The Apple Watch doesn't track activity the same way your everyday fitness tracker does, and that has caused some general confusion.
Instead of counting steps or calories, the Apple Watch focuses more on your overall health and well-being. This difference has left some Apple Watch owners baffled at their standing desks when a notification comes through that it's time to stand; others aren't sure why workouts they log in other App Store apps don't show up as a workout in the Activity app. And these are all logical questions.
If you own an Apple Watch and find yourself somewhat perplexed by some of the fitness tracking aspects, follow along and we'll try to help clear up the confusion!
1. The Stand ring

The most confusing thing about stand notifications is its misleading name. If you get a stand notification for the hour, what it's really telling you is that you have not physically moved around. This is why stand notifications tend to arrive 10 minutes before the hour. This gives you a decent chance to still claim that hour. Next time you receive one, leave your standing desk and try walking around for at least 60 seconds.
2. The Exercise ring

The green ring in the Activity app represents Exercise. A lot of people remain confused about what exactly it's measuring and what you have to do to meet that goal, so here's the deal: Apple defines exercise as any activity you perform that is the equivalent of a brisk walk or more. To determine exercise, your Apple Watch looks at your heart rate and movement data. That means that things you do on a regular basis like getting up and walking around your office or taking your dog for a walk probably won't raise your heart rate enough for the Apple Watch to deem it as exercise.
The exercise metric is meant to encourage you to do more, not simply track the things you do every day. If you find the green ring isn't moving along as much as you'd like, try something that requires a little more effort and really gets your heart pumping. As with anything, what the Apple Watch considers as exercise will vary from person to person. Someone who isn't very active will earn exercise for doing things out of the ordinary like going on a long walk. Someone who regularly walks and hits 12,000 steps a day will need to do more than that. Your Apple Watch learns your habits quickly and will want you to push yourself to earn anything extra.
3. The Move ring

The Apple Watch uses your motion and heart rate data in order to determine calorie counts, which dictate the Move metric of the Activity app. As you continue to wear your Apple Watch it will better learn your habits, average heart rate ranges, and normal activity levels. Your calorie counts should get more and more accurate as time goes on.
Apple also breaks out resting calories and active calories. Resting calories are the calories you burn by just living, breathing, and being a human. Active calories are the calories you burn going above and beyond that. Just remember that the Move ring is looking at Active calories, not resting calories. This is something most fitness trackers don't do. So if your calories seem lower on the Apple Watch, this is why.
4. Health, Workout, and Activity
The Health, Workout, and Activity apps all tied together but they all serve somewhat different purposes. Check out each section below for some information on each app and how they differ from each other.
Health app

The Health app on the iPhone can integrate with App Store apps that support it, such as non-Apple-created fitness apps. Your Apple Watch relays the information it collects into Health.app. From here, other apps can access and analyze that data for other uses — if you let them.
Other apps and accessories can also write and read data in the Health app. For instance, Health can pull my sleep data from apps like Lark, and also show heart rate and activity data from my Apple Watch or my iPhone. As long as the app you want to use supports Health and you have granted it access, it will be able to read and write data to it.
Workout app

The Workout app lives on the Apple Watch. This is Apple's own native solution to tracking workouts. The options are currently very basic and allow you to choose between a few different indoor and outdoor activities. During your workouts, Workout uses your Apple Watch and motion activity from your iPhone (if available) to gauge distance, calories burned, your heart rate, and other data as accurately as possible. This information is then passed off to the Health app on your iPhone along with the Activity app, which resides on both your iPhone and Apple Watch.
Activity app

The Activity app is what monitors your move, stand, and exercise data. This is represented on your Apple Watch by the three rings that you work toward completing all day. There is also a more robust version of the Activity app available on your iPhone. This lets you see a complete picture of your activity, including weekly and monthly overviews. You can also view your achievements and workout data on the Activity app for iPhone.
As for workouts, the only workouts that get imported into Activity (at least at this time) are workouts you have recorded with the Workout app for Apple Watch. That does not mean that the Activity app won't reflect the calories you burned, distance you went, or exercise you performed while using another app, however. This is particularly true if whatever fitness app you're using integrates into the Health app.
