WEarables Rumor: Apple developing coaching service
Apple is rumored to be developing a health coaching service its products "designed to keep users motivated to exercise, improve eating habits, and sleep better," Bloomberg reports, citing people with knowledge of the initiative.
The service, which would not be launched for some time, would compete with a slew of other standalone and wearable-linked products already on the market. As always, Apple's advantage would come from the expansive reach of products like the iPhone and Apple Watch as well as their superior user experience and design.
In the near term, Bloomberg reports that Apple will launch a feature that allows you to track your emotions at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June. In the future, Apple might expand this feature to something more ambitious, like using speech to detect mood, for example.
Amazon shutters Halo
As Apple is reportedly considering whether to add features that could use voice to deduce emotion, Amazon is scrapping its wearable device that did just that. Amid its waves of layoffs and cutbacks, Amazon announced it would shutter its Halo division.
Launched in 2020, Halo was Amazon's take on a health-oriented wearable. Though it never got visible traction with consumers, the wristbands had features that differentiated them from competitors, such as the ability to analyze voice tone or work with a smartphone camera to assess mobility.
With consumers, being first isn't always enough. The company said it will refund Halo purchases made over the last twelve months.
Apple study reveals how noisy your state is
In other Apple news, its collaborators at the University of Michigan released new data from the Apple Hearing Study which estimates that 1 in 3 American adults are exposed to excessive noise levels. That's based on data from roughly 130,000 volunteers who contributed noise data from their Apple Watches between November 2019 and December 2022. Check out the publication page for interactive maps of the data, including which states are the noisiest.
Research
IBS hypnotherapy app shows weak adherence
Sold by a company called Mindset Health, Nerva is a direct-to-consumer app that delivers a 6-week course of gut-directed hypnotherapy to help improve people's symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. Simone Peters, the app's co-creator and a researcher at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, led a retrospective analysis of IBS patients who downloaded the app between June 2019 and April 2020. (Peters earns royalties on Nerva sales and owns shares in Mindset Health.)
In total, 2,843 people started the app's free sessions, 1,428 paid for the app after the trial, and 253 completed treatment. Of the 190 who both completed all 42 sessions and reported outcomes, 122 — or 64% — were considered responders, meaning they had a greater than 30% reduction in abdominal pain. The results were published in Neurogastroenterology & Motility.
It's a positive sign that an app can help improve people's symptoms, especially the face of a stubborn and widespread issue like IBS. But as the study authors note, the adherence numbers are very low. That 64% number sounds more impressive than it is when you consider only 9% of participants finished treatment and 6% reported outcomes. The authors note that the study is merely a proof of concept and that "further evaluation of the efficacy of the app via a randomized controlled study with extended follow-up is warranted."
The low adherence underscores one of the big issues with first generation digital treatments: While they might be good at getting people in the door, they struggle to get them to stay. Without fine-tuning these apps for better adherence, they risk of falling short of digital's promise to reach people at scale.
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