to improve—they need external motivation. This is especially important for digital products that are easy to postpone or ignore.<h2 id="Hyper-Socialisation">Hyper-Socialisation: A Natural Fitness Trend</h2>Experts are now discussing hyper-socialisation, similar to the hyper-personalisation trend we discussed in<a style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://watchers.io/post/main-trends-tech-communication-entertainment-2025"> </a><a style="background-color:transparent;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://watchers.io/post/main-trends-tech-communication-entertainment-2025">our recent article</a>. Hyper-socialisation means that being part of a community is no longer a bonus—it’s a necessity.Users now want to socialise while gaming, cooking, trading, or watching football. Since the beginning, sports and training have been social activities, with gyms serving as places for communication, opinion-sharing, and showing off. You can make friends or rivals, admire local stars, or share tips on staying in shape.During the pandemic, many people switched to home workouts, and although this change offered time and cost savings, it didn’t eliminate the need for socialisation. We still want to share our progress, ask for advice, receive support, and compare results. Hyper-socialisation isn’t just a digital trend—it’s a natural human behaviour.<figure class="image" style="margin-bottom:1vw;"><img style="aspect-ratio:2062/1362;" src="https://cdn.eu.watchers.io/58784efb-9660-43e2-ba1a-1d0a17aa9a84.webp" width="2062" height="1362"></figure><h2 id="app-features-that-drive-retention">Fitness Communities: App Features that Drive Retention</h2>Let’s look at some features that help build in-app fitness communities, along with examples of apps that use them to drive retention and user satisfaction:Fitocracy transforms workouts into a social game, allowing members to track their progress, follow others’ progress, complete challenges, and earn badges. This basic gamification works because it motivates users to stay active, contributing to both personal growth and app engagement.ChallengeRunner leverages people’s competitive spirit by offering competitions and challenges. Users earn badges that increase their motivation and help them stick to their workout routines—and the app itself.Strava is a popular tracking and community platform for sports enthusiasts. It emphasises community as a core feature, enabling users to share activities, comment on others' posts, and join group activities.Myzone awards points based on calorie burn to indicate progress. Users can also share their metrics and photos, creating a social ecosystem that aims to replace Facebook and Instagram fitness communities.<figure class="image" style="margin-bottom:1vw;"><img style="aspect-ratio:872/1262;" src="https://cdn.eu.watchers.io/ffce3b1b-38cb-4d8a-afcf-616718ade5fb.webp" width="872" height="1262"></figure>Zwift showcases user stories about milestone achievements. Users can set goals, and the community can follow their progress. This inspires both achievers and others who haven’t yet set goals to get started.Peloton allows official trainers to host live classes, engage with users, provide feedback, and build influencer-style communities within the app.<h2 id="win-win-of-community">The Win-Win of Community Building in Fitness Apps</h2>Building a community within a fitness app is a win-win solution—the app benefits from improved retention, lifetime value (LTV), and other key metrics. Users gain motivation and encouragement, recognition from their peers, and the chance to become influencers themselves. They also receive the support they need to achieve their goals more easily and enjoyably—without relying solely on self-discipline.<hr style="margin-bottom:1vw;"><h2 id="get-in-touch">Get in Touch</h2>Please <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://calendly.com/watchers-platform/social-tools-for-your?month=2025-08">book a call</a> if you'd like to integrate community-based live chat or other social tools into your website or app. We will help you find the best solution for your engagement strategy.</div></div>

When was the last time you watched or listened to a live stream? Do you do it regularly?

Learn about the different user motivations and platform-specific interactions during live streaming, and why video and audio streaming integration on your platform can significantly boost engagement, retention, and revenue.

Internal audio and video streams: Let's delve into the most interactive type of content