Since your Apple Watch can pull data from Health.app, any fitness apps that deposit data into the Health app should be taken into consideration when it comes to your overall totals. You just won't see a workout summary in the Activity app like you do when using the Workout app. Not only that, wearing your Apple Watch in general results in calories being totaled, regardless of what app you're using.
5. App Store fitness apps

If you don't want to use the Workout app, or don't find it suits your specific needs, there are many fitness apps that are optimized for Apple Watch. And even if the app of your choice isn't available yet, as long as it integrates into the Health app, any data it collects should be taken into consideration when calculating your overall activity. You just won't see the breakdown of it in the Activity app; instead, you'll have to rely on that specific app.
Reader comments
Apple Watch and activity tracking: 5 things you need to know!
That would be a shame if as the article says, going for a walk or taking the dog for a walk doesn't actually count as "exercise" because it certainly is. Apple is not dealing with the facts if it thinks otherwise.
Not at all. if i do that every day and it isn't outside of my normal routine, that shouldn't, and doesn't count as 30 minutes of actual exercise for me.
I agree. For me exercise is doing something more active than your daily routine. I do a lot of walking so I would have to go way above that to burn a lot more to see any results. Not saying going for a walk is bad but if it is just a slow walk you really are not burning anything to write about.
true but if your exercising just use your "workout" app on the apple watch and set it to what your doing, like walking or running, and then the apple watch will count those minutes and calories
Well every study I've read on the matter, and I'ver read a lot, says otherwise. Exercise is physical activity and all physical activity counts towards calorie reduction and overall health.
There is a widely held belief that one has to actually raise one's heartbeat to a certain level and then maintain that level for a period of time for it to "count," but it's not actually a belief based on facts. The origin of this belief can be traced back to a small US Army funded study in the late 1960's which came up with that result, however every study since that has tried to replicate it has either come up as "inconclusive," or has come to the exact opposite conclusion.
Any movement, any calorie burning throughout the day, whether "sustained" or otherwise contributes to calorie burning and weight reduction. This is simply a fact. Walking is exercise. Brisk walking is better exercise, but walking is still exercise.
If Apple doesn't count a walk as exercise contributing to calorie burn, then how will it differentiate between a person that walks everywhere all day long, and someone who takes a car? These two people will have wildly differing health outcomes, but according to this, they would be exercising the same amount. This makes no sense.
By that definition I work out 2-4 hours a day. Plus the time where I actually play a sport. That would almost mean I am a full time athlete. When I fact I just walk a lot.
Sent from the iMore App
Apple is counting the calories from all activities. Depending on the intensity it either gets recorded on the Move Ring or the Exercise. Ring. See Allyson's screen shot of the Move Ring.
Nah, if weight reduction happened for every calorie burned, we would all weigh 90 pounds. Calorie intake must be considered too. You aren't looking at the bigger picture. A normal day for most people doesn't result in weight loss. Going above and beyond does.
This is not good, so like in my case, I'm walking daily to recover from a serious accident, the Apple Watch doesn't recognize this as an
Exercise Activity. The walks are exercise I try to do daily.
Hmm I cannot find that activity app on my phone at all
I couldn't either. I was perplexed. Make sure you are updated to the latest iOS, then do a hard reset. Hold power button and home button down until phone restarts, and you see the Apple logo. When my phone booted back up, TADA! The Activity app was there.
I did a 60 minute workout on the stepper yesterday that I logged in the workout app. It also told me my average heart rate was 119. I was very surprised to see that the Exercise Ring on the Activity App only gave me credit for 15 minutes of exercise. I do realize that being on the stepper my hands were not moving much, but with me logging it in the Workout app and having my average heart rate at 119, I was hoping to at least get my ring closed. UGH.... guess Apple really wants me to do more....
That sounds really bad to me and against all the rules of, you know ... science.
A 60 minute workout on a stepper is 60 minutes of exercise. Period.
I'm starting to think you don't really read things before leaving negative comments. Because from what I can tell, those are the only kinds of comments you know how to leave, regardless of context.
