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How Walk The Distance Tracks Your Walking
Walk The Distance doesn't track your walking on its own. We read whatever your phone, watch, or fitness app is already recording and use that number to move you along the trail—no extra sensors to install, no separate workouts to start, no second app counting steps in the background.
What we read from each source
Pick one source in the app under Settings → Input source. We only read the field listed below for that source—other tiles in the same app (cycling distance, swim laps, Exercise minutes, and so on) don't reach us unless they also change the field we read.
| Source | What we pull | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Apple Health (iOS) | Walking + Running Distance from HealthKit (HKQuantityTypeIdentifier.distanceWalkingRunning). | A typical outdoor bike ride logs cycling distance separately; it does not automatically increase Walking + Running Distance. Credit wheelchair or other movement only when it shows up in this same statistic (for example if your device records it that way). |
| Samsung Health (Android) | Daily step count from Samsung Health, converted to meters in our app when we sync. | What matters is the steps Samsung has for that calendar day—not Samsung’s other distance tiles by themselves. |
| Garmin Connect | Daily step count from Garmin’s wellness summary. We convert steps to meters (we do not use Garmin’s all‑day distance field for this sync path). | We skip Garmin’s reported distance on purpose: it can bundle in cycling and similar. To get credit here, your effort needs to show up in steps. |
| Fitbit | Fitbit’s daily Activities distance total (the “distance” series Fitbit exposes per day—kilometers converted to meters). | Whatever Fitbit counts toward that daily tracked distance is what we see. Check Fitbit’s own help if a workout is missing from that total. |
What if I have another device?
Most fitness watches, bands, and apps can mirror their data into Apple Health (iOS) or Samsung Health (Android). If yours can, enable that mirror and pick the matching source in Walk The Distance—your distance will sync automatically.
- iPhone — Open the Health app, then Sharing → Apps, find your device's app, and confirm it can write Walking + Running Distance (or steps that feed it).
- Android — Open Samsung Health → settings → Connected services (or your device's partner app) and link the companion app so its step counts flow into Samsung Health's daily steps.
- Examples that often bridge cleanly: Garmin Connect, Polar Flow, Coros, Suunto, Withings, Mi Fit / Zepp Life, Strava. Look for an “Apple Health” or “Samsung Health” toggle inside the source app's settings.
If your device can't bridge into either, you can add distance manually in your health app for the day.
Manually add distance
Adding distance to your health app for today (or yesterday) updates Walk The Distance the next time you open it. Match your entry to the field we read for your source—logging a cycling workout in Apple Health, for example, won't move Walking + Running Distance.
Apple Health (iPhone)
- Open the Health app.
- Tap Browse → Activity → Walking + Running Distance.
- Tap Add Data in the top‑right corner.
- Set the date and time, choose miles or kilometers, enter the distance, then tap Add.
- Open Walk The Distance—your trail position updates within a few seconds.
See our FAQ on manually adding miles for screenshots.
Samsung Health (Android)
Samsung Health doesn't expose a direct “add steps” field, and we read its daily step count—so the goal is getting steps recorded for the day. Two options:
- Best — sync a device. In Samsung Health, open settings → Connected services (or your wearable's partner app) and connect a watch, band, or step‑tracking app so its steps flow into Samsung Health automatically.
- Or log a workout. In Samsung Health, open the + menu and add an Exercise → Walking session with duration and distance. Walking‑style workouts contribute to the daily step total Samsung Health exposes to us.
- Reopen Walk The Distance to pick up the change.
Samsung occasionally moves these screens between updates—check Samsung Health's help center if a path above doesn't match your version.
Using Garmin Connect or Fitbit instead? Garmin only credits you here when steps rise on a given day; Fitbit credits its Activities distance total. See each company's docs for the current manual‑logging UI.
What about other activities?
For movement that isn't walking—wheelchair pushes, cycling, swimming, elliptical, and so on—use this small calculator for a suggested conversion to walking minutes, steps, and miles. Plug the result into your health app using the manual‑entry steps above.
Comparison baseline: brisk walk at 4.25 MET, ~103 steps/min, ~20 min/mi.
Your suggestions
- Brisk walking equivalent
- 30 minutes (same energy vs our 4.25 MET reference walk)
- Rough step count
- ~3,126 steps at ~103 /min
- Walking distance at ~3 mph
- ~1.5 miles
Wearables disagree on steps—use this as one consistent reference, then enter what you like in your health app.
Further reading
- CDC — Measuring physical activity intensity
- University of Michigan — Adult Compendium of Physical Activities (MET values used in calculators like this)
- Apple — Health and Fitness accessibility features
Need bespoke guidance?
Send us specifics about how your wearable records adapted activities. If we uncover a repeatable workaround, we will document it alongside this guide.
Email john@walkthedistanceapp.com