How FitCrew counts your activity

How FitCrew turns what Apple Health and Health Connect record into your steps, active calories, activity minutes and activity calories, and what happens when two apps record the same walk.
Health data
Last updated October 10, 2026
In short
  • FitCrew doesn’t measure anything itself. It reads Apple Health on iPhone and Health Connect on Android.
  • When two apps or devices record the same walk, FitCrew counts it once, from whichever recorded more.
  • Walks recorded at different times always add up.
  • You can choose one app to count instead, for steps, workouts and active calories separately.
  • The rules are the same for every app and device.

What FitCrew reads

FitCrew measures nothing itself. Your phone, watch and fitness apps save your activity to Apple Health on iPhone or Health Connect on Android, and FitCrew reads it from there. It adds everything up per calendar day, in your time zone.

Steps

The steps your devices counted and saved. Steps typed in by hand are left out.

Active calories

The energy you burned by moving, not the energy your body uses at rest.
iPhone
Apple Health’s Active Energy, as it is.
Android
An app’s Active calories burned, when it looks complete: at least 15% of that app’s Total calories burned. Otherwise, Total calories burned minus the resting energy Health Connect has, or with no resting records, minus an estimate of about 1,600 kcal a day for the time it covers.
Calorie estimates from any device can be off by 20% or more, so compare your own days rather than reading them as exact.

Activity minutes

How long your recorded workouts lasted, at any intensity, without the pauses each workout recorded. Rest between sets still counts. Apple’s Exercise ring minutes outside a recorded workout aren’t included, and workouts typed in by hand earn no minutes.
A challenge can count only workouts that burned enough Activity calories a minute, 1.7 for the Hat Trick, so its minutes can be fewer than Home’s.
iPhone
Each workout’s recorded duration.
Android
Each session from start to end, minus the pauses it recorded.

Activity calories

The active calories burned during the workouts that earn activity minutes, so a long day on your feet counts less than a run. A workout that earns only part of its minutes, because another one already covers some of its time, adds the same share of its calories. The Hat Trick’s calories goal counts only them.
iPhone
The active energy Apple Health saved with each workout.
Android
The Active calories the session’s own app recorded over it, read as for the day.
They’re part of your Active calories, so a day’s never come to more. Some workout apps save an estimate made from a workout’s length, which can claim more than your devices measured all day, such as for a workout left running after a watch switched off. Then each of that day’s workouts is scaled down to fit, and a workout across midnight is split between the two days by its time.

Workouts and distance

Each workout counts once, with its type, for the challenges that need it.
iPhone
Distance is Apple Health’s walking and running distance, from your workouts.
Android
Distance is Health Connect’s distance records, counted the same way as steps, or only your workouts app’s when you choose one.

When two apps record the same activity

On most days only one app or device records each thing, and FitCrew keeps Apple Health’s or Health Connect’s own total.
With two or more, those totals can count the same activity twice. Health Connect uses its top-priority app only for the moments that app recorded, and fills the rest of the day with a share of another app’s longer records. Apple Health combines overlapping records in a similar way.

A day Health Connect counted twice

  • Fitbit
    Through the Google Health app
    5,617
  • Samsung Health
    One record for the whole day
    6,052
  • Health Connect’s total
    The same steps counted twice
    11,273
  • FitCrew counts
    6,052
On an affected account, Health Connect showed 11,273 steps on a day a Fitbit recorded 5,617 and Samsung Health 6,052. Samsung Health keeps one record for the whole day, so Health Connect counted it around the Fitbit’s records. FitCrew counts the larger of the two, 6,052.

The rule

FitCrew never counts two records that overlap in time, whichever apps saved them. Of the records that don’t overlap, it counts the set with the largest total. This is Automatic, the default for every metric.
  • A walk your watch and phone both recorded counts once, from whichever recorded more.
  • Walks recorded at different times add up, even in the same hour.
  • A record for the whole day counts only if it’s bigger than everything recorded during it. It’s a floor, never added on top.
  • An hour-long record competes with what other records hold in that hour.
  • Only apps that count toward Apple Health’s or Health Connect’s total take part, and typed-in steps stay out.
Same rules for every app
FitCrew has no app-specific logic. Apple Watch, Garmin, Fitbit, Samsung Health, Google Fit and every other app follow the same rules; the only thing FitCrew looks up for an app is the name Health Connect shows for it. Everyone in a challenge is counted the same way, and the examples on this page are worked out by the same code the app runs.

