Looking for a step tracker app with the following features

[Thomas Davie]

I’ve downloaded a lot on my iPhone, and even purchased Workoutdoors before realizing that it did not do what I wanted and did a lot that I did nor want.

-I don’t want any notifications, although I would accept the ability to turn them off completely
-I don’t want award badges
-I don’t want reminders to move, stand, sit, walk drinker water, etc. No reminders at all. Again, being able to turn all reminders off is cool.
-I don’t want comparisons, contests, mapping
-I don’t want subscriptions; I will accept a purchase price of up to $50
-I don’t want mapping; I’m either at home wandering around my property (and I pretty much know every acre by now), at dialysis, or doing my once monthly grocery shopping. I know where I am.

-I do want my current daily step count to be able to be displayed on the watch.
-I do want plenty of graphs on the iPhone. Whether or not I can access the, directly on the watch is not a concern. Would be nice, but definitely not necessary. I want to be able to see a graphical representation of my day’s current step count and being able to compare it to this week’s average, last monthly average, etc. The more compares to representation capabilities, the better
-I do want the ability to be able to pick a specific date from either the watche’s or my iPhone‘s history and see the same comparison capabilities

That’s it. I’m already in comparative ill health b/c of dialysis. I know that staying mobile (as possible) is good. The more movile, the gooder. This I know. Just a simple display of daily step counts directly on the watchface as a complication (Duffy almost does it but does not have the graphical representation I describe nor the comparisons I describe). Setting a goal is not needed, wanted - it just causes anxiety.

Anything that does exactly what I describe or come close? I bought Heartwatch b/c a nurse in dialysis recommended it. It’s got a watchface step counter complication, the ability to look at historical data - and only lacks the graphical comparisons I described. It also insists on setting a minimum step count of 10/day.

Thanks for reading this rant, and if I’ve missed something that does what I have described, please let me know.

Tom

 

[Howard2k]

I don’t think you need any apps for that. The built in Health app will track your step, alllow historical comparisons. You don’t have to do competitions, mapping, any of that stuff. In the health app you can prioritize which items are shown on the “opening” screen, and then there is a link to view all your metrics, which you can ignore.

The only missing thing I see is step count on the watch face. I think you need a third party app to show that on the watch face, but you can still easily get to it from the activity app on the watch.

 

[arc of the universe]

I’ve downloaded a lot on my iPhone, and even purchased Workoutdoors before realizing that it did not do what I wanted and did a lot that I did nor want.

-I don’t want any notifications, although I would accept the ability to turn them off completely
-I don’t want award badges
-I don’t want reminders to move, stand, sit, walk drinker water, etc. No reminders at all. Again, being able to turn all ....reminders off is cool.
-I don’t want comparisons, contests, mapping
-I don’t want subscriptions; I will accept a purchase price of up to $50
-I don’t want mapping; I’m either at home wandering around my property (and I pretty much know every acre by now), at dialysis, or doing my once monthly grocery shopping. I know where I am.

-I do want my current daily step count to be able to be displayed on the watch.
-I do want plenty of graphs on the iPhone. Whether or not I can access the, directly on the watch is not a concern. Would be nice, but definitely not necessary. I want to be able to see a graphical representation of my day’s current step count and being able to compare it to this week’s average, last monthly average, etc. The more compares to representation capabilities, the better
-I do want the ability to be able to pick a specific date from either the watche’s or my iPhone‘s history and see the same comparison capabilities

That’s it. I’m already in comparative ill health b/c of dialysis. I know that staying mobile (as possible) is good. The more movile, the gooder. This I know. Just a simple display of daily step counts directly on the watchface as a complication (Duffy almost does it but does not have the graphical representation I describe nor the comparisons I describe). Setting a goal is not needed, wanted - it just causes anxiety.

Anything that does exactly what I describe or come close? I bought Heartwatch b/c a nurse in dialysis recommended it. It’s got a watchface step counter complication, the ability to look at historical data - and only lacks the graphical comparisons I described. It also insists on setting a minimum step count of 10/day.

Thanks for reading this rant, and if I’ve missed something that does what I have described, please let me know.

Tom

great post.

and that Heartwatch requiring a minimum count of 10,000 steps per day kind of flies in the face of latest heart health and general health information (meaning: almost any amount of increased steps is better than not walking at all).

im very particular about steps apps and have tried (and paid for) 5 or 6 over the past 10 years).
the truth is that almost all apps will do what you what you want to do, at much less than USD 50, given that you dont mind needing to turn off some their "features".