If the Apple Watch had a negativity ring, I don't think you'd have a problem filling that up. Seriously, lighten up.
That's a really mean thing to say. Your the one making the personal attack here.
Anytime I see your name attached to a comment, it's always something negative. That's not a personal attack. It's kind of the truth.
There's s and option to record outdoor walk , probably that will count for exercise. :)
Jeez. What the hell kind of website is this? You write the article and bash people for commenting on it?
I found this article because wrist trackers don't work well when pushing strollers so I want a way to use the Health.app data (which aggregates my iPhone/Up24/Watch) for a more accurate reading. But here you are on this attack at people for what is and isn't exercise? How is slamming people helpful info to anyone who stumbles on your "facts"?
I too just came across this article because I was trying to see if wearing an Apple Watch while also having your iPhone in your pocket would help track steps taken while pushing a stroller (my wife wants an activity tracker, but she will be pushing our daughter in a stroller). Anyway, Allyson is not bashing Gazoobee. I read through the comments section of articles a lot, and every time I see a comment by Gazoobee (with her/his sad little emoticon), I know it is going to be negative. I can understand Allyson's frustration (as I get annoyed with Gazoobee's negative comments as well). I don't think Gazoobee could disagree that she/he is a very negative person. If someone were to write an article about the sun being hot, I wouldn't be surprised to see a comment from Gazoobee about an article she/he read about how the sun is not actually hot, the writer must have just incorrectly assumed that the sun was hot.
This is an issue I think Apple will need to address. Same happened to me. I did 45 minutes on an arc trainer and my average heart rate was 143. I only got exercise credit for 20 minutes. First gen products aren't perfect. But i'm sure a lot of this will work itself out with software updates, bug fixes, etc..
Also, the Apple Watch should get more accurate as it learns your daily habits. None of us have had them long enough for that to completely happen yet :)
Thanks for your reply. I am glad to hear it is not just happening to me. I do love my Apple Watch and as you said I am sure the small kinks will get worked out in software updates.
I was having that issue on the stairclimber... I read an article somewhere else that said if neither your hand or phone wasn't moving, it wouldn't really be very accurate. So the last few times I've done something like that where my arms or hands are stationary, I put my phone in my pocket and got a better reading. The activity minutes didn't match exactly with the timers, but very close.
Also, as far as heart rate equaling calories burned... you have to find your ideal active heart rate. At the point you are within those boundaries, your body says "hey! I'm moving too much and need to burn more". So if you're on a casual dog walk, then you probably aren't getting your heart rate up enough to tell your body your exercising. Much less your watch. Especially if this is a daily activity. Balance that with a measured amount of calories and you'll either lose or gain. It's pretty simple really.
The probable reason for this is that unless you were varying your workout and pushing yourself on and off throughout, your heart rate will have settled and therefore didn't count as part of your '30 min exercise' and if you were looking to burn calories and lose weight a 60 min workout wouldn't help towards those two goals unless it included high intensity exercise throughout it.
So, if I set my workout app going in order to log my efforts but also ran strava (which is linked to the health app) so I could record my route, I'm guessing that would duplicate my workout stats as the health app would sync both?
It should not. The Health app should be smart enough to come up with an average from multiple devices. Or to know if you're not using your watch, to fall back on motion from the phone or a different app or device.
The note under "Share Data" in the Health app says "When multiple sources are available, one data source will be chosen based on priority order listed above." You can use edit to change the order.
Yep! I've put my AW as primary with iPhone under that and then third party apps next.
Ah. Thanks guys. Hadn't seen that bit. That's a relief. Had a really good first full day, filling my rings up completely and would have hated to think the number had been over inflated. Thanks for the info.
Thanks for this Ally, it was very informative. I don't formally exercise, but as a first step being able to count my steps and observe my heart rate are great things. It will be interesting to see what it automatically does with cutting the lawn as my electric mower is heavy and much harder to push than a regular gasoline powered one.
