How to participate in Apple Watch activity competitions with friends

Looking for some extra motivation to get in shape? With Apple Watch activity competitions, you can have week-long Move contests against others to win awards. In this tutorial, we will share how you can do this and engage in friendly competition with your friends, family members, or trainer.

Competing with friend on Apple Watch

How it works

When competing, you receive a point for every percentage you add to your rings each day. The competition lasts for 7 days, and you can earn up to 600 points a day. That’s a maximum of 4,200 points for the week. You will receive alerts during the competition showing your score and informing you if you are ahead of your friend or falling behind.

The person who has the most points after a week wins the competition.

Apple Watch activity competitions are a fun way to bring motivation to your exercise routine. It’s also a great way to interact with your friends, regardless of their location.

Before you begin, you must be friends with that person and share your activity with them. You can learn how to do both in our dedicated tutorial. After that, return to this guide to start a competition.

Compete with friends

You can tap Compete when you get an Activity Sharing notification informing you of your friend’s achievements of closing rings or doubling their move goal. Alternatively, you can start the weekly competition from your watch or your iPhone.

From your watch

1) Open the Activity app on your Apple Watch.

2) Tap the sharing icon from the bottom left.

3) Select your friend.

Tap sharing icon and choose your friend from Activity app on Apple Watch

4) Scroll down and tap Compete.

5) Tap Invite friend’s name. Before that, you can also view the rules.

Invite friend for competition on Apple Watch

Your friend has 48 hours to accept your invitation to compete. Once your friend accepts your invitation, the competition begins the next day.

From your iPhone

1) Open the Fitness app on your iPhone.

2) Go to the Sharing tab.

3) Tap your friend’s name.

4) Tap the Compete button and confirm by tapping Invite friend’s name.

Start competing with friend using Fitness app on iPhone

Check your progress

Throughout the week, you and the person you’re competing against will receive alerts on Apple Watch indicating how things are going. These messages are intended to push each of you further by offering more motivation.

You can always see how the competition is going by going into the Sharing section of the Activity app on your Apple Watch and the Fitness app on your iPhone.

1) At the top of the Sharing screen, you’ll see a running list of competitions.

2) Tap the list to see more information, including total points, today’s points, and graphs showing how the competition has gone for each of the seven days. There’s also a section called Total Wins that shows a running list of how many times you’ve competed with the other person and the results.

Similar information is presented on your iPhone in the Fitness app.

Win awards

After your seven-day competition is complete, the winner will receive an award. You can see it by tapping the awards icon from the bottom right of the Apple Watch Activity app. On iPhone, go to the Fitness app and look for the Awards section at the end of the Summary tab.

Awards section of Activity app on Apple Watch

Did you change your mind?

There’s no way to end a competition once it begins. However, you can mute notifications, hide your progress, or remove a friend. To do that, tap a friend’s name in the Sharing section of the iPhone Fitness app. Now, tap the menu icon and choose an option. You can also do all this from the Sharing section of the Activity app on your Apple Watch.

Manage your friend settings in iPhone Fitness app

Note that after you remove a friend, they can’t see your activity, and you can’t see their activity. To start sharing again, send your friend a new invite.

If you do not see the Compete button

Tap your friend’s name in the Sharing tab of the Fitness app on your iPhone. Now, tap the three dots menu icon and choose Remove Friend. Once your friend is removed, restart your iPhone and add them as a friend again. Now, follow the above steps, and you should see the Compete button.

Check out next: How to share images of your Activity Rings, workouts, or awards