Michael Potuck <https://9to5mac.com/author/michaelpotuck/>
Whether you've just gotten an Apple Watch or have had one for a while and
just haven't tracked your steps closely before, it's easy to do. Follow
along for how to see steps on Apple Watch including distance, flights
climbed, along with daily, monthly, and yearly trends. We'll also look at
how to make custom complications to track steps right on Apple Watch faces.
Setting up Apple Watch step-tracking
* Once you've got your Apple Watch <https://amzn.to/2LS5Io4> paired
with your iPhone and it's up and running, it will automatically track steps
whenever you're wearing it.
* You can't set goals for step count specifically, but it's easy to
quickly view and we'll cover an option to place it on your watch face too.
* In the default Activity app on Apple Watch, you can see steps,
distance, and flights climbed.
* The Fitness app on iPhone shows your daily, monthly, and yearly
distance trends in addition to all the data you can see on Apple Watch.
How to track and see steps on Apple Watch
1. Open the Activity app on Apple Watch
2. Swipe down or scroll down with the Digital Crown
3. Your daily steps, distance, and flights climbed will appear at the
bottom
4. You can also tap the bar graph icon in the top left corner of the
Activity app to get your Weekly Summary
5. To see steps and related Activity data for another day, you'll need
to use the Fitness app on iPhone (walkthrough below)
Add step count to your Apple Watch face
If you prefer to see your step count right on your Apple Watch face, check
out our walkthrough on that process via the third-party Complication Lab
app:
* Hands-on: Making custom Apple Watch health complications with
<https://9to5mac.com/2021/07/19/how-to-make-custom-apple-watch-complications
-health-data/> 'Complication Lab'
For now, Apple doesn't offer a native way to track steps with complications,
so you'll have to use a third-party solution like Complication Lab.
How to track Apple Watch steps on iPhone
Here are two ways to look at steps and distance on iPhone:
Daily steps and distance
1. Open the Fitness app
2. Choose the Summary tab
3. Tap the Activity rings at the top
4. Swipe down to see your steps and distance at the bottom or choose
another date by swiping on the Activity rings at the top or tapping the
calendar icon
Distance trends
1. Open the Fitness app
2. Choose the Summary tab
3. Swipe down to see your Trends with Distance walked/run and more
4. Tap it to see your detailed distance trend
Trends show you if your Move, Exercise, and Distance activity are on the
upswing or downswing.
Keep in mind your data between Apple Watch and iPhone won't always be
exactly in sync. But after a few minutes of fresh activity, your iPhone
should match up with your watch.
The one caveat will be if you take your Apple Watch off and have your iPhone
on you and do a decent amount of walking or running. In that case, the
Health app on iPhone will show more steps than the Activity app that's
pulling from Apple Watch data.
9to5Mac.