Sadly I had to cancel my Watch order — temporarily — because I will be away from home for eight days and if my shipping time is moved forward again I won't be home to receive it. Why can't they deliver it to my Apple Store? Once we're back I'll order it. My wife didn't want one but I think she's reconsidering so maybe I'll end up getting a pair. As I read more and more I see reasons accumulate and I share with her what I've discovered. It will be very cool for a number of our niche uses.
You messed up.
Use the UPS app (or online) and change the delivery instructions.
Great article! I continue to be impressed by the Apple Watch as an activity tracker.
It might be worth mentioning that Apple has some instructions for "calibrating" the activity tracking, which could help some issues with accuracy:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204516
I think Serenity is working on a how to for this as we speak :)
Enjoying these articles Allyson - curious that if the Watch and Activity app are somehow recording "resting calories", that they are NOT written into the Health app? At least for me, the Resting Calories card in the Health app remains empty.
That's a very interesting observation and mine is the same. I'll see if we can find something out!
I also noticed this earlier. It would be nice to have that data populated in the Health app as well.
Great info makes me a lot more excited to use the built in Fitness and Activity apps, knowing now how they work. Thanks!
Thank you for the much needed information. I know that this was brought up in the comments above, but I am also having inconsistencies with the exercise portion of the activity tracker. You mentioned in the article that exercise is related to a brisk walk, heart rate, and movement. In your research did you find out exactly what the minimum target is for each of these items and if there is a minimum duration that they must be maintained in order for the app to record it as exercise? (Or maybe I'm completely off base here with how this works.)
Really enjoying your articles here.
I have been using the Apple Watch for a few days and it's been happily recording everything I do and on the whole seems to fit with what I 'feel' I'm putting in effort wise.
Today i did an indoor cycle as I have not been out on my bike fore a while. Now i have a pretty sofis=ticated indoor cycling set up. I have power meter and computer controlled turbo trainer and am usually hooked up with a couple of heart rate sensors along with speed and cadence sensors on the bike. I did an hour and a half sub threshold ride just to get some mile into my legs and was recording the ride in there different ways. Firstly the turbo trainer is connected to my Mac and that provides power readings and I have a Wahoo chest strap paired with the Mac as well. Secondly I use the iPhone Wahoo fitness app which is picking up power from a power meter and heart rate from a MIO Alpha wrist strap. I also started the Workout app in Indoor Cycle mode. Now the Turbo trainer knows all about my fitness levels and threshold for power and heart rate and the Wahoo app has my heart rate thresholds programmed as well. It is no surprise that the Mac and Wahoo app on the iPhone both reported that I had burnt 1012 calories. They were actually a couple of calories different but near as makes no difference. Now both will have used the power readings to get the most accurate result.
Heres where it all goes pear shaped. The work out app finished up with what I consider to be two failures. Firstly it reported to the Heath app that I had cycled 30 meters. Now it knew it was a stationary ride so where did that 30m come from? I can report that the ordering in the Heath sources works great. The ride as logged by the Wahoo app did not get added as it was lower in the list than the Apple Watch but give that the Wahoo app has access to the speed sensor on the bike so gets a distance from that I reversed the order so that Wahoo was above the Apple watch for cycling distance and I now see a distance of 45km which is much more realistic.
The second failures far more insidious in that the Workout app listed my calories burnt as 424 Cals Active and 136 Resting. It also got my average heart rate right at 131BPM. The Mac and iPhone from two different monitors were within couple of beats of the same average (129 on the Wahoo fitness app using the MIO Alpha and 130 on the Mac using the Wahoo chest strap). So heart rate agrees but the active calories are only 40% of what I actually burnt. Now I am prepared to believe that it will learn more over time but being 60% out as a starting point seems like a massive problem. I was really hoping to just use the Workout app for regular cycling to track it as part of my overall cycling effort but with that kind of inaccuracy I'm going to finish up under eating badly (I track calories to keep my weight stable as I can burn 2-3000 calories on a longer ride and usually burn about 600 just on the commute to the office and back). I'm hoping that Apple will get this better over time or that the watch will learn the more i use it but I have a bit of a sinking feeling right now.
