Developer(s) FitnessKeeper Operating system | Stable release 4.3.1 Size Varies with device | |
Initial release 2008; 9 years ago (2008) Available in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Brazilian, Portuguese, Japanese and Russian | ||
Runkeeper is a GPS fitness-tracking app for iOS and Android with over 40 million users. First launched in 2008 by CEO Jason Jacobs with the help of "moonlighting engineers" and Raizlabs. In late 2011 Runkeeper secured $10 million in a Series B financing, led by Spark Capital. In February, 2016, RunKeeper was acquired by ASICS.
In May 2016, the Runkeeper software came to the attention of the Norwegian Consumer Council for breaching European data protection laws. It is alleged to continue tracking user's locations after the application is terminated and to share this information with advertisers in ways that exceed the bounds of the application's terms and conditions.
Functions
Runkeeper allows users to track fitness activities (such as walking, running and cycling) using GPS and to see detailed statistics around their pace, distance, and time. Runkeeper tracks statistics, progress, and applies coaching, which allows the user to advance in their progress through their headphones with built-in audio cues; listen and control music while working out; measure their heart rate and take pictures to share and save while engaged in an activity.
This application tracks performance over time, allowing users to view a detailed history of activities; get notifications for new personal "bests" and milestones; measure progress against current goals; follow detailed plans and turn any activity into a route to do again later using built-in GPS. Runkeeper allows users to share their personal content with friends through posting activities, achievements and plans to Facebook and Twitter, and allows supporters watch live maps of workouts and races as users run.
Runkeeper integrates with the built-in music function of the phone and social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. This application also has an online social network of users that share progress, goals, training programs and mapped routes. The application has released an open API for outside developers to plug into Runkeeper users’ feeds.
Runkeeper periodically comes up with 'challenges' which rewards the user for completing certain criteria in a certain time-frame. The first challenge was in May 2014 with the goal of completing and GPS tracking a 5 kilometers between May 19 and June 19 to be entered in winning an LG Lifeband.