Platforms like YouTube, Twitch, and Steam have become integral to our digital habits, where participating in and consuming live streams is more than just a trend—it's a routine. When a new game is released, many users prefer watching others play before purchasing it. Often, users are uncertain about engaging with content, playing, or buying a game, but they are eager to see how others experience it, feel about it, and what they think.Users' attitudes towards participation in streams vary widely. Understanding these differences is key to exploring the specific uses and gratifications that attract new viewers to streaming sites.<h3>What are the motives for watching streams? Types of users according to their goals</h3>In our participatory culture, digital users increasingly feel the necessity to interact with the content they consume. Live video streaming, particularly of gaming or watching processes, is one of the most interactive forms of content. Analysing these interactions offers valuable insights into user consumption behaviour, emotional involvement, and audience engagement.Emotional involvement is crucial for platforms to build strong connections with their audiences and foster loyalty. Meanwhile, user interaction is a major factor in attracting and retaining viewers. Video Game Streaming (VGS) motivates viewers to actively engage with broadcasters and other co-viewers, sharing their passion and experiences with the game.﻿A study of 1,060 streams across video gaming and talent shows, provided by Xu, Wu and Zao for the study “Exploring viewer participation in online video game streaming” found that the streamer’s level, number of fans, and stream start time have little impact on real-time user interactions and comments. Frequent updates and the constant influx of new streamers have made audiences accustomed to seeing fresh faces, reducing the importance of a streamer’s level or fan count. Notably, female streamers received more real-time comments than male streamers, while the duration of a live stream had minimal negative effects on comments. The number of viewers, likes, and gifts all positively influenced real-time comments.Comparing game video streaming and talent show streaming revealed that the number of viewers had a stronger positive effect on real-time comments in-game streams. In talent shows, likes were a more powerful stimulus for real-time comments, unlike in-game streams where they had a less significant impact.Through a questionnaire study, provided by Sjöblom and Hamari for their article “Why do people watch others play video games,” five distinct types of motivations for using streaming platforms were identified: cognitive, affective, personal integrative, social integrative, and tension release. Information-seeking was positively associated with the amount of time users spent on the service and the number of individual streamers they watched. Social integrative motivations were the primary predictors of subscription behaviour.At the same time, Speed, Burnett, and Robinson divided users who interact with streamers into four groups:Try before you buyUsers who watch video streams for entertainment and making a final decision about a purchase.Antisocial viewersUsers who watch streams for entertainment but reject any other interactions.Loyal LurkersUsers who consume a variety of content related to their favourite streamers but are not interested in others.Social viewersThose who use the platform to create and support social communities with other streamers and viewers.Considering these groups, you can predict the stream's level of interaction and engagement and imagine how many users stay with the platform, how many stick to the particular streamer, and what share of users will be ready to buy content per product the stream is dedicated to.<h3>Differences in Streaming Across Various Platforms</h3>Three primary platforms for live video streaming are Twitch, Discord, and YouTube. However, each of these platforms serves a different purpose, even at the most fundamental level. Twitch is a dedicated streaming service designed to enable individuals to broadcast live content to others. On the other hand, Discord began as an instant messaging app tailored for gamers, allowing them to communicate through text and voice while gaming. Then, the platform developed other functions for community activities, such as co-watching YouTube videos via Discord. YouTube, primarily known as a video-sharing platform, is the most public and traditional of the three. As a result, both users and streamers have different expectations and goals when using these platforms, even though they may all seek to deliver a similar live-streaming experience.When discussing Discord, it’s important to mention audio streaming, which is a unique and intriguing avenue for platforms, users, and streamers.Audio streams require significantly less energy, time, technology (such as OBS), and financial investment compared to video streams. While audio streams can be just as interactive as video streams, they have their own specific characteristics and cannot be used in exactly the same way. One example is the Clubhouse app, where users were able to join groups to discuss topics via voice. However, it didn’t gain long-term traction because users lacked pre-planned topics or events, making it challenging to continuously generate new themes for discussions.<iframe class="ql-video" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fOkNd4y57YU?showinfo=0"></iframe>Despite the ease of use associated with audio streams, streamers still need to invest effort into creating engaging content. If streamers are willing to dedicate more attention to this medium, audio streams can serve as open podcasts. One of the simplest formats could be live commentary on various types of content, such as sports games or films, where influencers can rewatch movies with their audience and provide real-time commentary without worrying about their appearance.Additionally, major social media platforms like Instagram offer streaming capabilities, notifying all of a streamer’s followers when a stream begins. This is effective for both streamers and the social media platform itself. However, a key question remains: how does this benefit the platform that pays the streamer?&nbsp;<h3>Why Hosting Streams on Your Platform is Beneficial</h3>For companies, hosting streams on their own platform rather than relying on third-party services like Twitch or YouTube offers several advantages. First, it keeps the audience within your ecosystem, which boosts engagement and retention rates. For example, brands that integrate live streaming into websites or apps often see a 20-30% increase in user engagement and a similar boost in user retention compared to those relying on external platforms. Additionally, owning the streaming platform allows you to monetise content directly, capturing 100% of the revenue from ads, subscriptions, and virtual goods. It also strengthens brand loyalty, as users associate the streaming experience with your brand rather than a third-party service.Finally, having direct control over the streaming environment enables better data collection and analysis. This allows companies to refine their content strategies and improve user experiences based on real-time feedback and interactions, and it provides an absolutely trustful space that cannot be guaranteed by social media platforms.<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://watchers.io/post/ai-tools-to-protect-athletes-and-users-watchers-moderation-approach">Read about social media and trusted spaces during sports tournaments</a>***If you want to integrate community-building tools for real-time communication or use in-app live streaming to get first-party data from users,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://watchers.io/form">connect with us</a>. We will help you&nbsp;find the most suitable solution.

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