Apple has laid off a handful of Fitness+ employees, and the cuts landed on the team behind the service’s audio programs. Staff who worked on Time to Walk and Time to Run were among those affected.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported the layoffs in his latest Power On newsletter. He was told Apple made the cuts this past week, as part of another round of what he calls increasingly common layoffs. Gurman says he does not believe Fitness+ is on the chopping block as of now.
The Fitness+ Layoffs Hit the Team Behind Time to Walk and Time to Run
The affected workers included staff who contributed to the audio side of Apple Fitness+. That covers Time to Walk and Time to Run, the audio sessions you can listen to from an Apple Watch without watching a video.
Here is what Gurman says changes for the audio programs:
- A handful of Fitness+ employees were cut this past week
- New audio releases will drop in frequency
- The audio programs are not going away completely, as of now
Apple Fitness+ Is an Easy Place to Cut Costs
Gurman reported earlier this year that Apple was reevaluating Fitness+, a competitor to Peloton’s content. The service is now overseen by services chief Eddy Cue and health leader Sumbul Desai, and an earlier post covered the uncertain future of Apple Fitness+.
He points to the considerable costs, the constant demand for new content and subscriber churn rates as reasons the service is an easy target. Inside the Fitness+ organization, the layoffs are widely seen as the beginning of more drastic cost-cutting and major changes in the months and years ahead.
Apple Could Fold Fitness+ Into the Revamped Health App
Gurman’s bet is that Apple eventually integrates Fitness+ into the revamped Health app, now that both functions sit within the same operation. Apple is already adding video clips to the upcoming Health app revamp to explain certain topics and benchmarks.
Apple says the new Health app is expected to arrive in a later release, and it is testing the app early with developers and others in the iOS 27.2 beta program. Apple has already added several health and fitness features in iOS 27.
Our Take
I think folding Fitness+ into Health makes sense. Video programs are expensive to keep producing, while Health already sits on the data from an Apple Watch. Putting short explainer clips and workouts in the same app gives Apple a way to keep the content without running a separate production line.
