A virtual gym in your pocket: the influence of augmented reality exercise app characteristics on user’s continuance intention

In recent years, with the development of augmented reality (AR) technology and the prevalence of COVID-19, augmented reality exercise applications (AREAs) have entered people’s lives and changed people’s exercise ways. However, there is still little research on how AREAs affect users’ continuance intention, which limits our deeper understanding of the further use of AREAs by users for the potential benefits they provide. This study investigates the role of AREAs by proposing the original proposition of AREAs characteristic classification based on previous AR literature and dividing their characteristics into two categories: service and system characteristics. Through an online empirical study, 398 valid questionnaires were collected to test the hypotheses using the structural equation model. The results showed that hedonic and utilitarian value and presence are vital inner states which mediate the influence of service and system characteristics on user’s satisfaction and continuance intention. The results further show that only hedonic value is found to have a positive and significant relationship with continuance intention. This study contributes to the literature in the AR field by examining how different AR application characteristics affect user continuance intention in the context of sports and fitness. It also suggests that practitioners should identify the impact of different characteristics on user value and focus on the hedonic aspects of the application.