Hi guys,
First of all great articles on the Watch! Second of all I am in a wheelchair and I got a Watch and it's like everyday my activity app on my Watch the green ring has overlapped by a lot because I'm in my wheelchair all day and I want to mapmaker the app work right and I do stand also but not a lot but also with the move ring so how do you set up the app to work right and how would you set the calories right so I earn the goal rings? Also I know you can use the workout app but I have not yet but I will but just the activity app have been tracking my calories and exercise ring have overlapped and the move ring so how do I set that up right and with the calories to burn? Thanks I hope this makes sense if you need me to explain a little more I would be happy to!
Allyson thanks for your article. It did clear up a few things for me, particularly with the stand app.
I'm fairly happy with the Watch as an activity tracker. At first I was concerned about how Watch was calculating my resting calorie burn thinking it was a bit low (I've read articles and comments from users who've complained about it being too high). I don't mind it erring on the low side, since my primary concern as far as health is to stay lean by maintaining a healthy calorie deficit.
That said, it seems that whatever resting calorie burn Watch calculates, it does not get sourced into the Health App. Furthermore the Resting Calorie Burn card in the Health App does not have the option to be fed into MyFitnessPal which is what I use for my nutrition tracker. What this all means is that I do not have a consistent and convenient way to determine my calorie intake vs. total calorie burn.
Is there a setting to have the Health App source my Resting Calorie Burn from Watch?
Is there a calorie tracking app that will read Resting and Activity Calories from the Health App? MyFitnessPal does not seem to do this currently. It reads Workouts in Health (this is measured by time, not calories, which is not useful to me) and Steps.
Thanks for the article. I hadn't read it before I posted a question to a different article (How the Apple Watch is changing my health for the better). Here's my question: If I do not wear my watch for a 4 hour bike ride but I do track my activity with my phone's Strava app (my Strava data correctly imports into the Health app), will my Exercise and Calories burned data be included in my Activity "circles". If I understood you correctly, the Activity app should include this data in its overall totals, but I'm not sure if that means its included in the Activity Circles.
Does anyone know if there are apps that help me compete against friends on Apple Watch activity? Something similar to Fitbit Friends? I'd like to see a ranking of how I am stacking up vs. my friends on Moving , Standing, Activity, or any of those. Of course, my friends would have to opt in to this healthy competition. Just need some external motivation to get all those circles!
I really appreciate this article but I am still confused by the workings of the Activity Tracker. Why can I go for a brisk walk - one that raises my heart rate to 140 or 150 Bpm - for 49 minutes and get credit for 5 minutes of exercise but then do 40 minutes of oldies aerobics that barely raises my heart rate at all and get credit for all 40 minutes of exercise? This makes no sense even with your explanation.
When I Set up my Apple Watch I selected Active. Maybe I should he have selected less. Can setup parameters be changed? It's going to take a long time to learn everything about the watch, because it has "learned" about me, for I achieved 30 minutes the first day, some less the second day, 1 minute the third day, and now none. I guess I'll have to get on the treadmill to get my heart rate higher.
This is a very helpful article in understanding what the watch is doing. But, I find Apple's implementation to be a bit discouraging. I unfortunately have had a rather sedentary lifestyle and am beginning to use the activity and workout apps to help encourage me along my road to fitness. As such one would hope that it would encourage me in my activity. So the 2nd day I had my watch I went for a walk for 30 minutes. When I'm done the exercise ring only reports 5 minutes. Granted it was a dog walk so we had some stops along the way, but that was discouraging. This morning I did a vigorous workout on my Total Gym (entered in workout app as Rowing). I worked out hard and was only credited with 6 minutes.
Every fitness app that I've seen is all about encouragement with user groups and other ways to give people that sense of accomplishment as they take steps towards fitness. The Apple activity app seems to be more intent on beating you into submission. It's like the soup nazi: No Exercise Credit for You!
The concept that you have to keep doing more is counterintuitive. Let's say I decide to do what the activity app suggests and try for 30 minutes of exercise per day. For many of us sedentary people with busy schedules that's a significant commitment for a daily workout (in addition to overall effort to just more more). So it sounds like if I keep my commitment, that the watch will stop "counting" that towards my exercise goals. Instead, it might want to encourage me to increase my goal - but it shouldn't devalue actually reaching my commitment.
