Form launches Workouts feature for smart swim AR goggles

One of the blessings of the lessening pandemic is that I’ve been able to head back to a gym and swim just about every day. Lately, I’ve been wearing Form Smart Swim Goggles to measure my workouts. Today, the company is adding a new feature called Workouts that lets you customize your swimming regimen.

I tried the first version of the goggles out a couple of years ago. The Form Smart Swim Goggles have a see-through augmented reality display that delivers performance metrics in real time. It’s a simple use of AR that delivers a real benefit.

This time, as before, I synced the goggles with an app on my iPhone and then pressed a button on the goggles to initiate a swim. Yellow pixels showed up on the screen, indicating that the goggles were syncing with the app.

Using one of two buttons on the side of the goggles, I navigated through the menu and picked “pool swim.” I checked off the 25-meter pool size and pressed the button to start the swim. That’s a bit more of a hassle to start your swim, but it’s not too cumbersome, and it made the rest of the swim easier.

As I swam, the device counted laps for me and measured calories burned in real time. It also captured timing, discerning every time I rested or turned to swim in the other direction. When I hit “save and quit,” it synced the swim to my app. I can then view my stats on my app and share them with other Form users. I’ve found that the battery lasts for more than one swim and the device keeps an accurate count as I swim. In fact, it does so better than I do, as I tend to forget how many laps I’ve done. And I like the look of the iOS app, which has evolved over time.

Workouts

Above: Form goggles now feature Workouts for you to follow.

Image Credit: Form

What’s new with Workouts is that you can browse through a whole collection of swim workouts, based on type of stroke or distance. The in-goggle display tells you how far to swim, how hard to go, how long to rest, and when to use any additional equipment.

Swimmers will also be able to see a progress bar that updates them through the workout, motivating them to do more than they might in a typical workout. There will be hundreds of workouts available to guide swimmers.

The workouts can focus on endurance, power, sprint, recovery, technique, and more. Workouts also feature pre-workout tutorials, gear recommendations for drills, and post-workout analysis. New workouts will be released weekly, providing a dynamic library that is designed to empower every swimmer with the motivation, guidance, skills, and advice they need to improve and feel more confident in the water.

Above: Form Workouts cost $20 a month for membership.

Image Credit: Form

Each workout has a thorough explanation of sets, drills (with tutorials), stroke types, and intensity and lists any equipment needed for each session. Swimmers can download multiple workouts that are then stored on the Form goggles.

Once you begin swimming, the Form goggles display will guide you through your workout, offering instruction and showing real-time swim data. When you complete a workout, it saves automatically and syncs to the Form app so you can track progress and identify areas of improvement.

I thought it worked great. The only thing I didn’t like is that when it was really sunny outside, it was harder to see the display. In bright light, I had to put my hand in front of my eyes to read the numbers.

Above: Form Workouts tells you whether to swim hard or easy on laps.

Image Credit: Form

The company sells the goggles for $200. The workouts are available for a membership fee of $20 a month or $180 a year.

CEO Dan Eisenhardt founded Form in Vancouver, Canada in 2016 after selling his previous company, Recon Instruments, to Intel in 2015. Eisenhardt swam competitively for 14 years before starting his career as a sports technology entrepreneur.

The goggles ship globally and are available on Form’s website and on Amazon in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Australia, and Japan. The Form Swim App is available as a free download from the App Store and from Google Play.