Sometimes, getting up off the couch to go take a walk can be hard. Especially after a long day at work, it can be tempting to just kick back and lounge around. Walking can be decidedly boring compared to the programming on 800 different cable channels, or the latest AAA video game.
That’s where The Walk comes in. The app, which was developed by Six to Start in association with the UK’s Department of Health and National Health Service, aims to get people moving by turning a walk around the neighborhood into something out of a Tom Clancy novel. As users walk, the app provides them with one- or two-minute-long snippets of audio that begin to fill in a story.
Here’s the premise: you’re in a train station in Inverness, Scotland, when a bomb goes off, thrusting you into the midst of an increasingly convoluted plot that (of course) has to do with the safety and security of the entire United Kingdom.
The longer you walk, the more of the story you unlock by completing “missions,” segments of a character’s journey through Britain. In my experience, each mission lasts between 35 and 55 minutes of total walk time, and it’s possible to elect for a shorter or longer walk, depending on what users are capable of.
The Walk uses sensors in the iPhone or an Android smartphone to determine when users are walking, and tracks how many minutes they have been active for. For owners of the iPhone 5S, The Walk also takes advantage of Apple’s M7 motion tracking chip to provide better accuracy while using less battery power.
While the story isn’t high literature, it’s engaging and suspenseful enough to encourage users to keep walking. Though I prefer to listen to the audio files while I’m walking, it’s also possible to listen to unlocked audio files separately.
While it’s possible to complete missions just by taking long walks (and that’s how I prefer to experience what The Walk has to offer), Six to Start says that the app has been built with users’ ordinary life patterns in mind, so it’s possible to unlock the story just by walking around during the day.
Encouraging exercise is Six to Start’s bread and butter. The company’s first app, Zombies, Run! came into being following a successful Kickstarter campaign, and works on encouraging users to start running by motivating them with an oncoming zombie horde.
The Walk is available from the iOS App Store and Google Play Store for $3.99, which is currently 20 percent off its final price of $4.99.
Listen to this week’s segment below, or via this MP3 file.
[Full disclosure: I was a backer of the original Zombies, Run! Kickstarter campaign.]
