Pokémon Go Wants To Be The Exercise App That Actually Works

Pokemon Go is an augmented reality game. Recharging options a huge health trend right now.

Since releasing a week ago, the iphone app has exploded in popularity. Totally free to download on your iPhone or Android, it uses location data from mobile phones to help users chase fictional Pokemon characters around their environs, which are viewed back on their telephones. In one week, the software has already become so popular that really rivaling Twitter in conditions of the amount of daily active users, Vox's In german Lopez writes in his indispensable Pokemon Move explainer.

But there's another interesting outcome of the game's rise: It appears to be getting people moving. Have a look at these tweets from self-reported users:

Contrary to most games, which participate only your thumbs, Pokemon Go requires one to walk, run, and even jump -- all great kinds of exercise. Gizmodo noted that this may even be driving a "pandemic" of sore thighs, since so many users have complained about pain from their Pokemon friday "workouts. "

And that is precisely what the game's manufacturers expected them to be, according to a Business Insider interview with Pok? mon Go CEO John Hanke:

A whole lot of fitness programs come with a lot of "baggage" that wrap up making you think that "a failed Olympic athlete" when you aren't just trying to get fit, Hanke says. "Pokemon Go" is designed to get you up and moving by guaranteeing you Pok? mon as rewards, rather than positioning pressure on you.
Just how much more active are users? So far, all we have are these stories. But there may be some primary data from the Cardiogram for Apple Watch and the fitness tracking company Jawbone that suggests an uptick in physical activity among users considering that the kick off of the game.

A lot of rapturous fans are even calling Pokemon a fix for the unhealthy weight crisis:

Pokémon will not fix obesity

Right now, let's be clear: The game may encourage physical activity, and we certainly could use more of it. But it's an unlikely fix for the obesity epidemic, given that low physical activity is not the key driver from it.

And this surge in use may be momentary -- just like Pokemon's first burst of recognition was in the nineties. So there's no reason to assume all this animated creature chasing will lead to the sort of real behavior change that has a lasting impact on health.

What's more, reviews of evidence on online video games designed to get people active and improve health reveal a blended picture of their efficiency. The info we have on mobile programs and devices to track and encourage exercise, though, may be instructive: It suggests they only lead to momentary changes among most users, which eventually disappear.
Probably Pokemon Go will be different. Maybe, as Vox's Ezra Klein produces, augmented reality technology will advance quickly, more and more people will latch on, and rather than sitting down to play the game, they'll run and walk.