Activity Tracker Pedometer (Bits & Coffee) might be the closest to what you want.
i used that one for years.
it plays well with the Watch.
and has good way to easily scroll to see past performance in a continuous flow.

but the one i use currently is Steps App Pedometer (Steps App GmbH).
it seems to have the largest font for its steps indicator on the Watch complication.
and wonderful graphs. and looks great.
in my market its price is about the equivalent of (yearly) USD 18 (for its Pro version). this app is Family Sharable for one price.

in more and more apps however, you will find you are needing to expressly turn off a lot of their features that usually a lot of us walkers just find extraneous. but turning them off at least in the above two is still very possible.

the thing about ALL current iPhone/Watch steps apps is when they are set as a step complicati0on is that they do not update continuously. for almost all faces you use on your Watch, in 99% of the times, you need to touch the steps complication on your watch, and then it will switch to the app's Watch widget and immediately update.

however, the thing to remember (or know) is not all Watch faces and all Watch complications positions are created equal. meaning: for example, if you use apple's "Activity" face, and set any of steps apps' counters as a complication on that Watch face, in the complications slot that does get updated frequently, then usually that complication is more or less updated in real time.
the thing is, "Walkers" dont usually want or need (or, at least, dont usually appreciate) apple's insistence of closing "Rings" . there are other faces that also have at least one complication area that is continuously updated.

hth.

 

[Thomas Davie]

Thanks for replying. Much aporeciated. If I’m being dense so be it 😅, but do you mean the Health app on the iPhone, correct b/c I immediately started looking for the app already installed on my watch or available to install and didn’t find it.

I do have steps set as a favourite to show up on the summary page of the Health app on the phone, and although I can dig back in time and find a specific date with no problem, it is lacking a graphical comparison of two dates I select. The type of graphicsl comparison I mean is the one that first displays under Highlights > Steps > Today (orange) .vs Average (gray) for a 24 hour period of the current day .vs. all data. I also can;t go back in time and select 2 particular Thursdays in October and compare them in an equivalent manner.

Dialysis days are Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday. So I can’t compare daily averages of pre, post and dialysis days with each other. I can get average steps/day for the last 7 days (weekly highlights), average steps per day of current month/last month (monthly highlights), steps/day current/last year (yearly highlights).

I would like to be able to compare the daily step counts for, say Thursdays October 19 and 26, 2023 in the below format. And the today .vs average 24 hour is ok, but curve data smoothing is performed on the average. Would love discrete daily comparisons. You can see under today’s data the flat line for 3 hours from ~8-11 am; that’s when I’m sitting in the dialysis chair just Twitter/news surfing. I get different kinds of data on non and pre/post dialysis days.

Thanks

Tom

 

[Thomas Davie]

@arc of the universe Thanks; am going to check out Steap App Pedometer now.

Tom

Oops, my bad. I downloaded this app this morning while in dialysis and couldn’t get the sort of discrete .vs. discrete daily comparison I describe. The yearly price was however absolutely reasonable and quite affordable. Less than my yearly sub to Carrot Weather at 39.99/ year and only a wee bit more than Overcast podcast at 12.99/ year (Cdn).

 

[arc of the universe]

Thanks for replying. Much aporeciated. If I’m being dense so be it 😅, but do mean the Health app on the iPhone, correct b/c I immediately started looking for the app already installed on my watch or available to install and din’t find it.

I do have steps set as a favourite to show up on the summary page of the Health app on the phone, and although I can dig back in time and find a specific date with no problem, it is lacking a graphical comparison of two dates I select. The type of graphicsl comparison I mean is the one that first displays under Highlights > Steps > Today (orange) .vs Average (gray) for a 24 hour period of the current day .vs. all data. I also can;t go back in time and select 2 particular Thursdays in October and compare them in an equivalent manner.

Dialysis days are Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday. So I can’t compare daily averages of pre, post and dialysis days with each other. I can get average steps/day for the last 7 days (weekly highlights), average steps per day of current month/last month (monthly highlights), steps/day current/last year (yearly highlights).

I would like to be able to compare the daily step counts for, say Thursdays October 19 and 26, 2023 in the below format. And the today .vs average 24 hour is ok, but curve data smoothing is performed on the average. Would love discrete daily comparisons. You can see under today’s data the flat line for 3 hours from ~8-11 am; that’s when I’m sitting in the dialysis chair just Twitter/news surfing. I get different kinds of data on non and pre/post dialysis days.