Steps

Here’s one day with a watch, a phone and a Fitbit. Each line is one record they saved.

One day, three devices

  • Watch
    Morning walk · 7:10–7:40 AM
    Counted
    3,000
  • Phone
    The same walk · 7:12–7:41 AM
    Not counted · same time as the watch’s 3,000
    2,800
  • Phone
    Lunch walk, watch charging · 12:05–12:25 PM
    Counted
    1,800
  • Fitbit
    One record for the hour · 7:00–8:00 PM
    Counted
    1,200
  • Phone
    Evening walk · 7:02–7:42 PM
    Not counted · same time as the Fitbit’s 1,200
    1,150
Added up
9,950
FitCrew counts
6,000
If Samsung Health had also saved one record for the whole day, 6,052 steps, it would overlap every record above. FitCrew would compare it with the 6,000 they hold and count 6,052, never 16,002.
iPhone
FitCrew compares the day’s step samples.
Android
FitCrew compares the day’s Steps records. Distance records work the same way.

Active calories

Calorie records are too many to compare one by one; an Apple Watch saves thousands a day. So when two or more apps recorded calories, FitCrew compares hours instead: each hour counts the app that recorded the most in it, and the hours add up.

Two apps, one morning

Hour
App A
App B
Counted
6 AM
40
30
40
7 AM
150
140
150
8 AM
60
50
60
9 AM
20
40
40
10 AM
110
150
150
11 AM
30
40
40
Total
410
450
480
Added up, the two apps come to 860 kcal. FitCrew counts 480 kcal: each hour once, from the app with more in it.
Some apps keep one record for the whole day, so their hours are just the day’s total spread evenly. FitCrew spots this (an unbroken run of 6 hours or more, where one value fills more than half of the hours in between) and uses that app’s total only as a floor.

If App B kept one record for the whole day

  • App A, hour by hour
    410 kcal
  • App B, one record for the day
    Spread evenly, 75 an hour
    450 kcal
  • Both added up
    860 kcal
  • FitCrew counts
    450 kcal
FitCrew can’t tell when App B’s calories were burned, so the hours count App A’s 410, and App B’s 450 is the floor. The day counts 450, never 860.

Workouts and activity minutes

A workout counts once, however many apps recorded it. This works the same on both platforms, with Automatic or a chosen app.
  • Two workouts are one session recorded twice when the shorter is at least half as long as the longer, and they share at least half of the shorter one’s time.
  • A measured workout beats one typed in by hand. After that, the one with more minutes wins.
  • A short workout inside a much longer one, like a run during a long walk, still counts as a workout of its own.
  • Minutes never count twice, so a day’s minutes can’t be more than the time its workouts cover.

The same walk, saved by two apps

  • Garmin
    8:00–8:30 PM
    Not counted · the same session as Google Fit’s
    30 min
  • Google Fit
    7:40–8:30 PM
    Counted
    50 min
Recorded
2 workouts, 80 min
FitCrew counts
1 workout, 50 min
They cover the same time and are similar in length, so they’re one walk. The recording with more minutes counts.

A short run during a long walk

  • Phone
    5:00–5:45 PM
    Counted
    45 min
  • Watch
    5:20–5:30 PM
    Counts as a workout · adds no minutes
    10 min
Recorded
2 workouts, 55 min
FitCrew counts
2 workouts, 45 min
The run is much shorter than the walk, so it still counts as a workout of its own. Its 10 minutes are already inside the walk, so they aren’t added again.

Two separate walks

  • Watch
    8:00–8:30 AM
    Counted
    30 min
  • Watch
    6:00–6:40 PM
    Counted
    40 min
Recorded
2 workouts, 70 min
FitCrew counts
2 workouts, 70 min
Nothing overlaps, so both walks and all their minutes count.

