How does series 4 Watch track walking?

[shankar2]

Hi so I just bought my series 4 Apple Watch. Before I was using Fitbit Alta to track my morning walks.

With Alta, it would sense continuous movement of 10 minutes and then start counting (including the 10 minutes) my walk activity. That way I'd know how many minutes I walked in total.

Can someone please explain to me how does Apple Watch track walking or running activity? Do I need to launch any specific app on the watch or the stock app (activity) will do? Thanks!

 

[oeagleo]

The AW4 and newest WatchOS will automagically determine you're walking, and ask if you want to start an activity. Same if you are in an activity, and stop for a bit. I don't use the feature, as it's just as easy for me to go to the Activity icon on the face of the watch, and select the activity I'm going to do.

 

[shankar2]

I have another question so if I manually start a walk outside workout, and if it’s cold outside and i keep my watch hand in my jacket’s pocket would the step count etc become inaccurate? Thanks!