The Apple Watch is a great device for tracking all your exercise fitness data so you can set, beat, and update personal Move and Exercise goals. The device provides convenient and visual options to see how you’re doing.
One of the challenges with maintaining an exercise routine though is accountability. But since the Apple Watch is so popular, you’ve likely got a lot of friends and family members using the device too.
A fun way to keep yourself accountable, and to fuel your competitive edge, is to see how your contacts are progressing throughout the day on their goals. You can see Move, Exercise, and Stand rings, in addition to a few other details with a click or two of your Watch or on the Fitness app on your iPhone or iPad once you enable sharing.
Continue with the guide below for steps on how to connect with friends, details on what you can see, set notifications, see compete goals, or ignore sharing if you don’t want to share your data.
Once sharing begins with friends and family, there will be data shared and available at any time for you to see. To that point, your contacts that you’ve paired with will also see your fitness activity.
You probably want to know what you’re getting into before you set this up. What you see will vary if you’re checking on the Watch app or the iPhone/iPad app. Here’s what’s shared:
Move ring
Number of calories burned today and the total set as the Move goal (for example, 200/600 – that’s 200 calories burned)
Exercise ring
Number of minutes of Exercise that has been completed and total set of Exercise daily goal (for example, 20 / 30 – that’s 20 minutes completed)
Stand ring
Number of hours that you’ve managed to get up and stand out of daily Stand goal (for example, 10/12 – that’s 10 hours you’ve got up and stood)
Workout
If a workout was completed, you’ll see what activity they completed – such as Cycling – and the number of calories burned during the workout.
Other data
- Total number of steps taken so far in the day (such as 2654 steps)
- Distance travelled over the day (such as 1.15 miles)
- On the Watch, you’ll also get a ring completion percentage based on goals that your friends and family have set.
To share activity, you and your friend or family member both need an Apple Watch and an iPhone in order to connect.
When your friends complete Exercise, close a ring or reach a goal, you will get a notification on your Watch and be able to track their progress throughout the day in order to complete.
Add a friend for sharing – iPhone steps
- From your iPhone, open the Fitness app.
- Tap the Sharing tab. If asked, tap Get Started.
- Tap the Account icon, then the Add button.
- Start typing the name of your friend. You can also pick from a list of suggested contacts.
- Note that you can add up to 40 friends.
- Tap Send to initiate the invite after you’ve added your friend.
- Now you must wait for your friend to accept the invite. You can see those steps below.
Add a friend for sharing – Apple Watch steps
- From your watch, open the Activity app.
- Swipe to the Sharing screen.
- Scroll down, then tap Invite a Friend.
- Scroll to and select a contact to send the invite.
Allow a friend to see your activity
You’ll get a notification right on your Apple Watch when an invite is sent to begin sharing.
- When the notification appears, tap Accept to share activity.
- Tap Ignore if you don’t want to share with that contact.
- As a tip, let your friend know you want to share activity with them before sending.
If you missed the notification, don’t worry! You can find it in the app on your iPhone
- Open the Fitness app on your iPhone, then tap the Sharing tab.
- At the top of the screen, tap the Account icon.
- Tap Accept or Ignore.