Apple is exploring health and fitness for future glasses

Apple is building the team

Apple is hiring a strategic product design leader for VPG Health & Fitness (opens in a new tab). The role will help define health, wellbeing, and fitness experiences across Apple’s vision products.

That person will look for opportunities where spatial computing, wearables, consumer health, and human behavior meet. The listing says the work will become clear first-party product direction. Apple is deciding which health experiences it should build itself.

A second listing for a VPG Health & Fitness prototyping software engineer (opens in a new tab) goes one step further. Apple wants someone who can turn early ideas into working, demo-ready prototypes across its platforms. The role also mentions generative AI and features driven by large language models.

Together, the jobs suggest Apple is choosing the product direction and testing how the experiences could work.

The idea started with Vision Pro

Bloomberg reports that Apple explored a version of Fitness+ for the original Vision Pro. The headset would have followed a wearer’s movements during a class and used body tracking to analyze their form.

It did not ship. Gurman says technical hurdles and the weight of the headset got in the way.

Some of the software foundation is already there. Apple gives visionOS developers access to HealthKit and Core Motion (opens in a new tab), which can connect health data and report motion information on Vision Pro.

Glasses also have a useful point of view. Cameras and other sensors can see how someone moves and what is around them. That could eventually help a device follow a workout, recognize an activity, or give guidance without asking someone to look down at a screen.

The first glasses may keep things simpler

Do not expect a complete fitness coach in Apple’s first pair.

Bloomberg says the initial glasses could arrive in 2027, but Gurman does not expect these health features in the first generation. The debut model is expected to compete more directly with Ray-Ban Meta glasses, using cameras, speakers, microphones, and an AI-powered Siri in a display-free frame.

AirPods show the playbook

Apple has done this before. AirPods started as wireless earbuds for music and calls. A software update later gave AirPods Pro 2 Hearing Protection, a Hearing Test, and a clinical-grade Hearing Aid feature (opens in a new tab).

Glasses could follow a similar path. The first product can earn a place in someone’s daily life through familiar features. Sensors and software can then make it useful in new ways.

The most interesting version may not replace Apple Watch or AirPods. It could complete the system. Watch measures the body. AirPods handle sound and hearing. Glasses could understand movement and the environment around you.

Apple has not announced smart glasses, and the features and timing could change. Its hiring plans still make one thing clearer. The company sees health and fitness as part of the long-term future of vision products.