Alternatives
Products that do what I built a virtual pet that gets stronger when you exercise does
Hello HN, I built Motion, a fitness app where your virtual pet (we call it a Motmot) grows and gets stronger as you become more active. I wanted a fitness app that didn't feel like a fitness app. Most tools are either data-heavy dashboards or generic streak counters. Neither kept me moving. I thought a creature that visibly reflects your health might create a different kind of attachment. The pet is tied to a broader system: weekly challenges against friends, points for any type of movement, and personalized goals that recalibrate based on your actual activity history rather than fixed…
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My cofounder and I have been working on a site called Fitocracy (www.fitocracy.com), which is a social game for fitness. The idea was very much inspired by our experiences growing up as nerds playing video games, later on discovering weightlifting, and drawing the parallel between working out and "leveling yourself up." XKCD has a pretty well known comic to this effect: http://xkcd.com/189/. We find that the metaphor of workout out as leveling up in a video game resonates with quite a few people, so Fitocracy is an attempt to bring that to life. On Fitocracy, tracking your workouts earns you…
2011
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Hey HN'ers! If you sit around a computer all day and are looking to be more active, or are just active in general, check out our app! https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id903459923?pt=265797&ct=hn&mt=8 or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.activityclub We have been hacking on this for 2 years and it's finally nearing a state where we are stoked about! Launched last Aug (2015) to the public. Coming up on our 1 yr anniversary and starting to get some traction. Two of us have _each_ lost about 70lbs while building the app…
2016
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I started running 5 years ago and it completely changed me. Recently, I decided to train for my first marathon and needed something more than just tracking my runs to motivate me. I noticed all the apps currently available are just trackers and route finders, but nothing has solved the problem of consistency. So I thought of combining the basic idea of the Forest app with running and created a small app for myself which would reward me with plants and trees for my runs. I am not a mobile developer but then i came across Capacitor. Since I knew Next.js and have been working with it for the…
2025 · runandgrow.com
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I've been working on a side project called Streak.ly with a friend of mine for the past month or so; it's intended to help keep you motivated to do otherwise mundane daily tasks (like do 10 pushups, read for an hour, etc.) by letting you log "streaks" — consecutive days in a row of doing something. It's in private alpha/beta/gamma/whatever right now (has some rough edges to clean up), but is more or less functionally complete and pretty stable. I'm a big fan of the Seinfeld calendar, and have seen other services which do similar things but were unsatisfying to use, either from an aesthetic…
2010
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I got tired of posting on r/fitness and getting unclear feedback, so I built an app that analyzes physique photos with AI. It started as a weekend project after I couldn't get good advice on my lifting progress. Upload a few pics and the AI tells you: Where you rank compared to others (using a gaming-style tier system) Scores for each muscle group with actual numbers Body proportions and balance issues Body fat estimates and body type I also added some fun stuff like matching you to a "warrior type" based on your build (turns out I'm built like a Viking, not the Spartan I was hoping…
2025 · aestheticrank.com
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Hi Hacker News! I'm Jarne, a student and software developer, and I have developed MyGainplan for the last 2 years. When I started working out, I realized that it is quite hard to keep varying training plans. I know that it is recommended to change your training plan every 2–3 months in order to prevent muscular imbalance and other injuries. Besides that, some little changes help to stay motivated on a long fitness journey . After endless searching for free workouts or training plans, I had the idea of MyGainplan. The main idea of MyGainplan is to allow users to share their experience and…
2024 · my-gainplan.com
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i built a heart rate zone training app for runners. ios + apple watch. custom zones, real-time haptics, post-run graphs. all the “smart” stuff you’d expect. but i never talked to a single runner before building it. not even myself lol. started as a thesis → kept building → added features → added a paywall (€4/month!) → launched it → and yeah… no one cared. zero feedback. zero users. just code in the void. i recently made the whole thing free. not trying to “sell” anything now — just seeing if it’s actually useful, and listening this time. curious how others handle this. ever build…
2025 · basamasa.github.io
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I've just launched this little iOS app as an alternative to Apple Fitness, which is cluttered and chaotic when it comes to visualizing basic workout stats and metrics. The idea is to focus on a clean, minimalistic design and only show high-level metrics that are actually useful, e.g. how often did I work out this week/month/year, cardio vs strength vs mobility, surf session count in February, etc. It's free and offline. Also, no signup, no ads, no data sharing, no social feeds, and no notifications. Just open it and get a quick glance at the state of your workout game within 2s.…
Mar 2026 · apps.apple.com
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Hello HN, I’ve always been passionate about animal welfare, and after noticing the challenges faced by both adopters and shelters, I decided to create PetsRescue. It’s a web app that simplifies the animal adoption process, making it easier for people to find and adopt pets in need. The goal was to create a platform that’s user-friendly, secure, and accessible to everyone who wants to make a difference in the lives of animals. I’d love to hear your feedback on it. Cheers,
2024 · petsrescue.com.br
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After talking to a lot of people about their exercise habits, we realized that one of the most popular apps for tracking workouts is actually the Notes app. Because most people’s interests and hobbies change, it’s very hard for a single type of exercise app (running, lifting, CrossFit, etc.) to remain useful to people over the long run. So we built Steddy: an exercise app with no videos, fitness models, or made up weight loss projections. Instead, planning and check-in is as simple as a well-designed todo app. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible to “deposit” your exercise each time…
2022 · steddy.health
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I just launched my first-ever mobile app. It’s called STEPRACERS, a game where you compete with friends by tracking your steps. The idea came from someone close to me who completely changed their life by focusing on their health. Every night, they’d send me their step count - a small, daily ritual that became a powerful reminder of progress. So I turned it into a game. It’s fun. It’s simple. And it might just push you to hit your 10k steps a day.
2025 · stepracers.com
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I built an app where you LITERALLY have to do push-ups to use Reddit (or whatever app). My guy, this is the summer you get SWOLE! Build a massive chest instead of doomscrolling on Hackernews. Also, it's FREE. You can set it on a schedule. You can set it on a time limit. You can set it after X opens. Or even after you come home from work. The apps will remain blocked until you do your push-ups! The app is built natively on SwiftUI. I use Apple's native Vision API to detect body parts and joints. I use Apple's Screen Time API for app blocking. I don't know what else to say so go on now and get…
2025 · timm.so
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I was going through my app subscriptions and realized I was paying $15 for a pretty good workout app, which seemed a bit high to me. As a software engineer who is also well versed in claude code, I realized that I could likely vibecode a very similar app, or even build something more to my liking. I challenged my self to build something roughly equivalent this afternoon. Workflow was: start with a detailed spec from Claude code describing many of the features common in workout apps. Then paste this into lovable to have it build out the initial mvp. Once that was built, I used claude code…
Dec 2025 · strengthquest.lovable.app
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