How to Run a Step Challenge With Friends (Any Phone or Watch)

1. The target. 10,000 is the default and it's a lot for a desk day. 7,000 to 8,000 is where most groups actually keep going. Or set a personal target each and compete on days hit.
2. Days hit or total steps? Total steps rewards whoever has the longest commute and the best sensor. Days hit rewards consistency and puts everyone on equal footing. For friends, days hit; for a wearable-only group that wants the numbers, totals.
3. The counting rule. Write it down: "whatever your phone or watch says at midnight". Nobody argues about a 300-step difference once the rule exists.
4. The length. 30 days. A week is too short to become a habit; open-ended fades.
5. The app. If everyone has a wearable and wants exact totals, Stridekick or Pacer. If devices are mixed or you'd rather not share health data, a check-in in Daily Pact. If it's two Apple Watches, the built-in competition.

One practical tip whatever you pick: set a reminder for early evening, not bedtime. In Daily Pact you can add several daily reminders to a challenge, so a 6pm one catches the day you're 3,000 steps short while there's still time for a walk, instead of at 11:50pm when there isn't.

This is the question that stops most step challenges before they start: one friend has an iPhone, one an Android, one a Garmin, one nothing. Two approaches work.

• A sync app that speaks to all of them. Stridekick reads Apple, Google, Fitbit, Garmin, Withings, WHOOP and Oura. This is the exact-numbers route, and it costs the organiser from $12.99 a month for a private challenge.
• A check-in instead of a sync. Everyone counts their own way and reports hitting the target. Free of device politics, free of health-data sharing, and a dollar a month each, or one organizer covers the group. You trust each other, which, for a group of friends, is the whole premise. In Daily Pact the check-in is one tap, and everyone can see who has already hit today's target.

Whatever you choose, agree the counting rule first. Most disputes are about the rule, not the device.

• Days hit: 8,000 steps a day, score by days completed
• Weekly target: 50,000 steps a week (set it up as a weekly challenge in Daily Pact, so a rest day doesn't break the streak)
• Walk to work: three commutes a week on foot
• Lunch walk: 20 minutes every workday
• Weekend long walk: 10 km once a week
• Stairs only: no elevators for 30 days
• Virtual route: add up the group's steps to walk a famous trail (Stridekick has this built in)
• Team versus team: two squads, compare average days hit

More group ideas in fitness challenges with friends and 30-day challenge ideas.

If you're the one setting it up for a team, a club or a big friend group, you probably don't want to ask 20 people to each pay for an app. Both Stridekick and Daily Pact let one person cover the group:

Stridekick reads the real step counts; Daily Pact counts check-ins, so it works with any phone or watch and collects no health data. Daily Pact's Group plan is bought on the web or in the app, has no free trial, and the organizer can invite everyone at once with one link, a pasted email list or a QR code. See how it works for groups.

Office step challenges have two extra rules: opt in by invitation, never by roster, and don't collect health data unless people choose to share it. A check-in that says "I hit my target" isn't health data; a synced step count is. For a company-wide challenge with a dashboard and wearable sync, Stridekick's Unlimited plan is built for it. For a team that just wants a leaderboard this month, one Daily Pact Group plan covers 50 people for $24.99 a month; see our guide to team accountability apps and Daily Pact for workplaces.