The Apple Watch has quickly become one of the most popular wearables for health/fitness tracking. One of the many features Apple has included allows users to engage in friendly exercise competitions with friends and family. It can be difficult to find the right motivation to get off the couch and break a sweat at times, but when bragging rights are on the line between someone and a close friend, the whole exercise experience can be a lot more fun and engaging.
The Apple Watch is a very social gadget by design. Users can send text messages and phone calls on it, have walkie-talkie conversations, and more. This social aspect even carries over to the Apple Fitness app, where users are encouraged to share their fitness activity with other Apple Watch users. When sharing fitness data with a contact, people can see each other’s move/exercise/stand progress for the day, how many steps they’ve taken, and how much distance they’ve traveled. Seeing all of that passive information is great, but when a competition is started, things get really fun.
To start a workout competition on the Apple Watch, doing so takes just a few taps. Per Apple's instructions, open the Activity app on the Apple Watch, swipe over to the Sharing screen, tap on a contact that’s sharing their activity info, and then tap the ‘Compete’ button on the bottom of their page. There’s then a pop-up message confirming that the user wants to begin the competition. To finalize the invite, tap ‘Invite [contact name],’ and that’s all there is to it. For users that would rather do this from their iPhone, the process is pretty similar. Open the Fitness app on the iPhone, tap the ‘Sharing’ icon at the bottom of the screen, tap on a contact, and then tap ‘Compete with [contact name].’
How Apple Watch Workout Competitions Work
For users that have never engaged in an Apple Watch competition before, the rules are pretty simple. The competition lasts for seven days, with the goal being to get more points than the other person does in that time. A point is earned for every percentage added to all three activity rings (move, exercise, and stand), giving users ample opportunities to rack up points over the week-long battle.
Apple Watch users can earn up to 600 activity points per day for a maximum possible score of 4,200 points for the week. For example, if someone completed 125% of their move goal, 50% of their exercise goal, and 25% of their stand goal, that would result in 200 points earned for the day. Ongoing competitions can be viewed on the Sharing page at any time, and when a competition is complete, the winner earns a special badge to flaunt to their friends.
Source: Apple