AppleInsider Staff
Nike on Thursday released an update to its Nike+ Run Club club app — the heart and soul of Apple Watch Nike+ — that brings a number of software enhancements save battery life and increase autonomy.
Of note to Apple Watch users, Nike+ Run Club version 5.3 includes improved GPS capabilities and route syncing with runs started on Apple Watch.
In addition, the latest app iteration helps conserve battery life by limiting app activity to the device on which a run is started. Specifically, runs initiated on Apple Watch no longer trigger the Nike+ Run Club app on iPhone. Since Apple Watch Series 2, and consequently Apple Watch Nike+ , features an onboard GPS radio, running the iPhone app for tracking purposes is redundant and a waste of energy.
Finally, the NRC app now includes time splits in the post-run summary page on Apple Watch.
According to an entry posted to Nike's dedicated Run Club blog on Wednesday, the latest app version also includes battery optimization tweaks and improvements to GPS mapping reliability.
Nike+ Run Club is available as a free 196MB download from the iOS App Store, which in turn updates the watchOS version via the Watch app on iPhone.
The NRC app is central to the Apple Watch Nike+ edition that launched alongside Apple Watch Series 2 device earlier this year, though it is compatible with other Apple Watch models. Along with NRC, Apple Watch Nike+ comes with a special lightweight sports band and integrated running-themed watch faces.
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4 Comments
I love my Apple Watch Nike +. It's fun and adds a real "+" to the value of the Apple Watch Series 2, which itself is an amazing step-up from the first gen.
The NRC app, however, isn't as intuitive as Apple's stock Workout app.
Awesome! The 2 things I have most wanted in this app are better GPS tracking and split times. Great to see the improvements coming. As far as battery life, I am already quite satisfied. Now to work on better heart rate tracking.
The thing that sets the Apple Watch as the Gold Standard or exercise trackers will not be Nike Run Club. It is, at best, a middle of the road app.
But, when Apple opened up the watch's heart rate & GPS metrics to ALL third party exercise apps, they opened it up to some truly great apps...
I am sincerely hoping that the Apple Watch is not judged by the Nike Run App. If it is, that will condemn it to being considered as mediocre as the NRC.
And, we've already seen that happen where the media stated that the Apple Watch could not be used as a run tracker because it lacked GPS. That was one of those lies that sounds true because it is contains a shred of truth. The fact is: ALL Apple Watches are great run trackers if you carry an IPhone -- and most runners do. All it lacked were high end apps such as RunKeeper, MapMyRun, Garmin, ICardio, etc. because, until Watch OS3, they were blocked from accessing heart rate information.