How to mute progress updates from your friends and hide your own data in Activity sharing

Activity sharing is a tried and tested way to boost your app engagement by pitting your own fitness data against others that are willing to share theirs. Fitbit and Nike knew for a while of the extra motivation released when someone else monitors your activity, Apple knows full well since iOS 10 and watchOS 3. Agreeing to share and relay your activity on Apple Watch can hence be an inspirational thing, but it also results in a considerable increase of wrist-buzzing every day.

If you have committed to sharing your activity and your patience with the daily activity updates from your friend is starting to wear thin, remember that there is an option to mute those notifications. The tutorial also demonstrates how to hide your own activity from that friend, in case you don’t want them to know about your newest calories crushing workout just yet.

Apple Watch Activity teaser

As a matter of course, the number of progress updates and notifications pouring in on your Apple Watch is always relative to the activity levels of your friends, meaning a couch potato friend is not going to produce as many buzzes on your own wrist as a fitness junkie pal. If you have signed up to share your data with someone of the more sportive kind, though, you will have noticed that the daily count can easily exceed a handful of notifications.

activity sharing apple watch

If this sounds all too familiar and you are getting tired of the influx of updates (or feeling guilty at the constant reminder of somebody outperforming you), luckily, the Fitness/Activity app provides the remedy you are looking for. What’s more, is that you are given not one but two options to deal with your friend(s): either block the barrage of incoming notifications or hide your own activity from a particular contact, excluding the person from your analytics and the notifications your own app sends out. Since these two choices are interlaced, the guide below exhibits them in one go:

Mute progress updates and hide your data on iPhone

1) Open the Fitness app on your iPhone and go to the Sharing tab.

2) Select the friend inundating you with notifications. It does not matter what day you select (present or past) to get to the menu we are after.

3) After selecting the contact, scroll downward to unveil the submenu that might just become your saving grace.

4) Red on black and right below their achievements today, the options read Mute Notifications and Hide my Activity. According to whether you like to just stop the progress updates or want to go in stealth mode yourself, tap either option.

Hide Activity or Mute Notifications on iPhone

Mute progress updates and hide your own data on Apple Watch

Tap Sharing inside your Apple Watch’s Activity app and follow these steps:

1) Select the friend with the notifications you want to stop.

2) After selecting the contact, scroll downward.

3) Select Mute Notifications and/or Hide my Activity.

Hide Activity or Mute Notifications on Apple Watch

Remember that whatever you choose, it will only apply to this friend of yours. If you are sharing your activity with multiple contacts, that means a good deal of customization concerning who you want to be fully transparent with.

As far as the Hide my Activity tab is concerned, this is merely a temporary ban. As soon as it is lifted, your full data is going to be accessible again by said friend.

Now enjoy the serenity, sit back, and open that bag of chips you have been eyeballing for the last twenty minutes. No one will know!

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