When a leading innovator in fitness equipment approached us, their vision was ambitious to bring active-workspace exercise products to life with a companion app that could talk seamlessly to their devices, track progress in real-time, set motivating goals, and connect users through social challenges. But their old app was stuck on iOS, missing out on Android and web users. By rolling out a unified cross-platform solution, our team helped them slash development time by 40% and sparked fresh enthusiasm across their active community.
About the Client
Our client is a North America-based fitness solutions company specializing in integrating movement into sedentary lifestyles. Their award-winning product line combines ergonomics with exercise, aiming to improve wellness in work and home environments. They cater to both direct consumers and enterprise wellness programs.
Business Challenge
The client’s project management team highlighted some key limitations of their existing single-platform mobile app. Their app lived only on iOS, making Android and desktop users feel left out. Engagement numbers were dropping; users weren’t coming back, which the team linked to a lack of fun features and social interaction in the app.
Our discussions with the project management team revealed the app’s dated tech stack consisting of a legacy Objective-C and CodeIgniter backend, which hindered performance, security updates, and feature expansion. Additionally, its BLE device communication layer required modernization for faster pairing, a more accurate data sync, and lower battery consumption.
Solution
We created a cross-platform fitness tracking ecosystem built on a Flutter front-end with a Node.js + NestJS backend and PostgreSQL database, ensuring expanded functionality, scalability, maintainability, and performance.
Core Features
We implemented Single Sign-On (SSO) via email, Google, Apple ID, or Facebook for easy login and easy user experience.
This system develops instant sync with exercise equipment, tracking metrics like speed, distance, calories, and session duration.
Users can set daily, weekly, and monthly targets with progress visualization.
We added group challenges, competitions and activity challenges. Users can also track leaderboards on the app.
Users can export or share detailed workout summaries with visual analytics.
We designed a web portal for corporate wellness programs to monitor and encourage employee engagement by the admin.
We implemented AI-driven scheduling suggestions based on activity patterns of the user.
Implementation Approach
We set out to build something more inclusive. An app that worked everywhere and made tracking workouts simple and fun. The plan came together in four phases:
Phase 1: Discovery and Architecture
We mapped existing BLE device protocol and optimized pairing speed by 35%.
The next step was to define a modular architecture enabling future hardware and feature integrations.
Phase 2: Cross-Platform Development
Flutter was used for development for rapid multi-platform UI rollout.
We used shared codebase to reduce platform parity issues and speed up updates.
Phase 3: Gamification Layer
Designed user-retention loops via challenges, leaderboards, and social badges.
Implemented event-based push notifications to re-engage inactive users.
Phase 4: Launch and Iteration
Staggered rollout: Beta on TestFlight/Play Store followed by a phased public release.
Continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) pipeline for weekly updates.
Results
40% faster time-to-market and lower development cost with a cross-platform rollout with one core codebase.
30% higher weekly active users due to social competition and gamified progress tracking.
BLE sync reliability exceeded 99% driven by protocol optimization and robust reconnection logic.
The new architecture supports adding new exercise equipment without major rework, making it scalable for future needs.
We helped create a more personalized and holistic fitness journey for the app’s users.
Device Integration: Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) APIs
Hosting: AWS Elastic Beanstalk + AWS RDS
Authentication: OAuth 2.0 + JWT
Analytics: Firebase Analytics + Segment
Push Notifications: Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) & Apple Push Notification Service (APNS)
Testimonial
Client Feedback
The new platform allowed us to reach Android users and web dashboard clients without doubling our development costs. Engagement metrics are up, and our corporate wellness clients love the new reporting tools.