Samsung’s Running Coach on the left, and Apple’s Workout Buddy on the right.
Nina Raemont/ZDNET
Apple just released its latest Apple Watch software, the public beta for WatchOS 26, and one feature I was eager to try is finally available. Workout Buddy is an AI-powered feature that offers spoken encouragement, stats, and a host of metrics on the Apple Watch, and works in conjunction with Apple-owned earbuds like AirPods or Beats.
It delivers sporadic bits of data, tries to motivate you, and announces when you’ve closed your Rings during your workout. Within 12 hours of installing the new software, I jumped at the chance to go on a morning run with it.
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But Apple isn’t alone with this kind of feature. Samsung launched Running Coach, a similar AI-powered feature with the Galaxy Watch 8, its flagship smartwatch that launched earlier this summer.
While they’re actually rather different in functionality, Running Coach and Workout Buddy share some similarities: they are both AI-powered, they guide you through your workout with stats, and they announce your fitness data back to you. I wore both watches on my morning run this morning to see which I preferred and which fitness companion worked better. Here’s what I found.
What sets Samsung’s Running Coach apart
Nina Raemont/ZDNET
Let’s look at Samsung’s Running Coach on the Galaxy Watch 8 first. When you first use it, it establishes a baseline for your running ability with a 12-minute test. It then assigns you a score out of ten, and provides you with a personalized running plan you can follow to level up your score.
After I took the test, Running Coach created a training plan for me that consisted of four runs per week with both low and high intensity interval training, hill running, and long jogs. During each session, Running Coach provides me with a target pace and duration and pings me when I’m behind, at, or ahead of that pace. After each training session, Running Coach scores out of 100 and provides me with detailed analytics of my run.
What I liked better in Running Coach
Running Coach seems designed for beginner runners, and provides them with plenty of guidance for getting on the pavement. It also does a good job at using data already being collected on the watch, including your energy score and heart rate data, for a more personalized fitness plan.
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The notifications that I was ahead, behind, or meeting my target pace were helpful motivators, especially for beginners who may not know what a 12-minute versus 10-minute pace feels like. Additionally, having all the heavy lifting of creating and following a training plan done for you on your smartwatch makes me more motivated to continue using it.
After my run, I went into the Samsung Health app to see all the advanced metrics Samsung collected on my run. There are a lot, and they’re super helpful. I’m not talking just pace and distance, but asymmetry, contact time, flight time, regularity, vertical, and stiffness are all rated on a scale of Improve, Good, or Great, with accompanying drills for honing these skills.
What sets Workout Buddy apart
Nina Raemont/ZDNET
Workout Buddy is available in the Fitness app on Apple’s WatchOS 26. It’s available for several workout types, including Outdoor and Indoor Run, Outdoor and Indoor Walk, Outdoor Cycle, HIIT, and Functional and Traditional Strength Training. While I ran this morning, Workout Buddy announced my pace per mile, my average heart rate, when I closed my Fitness Rings, congratulations on completing a workout, and how many miles I’ve run this year. It also sprinkled encouraging comments throughout my run.
What I liked better in Workout Buddy
I liked Workout Buddy’s notification delivery far more. Running Coach’s notifications are a bit more insistent — reminding me of my splits and when I was on or off my target pace in a way that was annoying while I’m already huffing and puffing. If I wasn’t on pace, it would notify me, which would then force me to speed up. Then it would tell me I’m running too fast, so I’d slow down, and on and on.
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Conversely, Apple made Workout Buddy more customizable to notification delivery and puts the onus on the user to enable the feature and which stats they’d prefer Workout Buddy announce.
Additionally, having Workout Buddy announce stats and reminders through earbuds is far more intuitive than the watch’s speaker. The earbud delivery makes every announcement clear and audible, in a way that wasn’t always the case with the Galaxy Watch 8.
Lastly, I enjoyed the more human tone of Apple’s Workout Buddy, compared to Running Coach, whose voice sounded more robotic. I don’t want a robot to tell me to keep running, but a soft-spoken trainer? Well, that’s another story.
Who I’d recommend Running Coach for
Maybe this goes without saying: but beginner runners would get the most use out of Running Coach. I would recommend it to Android users training for a race and want their sleep, vitals data, and fitness data all in one place. It’s a stellar feature that makes running, an already accessible activity, even more accessible.
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Who I’d recommend Workout Buddy for
iOS users who want some additional stats and motivation delivered through their Apple earbuds will like Workout Buddy more. It’s a subtle, non-annoying way to receive your pace, splits, and heart rate data without constantly checking your watch. Plus, it’s available for eight different exercise types, so it’s a far broader use of this exercise companion tech than Samsung Running Coach.