Thanks

Tom

another great post, well understood by another walker !

you are correct in saying that (no app i have found) will allow you to compare a user set date to another user set date.

and, you are correct in your analysis that Steps App Pedometer does use rounded line graph for its daily comparison within the same week. which i dont like, as well. i have even contacted the developer to ask them to provide a better extended scroll that a person can easily compare past days. but they haven't implemented.

the above to me is also an important point, which is why i first mentioned that Activity Tracker Pedometer does come closer in doing what you want (at least as far as not using rounded line graph to indicate past daily or weekly, or monthly steps).
that is why i wrote:
"Activity Tracker Pedometer (Bits & Coffee) might be the closest to what you want.
i used that one for years.
it plays well with the Watch.
and has good way to easily scroll to see past performance in a continuous flow."

however, this app as well does not allow you to specify a certain day/date and compare it with another one.
the only way i can get a sense of that is through apple's Health data, and touching the period indicator "hour/day/week/month/year" one by one to compare the average for each period so that i can see if my more recent activity's average is more than earlier period activity.

i will also say that, although im a dedicated walker., and in the end, for me, its still very much, about steps, i have also come to use apple's three-ring-ism as it gives me a more complete picture of how active i am.

 

[Thomas Davie]

Found an app for the iPhone that comes soooo close to what I want and has a Watch complication that shows steps.

I’ve included in this post;
a) Screenshot of the AW with the step counting complication in lower right spot

b) Digging into the complication gives me the steps on an hourly basis for the whole day, distance on an hourly basis for the whole day and steps climbed (same basis)

c) On the iPhone, it gives me a slightly more granular data presentation for 1 day, but allows me to see a comparison for all the days in the current week, and I can tap into 1 specific day to get a specific day’s data presenration. On Friday February 2, the period of activity between 8-11am was grocery shopping and 1-2pm was putting groceries away.

d) On the iPhone I can get a rough overview of all the days in a month and tap into a specific day

e) On the iPhone I can get a year’s presentation of very approximate data but can tap into a specifc month, week, day.

The app is called Steps - Activity Tracker by Year of Code, LLC and is a one time purchase for $2.99 Canadian so I bought it. It’s lacking day to day comparisons, but gives me the watch complication I want, historical data access daily hourly breakdown for steps, distance, flights of stairs climbed (basically when I go down to the basement cafeteria in the hospital to get a coffee before dialysis or when I walk up/down my driveway to take out garbage or to meet the medical transport if it’s too snowy for them to safely travel up/down the the driveway.

And it allows me to set my goals (really low) and turn off notifications.


Thanks for the help, b/c your posts made me go back into the app store and keep looking. I will contact the app developer and see if I can get comparisons for two selectable days, perhaps as differently coloured overlays.

edit: The watch complication does update at ~a 10-20 minute interval (wasn’t keeping close track) w/o the phone in hand, phone moving or accessing the phone/data in any way.

edit2: Complication update interval, independent of iPhone is ~13 minutes.

edit3: found it has workout mapping/tracking, or as I call it - lazy hiking near an abandoned rail line very close to my house with lots of stopping, taking photos and trying to find the worked out gold mine.

edit4: email sent to developer
Tom

 

[arc of the universe]

Found an app for the iPhone that comes soooo close to what I want and has a Watch complication that shows steps.

I’ve included in this post;
a) Screenshot of the AW with the step counting complication in lower right spot

b) Digging into the complication gives me the steps on an hourly basis for the whole day, distance on an hourly basis for the whole day and steps climbed (same basis)

c) On the iPhone, it gives me a slightly more granular data presentation for 1 day, but allows me to see a comparison for all the days in the current week, and I can tap into 1 specific day to get a specific day’s data presenration. On Friday February 2, the period of activity between 8-11am was grocery shopping and 1-2pm was putting groceries away.

d) On the iPhone I can get a rough overview of all the days in a month and tap into a specific day

e) On the iPhone I can get a year’s presentatio of very apprpximate data but can tap into a specifc month, week, day.

The app is called Steps - Activity Tracker by Year of Code, LLC and is a one time purchase for $2.99 Canadian so I bought it. It’s lacking day to day comparisons, but gives me the watch complication I want, historical data access daily hourly breakdown for steps, distance, flights of stairs climbed (basically when I go down to the basement cafeteria in the hospital to get a coffee before dialysis or when I walk up/down my driveway to take out garbage or to meet the medical transport if it’s too snowy for them to safely travel up/down the the driveway.

And it allows me to set my goals (really low) and turn off notifications.


Thanks for the help, b/c your posts made me go back into the app store and keep looking. I will contact the app developer and see if I can get comparisons for two selectable days, perhaps as differently coloured overlays.

edit: The watch complication does update at ~a 10-20 minute interval (wasn’t keeping close track) w/o the phone in hand, phone moving or accessing the phone/data in any way.

edit2: Complication update interval, independent of iPhone is ~13 minutes.

Tom

thanks for the info on that app.
i will check it out as well.
happy walking !

 

[japanime]

Found an app for the iPhone that comes soooo close to what I want and has a Watch complication that shows steps.

Fellow walker here. That app looks great! Thanks for sharing it.