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Sounds neat, do you know if the Numerous watch complications update if the watch is not connected to the phone? I'm curious if they are showing steps from the watch or the phone.
 
Sounds neat, do you know if the Numerous watch complications update if the watch is not connected to the phone? I'm curious if they are showing steps from the watch or the phone.
It's showing the step count from HealthKit or from the in the app integrated step counter. I am using the number from HealthKit which shows the steps from the watch and the phone combined. I don't think it will be updated without the connection to the phone, because the complication get's its updated number from the app and the app is updating its numbers from the internet, from HealthKit or from the app itself (depends on what number you want to show). But I'm pretty sure, it continues to show the last known number.

For those of you who are interested, you can show any number you want in the complication, even the heart rate, but of course it's not live!
 
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Yeah, that's what I was doing before Pacer.

I would pull up the activity complication, tap on it, and swipe up to get to the step count. With "return to previous" (or whatever the option is that brings back what you had on the screen instead of the clock), it would bring that screen up again when I looked at the watch.

The problem is that it doesn't update step count very often. I never bothered to figure out what triggered an "update" to step count. It may be time (like every minute) or it may be activity (like it waits till you stop walking). Whatever it is, it was WAAAAAYYYYY too long between step count updates. I would frequently look at it and be like "plus about 200" and be pretty close when it finally got around to updating.

Pacer, again, is MUCH quicker. It's around a second to the first update (when the glance is up) and then it updates realtime as you're walking in 2-4 step increments.


I wish Pacer would link with the watch instead of the phone.
 
I wish Pacer would link with the watch instead of the phone.

Me too.

The watch and the phone are always just a little bit off - almost always the phone being less than the watch. Which makes sense: Sometimes you set the phone down and might walk around a bit while it's on the table and it would obviously not be able to recognize those steps. The watch would.

For now, at least, it's been the best option I've found.
 
Still not able to find an app that gives steps using motion sensor from the watch itself instead of the iPhone. Any ideas? Thanks.
 
It looks like the watch is limited, we can show steps from the watch itself, but updates would be limited to every 30 minutes or so, or updated if you open the watch app.
 

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Me too.

The watch and the phone are always just a little bit off - almost always the phone being less than the watch. Which makes sense: Sometimes you set the phone down and might walk around a bit while it's on the table and it would obviously not be able to recognize those steps. The watch would.

For now, at least, it's been the best option I've found.
I'm not understanding why the phone would be less steps though. I thought the watch wrote all the steps to the iPhone health app. (?)
 
The Health app shows phone and watch steps as separate chunks of data when you look at the samples. App developers can chose to count one category or both together.
 
The Health app shows phone and watch steps as separate chunks of data when you look at the samples. App developers can chose to count one category or both together.
Yeah I understand that, I was just confused as to why the health app would show less steps than the watch (assuming no other third party apps etc are being used)
The watch sends everything over to the phone regardless of the phone being on the owner, doesnt it?
I can understand the WATCH having steps below the health app as the health app receives steps from both the iPhone and the watch, so if you are not wearing the watch but using the phone at any point throughout the day, the step count will be higher on the phone instead of the watch.
 
Yeah I understand that, I was just confused as to why the health app would show less steps than the watch (assuming no other third party apps etc are being used)
The watch sends everything over to the phone regardless of the phone being on the owner, doesnt it?
I can understand the WATCH having steps below the health app as the health app receives steps from both the iPhone and the watch, so if you are not wearing the watch but using the phone at any point throughout the day, the step count will be higher on the phone instead of the watch.

Oh, yeah, good point. I doubt the phone will show less. Although there are times when it's not fully up to date in the Health app, but wait a bit and it should catch up. I've also seen cases that the Health app numbers don't update until you back out of the item you are in and re-enter that screen.
 
I like Numerous. I'm hoping they'll eventually update more often, but for now it works pretty well for steps. (Not many steps, but I just set it up a bit ago.)

22415829369_86292b17ff.jpg
 
Well, nuts. That was a short time to be happy. Numerous was NOT updating my steps every 30 minutes, but when I open the app on my phone it immediately updates to the watch. So I did further research and this seems to be true for everybody. Sigh. What's the point of having a complication if you have to open an app on your phone to update the info? I may keep it for a while, though. At least it will remind me to take more steps when I see it.

{edited to add:}
I went to the Numerous site and asked about my steps syncing so I could use them as a complication on my watch. Here's their reply:

"We would love for sensor and health-based numbers to live-update on the watch, but currently Apple doesn't give developers a way to get this data from the watch when running in the background, so we have to do it from the app running on the phone. One possible workaround is to add a location-based number such as Elevation. When an app uses location, it can run in the background and in most cases update the watch."

So I tried that, and I think it's working! Not sure yet, but time will tell.
 
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I could see this coming with Pedometer++ or Human at some point.
Pedometer just updated it's app to include steps on your clock face and in glances. You can even take your watch off and take steps with your phone and it will all sync up. This is good for when you are charging your watch. It takes a minute for the steps to catch up on your watch face however in glances it is right on. Pushing the start walking button does drain your battery somewhat.
 
Pedometer just updated it's app to include steps on your clock face and in glances. You can even take your watch off and take steps with your phone and it will all sync up. This is good for when you are charging your watch. It takes a minute for the steps to catch up on your watch face however in glances it is right on. Pushing the start walking button does drain your battery somewhat.

Is it counting steps from the phone or the watch? If I leave the phone will I get credit for the steps?
 
Is it counting steps from the phone or the watch? If I leave the phone will I get credit for the steps?

Pedometer++ seems to count steps separately. I have been very happy with it so far. I can't tell how quickly it updates in the background, but it does, but hitting the complication to pull up the app is fast, and it will update then in a few secs. Using the "start walk" option, it will update the steps pretty much as I walk, so as a test and example, I counted 230 steps and it showed 232, so pretty much dead on. I have an iPhone 5, which isn't supported, but it seems to work fine on the watch and ok on the iPhone
 
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