You may have heard about the Activity sharing feature on the Apple Watch. It’s a fun way to connect with friends and family while also holding each other accountable for health and fitness goals.
With the Apple Watch being one of the most popular smart watches, you’ve likely got a lot of friends available using the device and ready to share. However, you may be a little nervous about just what data is shared with your friends.
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 so you can see exactly what stats are shared before you connect with friends and family.
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.
Notifications
When your friends complete Exercise, close a ring or reach a goal, you will get a notification on your Watch that shows what goal was completed or workout.
The same goes back to your friends. If you complete a goal, they’ll get a notification for each goal or workout you complete.
Ready to start sharing?
If you’re feeling good and ready to share, check out our guide for all the steps to get going: How to See the Exercise Fitness Stats of Friends and Family on Apple Watch
Hide your data / turn off sharing
If you don’t want to share your data anymore with your contacts, there’s two options. One is permanent, the other can be temporary.
Note that there’s no current option to disable sharing with every contact all at once. You have to stop sharing on an individual basis. Here’s the steps.
Hide data / remove friend from the Watch
- Open the Activity app (the one icon with your rings).
- Swipe to the screen that lists your sharing contacts.
- Tap the contact’s name.
- Select one of the following options:
- Hide my activity. This will start hiding your activity from the friend. This is temporary as you can turn if back on.
- Remove friend. This will remove your friend from sharing permanently. If you want to add them at a later time, you’ll need to complete the sharing setup steps all over again.
- Repeat these steps for additional contacts that you no longer want to share data with.
Hide data / remove from the iPhone
- Open the Fitness app, then tap the Sharing icon at the bottom.
- Tap the contact’s name.
- Select one of the following options:
- Hide my activity. This will start hiding your activity from the friend. This is temporary as you can turn if back on.
- Remove friend. This will remove your friend from sharing permanently. If you want to add them at a later time, you’ll need to complete the sharing setup steps all over again.
- Repeat these steps for additional contacts that you no longer want to share data with.