I really hope they do something to allow more adjustment to make this actually work as an encouragement. I love the simplicity of the app and the way it displays the data in an efficient manner. But I'm probably like a lot of other people who are quickly arriving at the discouraging belief that filling up the rings is going to be impossible!
Unfortunately, many of us have had activity trackers already. The fact that Apple has decided to do something completely different from what is already happening in the market is worrisome. Most people agree that a good metric for staying healthy is walking 10,000 steps a day. My $400 watch can't count steps? The Jawbone Up allows you to set your own goal (the app is pretty awesome I wonder if anyone at Apple has seen it?). On average I need to walk at least 15,000 steps to go above and beyond (for what Allyson calls "exercise"). Jawbone Up lets me set that as my goal. Similarly, I can log workouts of a varying nature to get a pulse on my OVERALL activity and see how active I have been. Somehow, the apple watch can neither record nor report this information accurately and I paid $400 for this? Because somehow, I, you, we trust that Apple has done the research on what health looks like for me (e.g. BPM, arm swinging, etc.) No thank you Apple. How about you create the freaking app and ACCURATELY log what you said you could and let me set my own "fitness" goals like every other tracker out there? And just because I'm nice if you want to offer me the OPTION of using your logarithm, you can include that too. Just make sure I can turn it off and track my steps and spin classes when I want to and the way I want to. After all, I paid $400 and I'm worth it.
It does track steps. Love my watch so far
One thing I felt this article failed to address more clearly is WHY there isn't more seamless integration between Health App, Activity, and Workout apps. It's very confusing for the average user. I'm pretty techy and I've been scratching my head over the last 2 days quite a bit. The apple forums are full of people with the same questions, and from what I have read (anedoctal evidence), Apple has not provided very clear or very helpful answers. How is it the Health App displays data that isn't on my watch Activity monitor? Yes it was touched upon in this article, but have to say, it still makes no sense. Again, these are all settings that we should be able to control. Right now, the main setting on the Health app is "Display on Dashboard? On or Off." There is no option for me to import Health data or even Workouts!!!! into Activity?!?!?!?!?! damn shame because the watch is awesome. But apple really sold the public a bill of goods on the fitness/health tracking, and in my experience there is way better out there and it is way cheaper.
I've been actively working out for almost 3 years. I just turned 58. Prior to the Apple Watch I wore the Basis B1 Activity tracker. In my opinion the Apple Watch tracks activity better than the Basis. With the Basis there was no way to get any credit for elliptical trainer or stationary bike time. Talk about feeling short changed! I've had my Apple Watch for 2 weeks now and while it took a little getting used to, I have to say that I like the way it tracks activity (or lack of). My daily calorie burn with the Apple is higher than with the Basis. I get credit for elliptical activity. What I don't get credit for is resistance training (weight lifting). I didn't get credit on the Basis either. I assume this is because my heart rate doesn't go up enough.
One thing is for sure; the more exercise you do, the more your body wants. As I lived through my body getting more in shape I watched my resting heart rate drop to between 45 and 50. Guess what that means? Less calories burned when idle and more work required to raise the heart rate during activity.
There is no perfect fitness monitor out there. But from what I've seen the Apple Watch does a pretty darn good job of tracking and motivating. We have a Fitbit, Jawbone UP, Basis and now Apple Watch in our family. I think I've seen enough to have an objective opinion.
I wish I could share your view of the Apple watch's ability to track and motivate. I'm still learning to use mine. I am hopeful that many of my issues are user errors and not software-related.
