Why We Want to Build the Best Android Boxing App

When the Shadow Boxing App launched on Android a few months ago, we were upfront about the gaps. Quick start was missing. The combo creator was missing. Stats, sound customisation, some exercises: not there yet. We said the gaps would close fast, and a lot of people were kind enough to believe us. This article is about keeping that promise, and about why we are putting this much work into building the best Android boxing app we possibly can.

Where the Android app stands today

The honest summary: the Android version has caught up. Not “mostly caught up with a few asterisks”. Caught up.

Every workout from the iOS app is on Android. Every exercise, from the beginner callouts to the advanced flowing combos, the pad work, the punching bag sessions, the HIIT, the kickboxing. Every program too, whether you are starting from zero with Boxing 101 or learning to jump rope from scratch.

The bigger features that were missing at launch have shipped one by one. Quick start arrived in June, so you can open the app, pick a duration and intensity, and get a generated session in seconds. The combo creator came with the same wave of updates, letting you build your own sequences out of punches, defenses, and movements. Goals, streaks, and training reminders followed, and now full stats are in: rounds over time, training calendar, progress charts, the whole picture of your work.

Custom sound effects are in too. If you want a different bell, different callout sounds, or a different feel to your rounds, you can change it, exactly like on iOS.

The small things matter just as much

A feature list only tells part of the story. What makes an app pleasant to train with every day is usually the stuff nobody puts on a comparison chart.

The coach pages are a good example. Every coach who appears in the app’s videos has a page with their background and their content. It is a small thing. Almost nobody would have complained if we had skipped it on Android. But the coaches are real people who know boxing, and the app feels more trustworthy when you can see who is teaching you. So we built it.

Same logic everywhere else: the technique catalogue has every tutorial video, the home screen recommendations adapt to your level and equipment, the profile settings carry the same options. When you tap around the Android app, we want it to feel finished, not like a port where every third screen says “coming soon”.

That is what “polish” means to us. The iOS version got its reputation from years of weekly updates and small fixes, and there was no version of this where Android users got a rougher deal. If the goal is to be the best Android boxing app, the bar is the iOS app, not the other Android apps.

Why we are doing this

The simple answer is that people kept asking.

For years, the most common message we received was some variation of “when is this coming to Android?”. It came from everywhere:

• People who heard about the app at their gym, from a training partner who uses it on iPhone, and then discovered they could not get it.
• People who switched from iPhone to Android and lost access to an app they trained with several times a week. Some of them told us the app was one of the things they missed most about their old phone, which is the kind of message that stays with you.
• People who found us on social media, watched the videos, wanted to try it, and hit a wall at the download step.

When you are a small independent team, you cannot do everything at once, and for a long time Android was the thing we could not do yet. But we never stopped hearing from Android users, and the sheer consistency of those requests is what made the decision for us. Nobody asks for years about an app they are lukewarm on.

So when we finally committed to Android, half-measures were off the table. Shipping a stripped-down version to people who waited that long would have been worse than not shipping at all. They did not ask for “a boxing app on Android”. They asked for this app on Android.

What “best” actually means here

“Best Android boxing app” is a big claim, so let us be concrete about what we are aiming for.

It means fully native. The app is built specifically for Android, not wrapped web pages. It opens fast, runs smoothly mid-round, and works offline once installed, whether you train in a basement gym with no signal or a garage where the WiFi gives up.

It means real training content. Hundreds of technique videos from real coaches, structured programs that take you from your first jab to long combinations, and workouts for shadow boxing, heavy bag, jump rope, and conditioning. Not a glorified timer with a logo on it.

It means no engagement tricks. No ads, no manipulative notifications, no dark patterns around the subscription. There is a real free tier, and the paid tier unlocks the rest. We have also written before about where we stand on AI-generated content: the coaching in the app comes from people who box.

And it means continuing to ship. The Android app went from missing five major features to full parity in a matter of weeks because we treat it as a first-class platform. Future features will land on both platforms, not on iOS first with Android trailing behind by a year.

If you have been waiting

If you are one of the people who asked for the Android version, at the gym, by email, in a comment somewhere: thank you, and this update wave is for you. The app you heard about is now the app you can actually install.

And if you try it and something feels off, tell us at shadowboxingworkout@gmail.com or through the contact page. The iOS app became what it is because users kept pointing out what to fix. The fastest way for the Android version to earn the title of best Android boxing app is for Android users to hold us to it.

You can get the Shadow Boxing App on the Play Store, free to download, with a real amount of training available before paying anything.