Count Your Steps to Wellness in March! Below is some detail around how you track your steps using just your iPhone or Android device:

Apple on iPhones

To access Apple Health, just tap the “Health” application icon on your home screen.

By default, the Dashboard will appear with the “Steps”, “Walking + Running Distance”, and “Flights Climbed” cards.

You can tap the “Day”, “Week”, “Month”, and “Year” cards to see how many steps you’ve taken, how far you’ve walked and run, and how many flights of stairs you’ve climbed, complete with averages. It’s easy to see how active you’ve been and how that’s changed over time, complete with your most active and least active days.

Tracking Your Steps on Android Phones via Fit

Google Fit is Google’s competitor to Apple Health, and is included on some new Android phones. You can still install it from on older phones, but as we mentioned before, it’ll work better on newer phones with the appropriate motion-tracking hardware.

To get started, Install Google Fit from Google Play if it’s not already installed.. Then launch the “Fit” app on your Android phone.

You’ll have to set up Google Fit, including giving it access to the sensors it needs to monitor your step count. After you’ve done so, open the Google Fit app and swipe around to see how many steps you’ve taken and other details, such as an estimate of the number of calories you’ve burned.

This information is tied to your , so you can also access it at Google Fit on the web.

Both the Apple Health and Google Fit apps are the same apps you’d use if you had an , Android Wear watch, or another fitness-tracking device that integrated with these platforms. Dedicated watches and fitness-tracking devices may be able to provide more data to these health and fitness apps, but your phone can provide some of the basics.

Just remember to take your phone with you! Using a “wearable” is effective because you’ll always have it on throughout the day, while you might leave your phone sitting somewhere while you walk around instead of keeping it in your pocket. If you do that, it’ll end up under-counting the amount of steps and distance you’ve traveled. You may take quite a few steps just while walking around the house or office, and you’ll need your phone on you to track those.