So far, I did the same hike 2 days in a row. My typical hike is somewhere around 3 + miles. Yesterday, tracking the workout as Outdoor Walk, the watch only registered 2 minutes of activity. Today I tracked the same hike using the Workout app on my watch as "other" and it showed the full time in the Activity app on my watch. I learned this makes a distance from an Apple Forum, but I still (as I already stated) don't understand why there is such a discrepancy. Also don't understand why a hike cannot be monitored using "Outdoor Walk." That said, I also found info on the Jawbone UP app in the App store (different from the one I used previously) and downloaded to my phone. This app will use my watch as the activity tracker and import data from my watch into the app. That works much better for me. At least until I can figure out the settings and metrics for the convoluted Apple Watch Activity vs. Workout vs. Health App. I appreciate your feedback on the fitness monitor options. It is helpful. I think it will take some adjustment on my part, but I also think there need to be some updates on Apple's part. Based on the forums I have seen, this is an issue for many users...
Congrats to you on your courage to reach your fitness goals.
Can you tell me why I jog 3.5 miles a day. It is frustrating, I walked the same amount of time for my daily exercise and it usually gives me 35 min of exercise time and today when I walked it only gave me 14 min.
I have the same issue. A watch that can't tell time? Even if I hit the start activity button, it won't give me an accurate time that I have exercised. Useless!!!
First, thank you clarifying the mysteries of the exercise circle. Now that I understand it, I find it infuriating. It is so typically Apple to decide what is exercise and what isn't- especially when you record exercise with their Workout App and it decides the 45 minutes you worked out was only worth 2 minutes of exercise. On a Fit Bit, you record the exercise and it tells you exactly that amount of exercise in your active minutes. I do like the Apple Watch for notifications and the extremely flexible watch faces but it is totally inferior to the Fitbit hardware and software in terms of maturity, concise information display and providing usable, accurate information for fitness tracking. I bought the Apple Watch thinking it would be a significant improvement over the various Fitbit products I've had(I currently have a Charge HR), but is not even close. I've decided to continue using the FitBit for fitness tracking and the Apple Watch as a very fancy watch that sucks as a fitness tracker.
Per one of the other comments, I just had my hip replaced 9 days ago and went for a 45 minute 1.5 mile walk. I was pissed that Apple decided this counted as 2 minutes of exercise, especially when Fitbit recorded it as 45 minutes at an average heartbeat of 101 bpm
I haven't read the entire thread of comments, so if my comment and question is redundant, I apologize .
I swim laps 3 times a week. I do not wear the watch while I swim. Yes, I have seen the YouTube vid of the guy who has the nifty swim app for the watch, and yes, I have read about all these folks who get their watch wet diving and stuff; But, I got this watch as a gift and I'm not going to risk ruining it.
My question; I manually input my swim data into the Speedo app which syncs with the Health app, and the Fitness Pal app on the phone. "Why won't the active calories burned that shows up on the health app and the fitness pal app, show up on the red move ring on my watch!?" Every time I swim, the "move ring" on my watch is inaccurate by 2-300 or so calories! The Health app does not sync with the watch. The watch syncs with the Health app on the phone!
I'm having this same problem, have you figured out how to get it to work yet?
I'm having this same problem, have you figured out how to get it to work yet?
My complaint about this watch is, When I go for a walk and it starts at 8:43 am and ends at 9:24 am it only says I did 18 mins instead of 41 minutes I am not happy. You would think that a watch could tell time. I didn't buy this thing to be my nursemaid. I wanted an ACTIVITY TRACKER. Not a Motivator. All it's doing is making me not want to use it. If there was some way to turn off the motivator, and just let me know the facts, that would be awesome. But so far I have not found a way. "(
Might just sell the darn thing.
Hey APPLE,,,,, If you want to be complicated go talk to Samsung to see how to do it! I have always like the fact that Apple products just WORK. But in this case, you really dropped the ball.
Apple watch this, Apple watch that. Can it work with Android and Windows phones?
Isaiah Heart.
I'm thinking about getting my wife a Watch to replace her Fitbit Charge HR. ...But I'm confused, which is not common for Apple products...
The Fitbit app gives a very concise, clear dashboard of everything "fitness-ey" throughout the day. If she logs a run with Runkeeper, it shows up nicely inside the Fitbit app as ... you guessed it: a RUN. If she has an Apple Watch and logs a run with Runkeeper, will it show up as a run inside one of these Apple Health/Workout/whatever apps on her phone?