A run typed in by hand as well

  • Watch
    6:30–7:15 AM
    Counted
    45 min
  • Typed in
    6:25–7:20 AM
    Not counted · the same session as the watch’s
    55 min
Recorded
2 workouts, 100 min
FitCrew counts
1 workout, 45 min
A measured workout beats a typed-in one, even a longer one, so only the watch’s run counts.

Your phone and watch

What a typical day looks like with each setup. Devices and apps can change how they save data, so this is what’s typical rather than guaranteed. The rules above stay the same.

iPhone

iPhone on its own

One source
Your iPhone is the only source, so FitCrew keeps Apple Health’s totals as they are and has nothing to ask.

iPhone and Apple Watch

Two or more sources
Both count your steps, so most days have two sources and FitCrew counts each walk once, from whichever device recorded more. In FitCrew’s own simulations this lands within about 1% of a single device’s figure, even when the Watch is charging or the phone is on a desk. Calories and workouts come from the Watch. FitCrew asks once which to count: keep Automatic, because choosing one device drops the steps only the other saw.

iPhone and Garmin

Two or more sources
Garmin Connect saves steps (typically in 15-minute chunks), active calories and workouts to Apple Health, beside your iPhone’s own steps. Each chunk competes with the iPhone’s steps from the same minutes. A run your Apple Watch also recorded counts once.

iPhone and Fitbit

Two or more sources
The Fitbit app doesn’t save to Apple Health, so people use a separate sync app, which often saves hourly or whole-day totals. Hourly totals work like Garmin’s chunks. A whole-day total is a floor: it counts only when it beats what your iPhone recorded that day.

iPhone and Samsung Galaxy Watch

Doesn’t pair
Galaxy Watch4 and later need an Android phone, so they can’t pair with an iPhone.

Android phone

Android phone on its own

One source
Health Connect counts your steps itself (This phone), or Samsung Health does on a Samsung phone. That’s one source, so FitCrew keeps Health Connect’s totals as they are.

Samsung phone and Galaxy Watch

One source
Samsung Health combines the watch and the phone itself and saves one record for the whole day. That’s one source, so there’s nothing for FitCrew to settle.

Android phone and Fitbit

Two or more sources
Fitbit, through the Google Health app, saves its own step records beside your phone’s: This phone on a Pixel, or Samsung Health’s whole-day record on a Samsung phone. Each walk counts once, and the whole-day record is only a floor, so you get the larger of the two, not their sum: on an affected account, Health Connect’s 11,273 became 6,052.

Android phone and Garmin

Two or more sources
Garmin Connect saves step records (typically 15 minutes each), workouts and calories beside your phone’s. They’re counted once, just like Fitbit’s.

Android phone and Apple Watch

Doesn’t pair
An Apple Watch works only with an iPhone, so it can’t pair with an Android phone.

Any phone

Two or more watches or apps

Two or more sources
Everything above applies to all of them at once. A workout three apps recorded counts once, and when FitCrew asks which app to count, it lists every one.

Choosing which app counts

Automatic suits most people. If you’d rather count one app or device, you can choose it for steps, workouts and active calories separately, at any time.
  • 1
    In the FitCrew app, open Profile → Settings → Health connection.
  • 2
    Under Sources, choose Steps, Workouts or Active calories.
  • 3
    Pick an app or device, or Automatic. Each option shows yesterday’s figure (for workouts, the last 30 days) so you can compare.
FitCrew also asks when a sync finds two or more apps recording the same thing and one of them is new: right after you connect, and again when another app starts, like a new watch. Closing the question keeps your current choice.

When you choose an app

  • Only its own steps and calories count, the figures shown beside it when you choose.
  • Workouts and their minutes come only from it, and so does distance. Other apps’ workouts and distance stop counting.
  • A day it recorded no steps or calories keeps the Automatic total, so days before you had it keep their history.
  • Your choice is saved on your device and goes back to Automatic if you disconnect health data.
  • A change re-counts today and the 30 days before it, on both platforms.

Why your number might not match

FitCrew’s total can differ a little from the Health app or Health Connect, even when nothing was counted twice.
  • Different tie-breaks. When two devices recorded the same walk, FitCrew counts whichever recorded more. Apple Health and Health Connect prefer the device higher in their priority list.
  • Records aren’t split. If, within one record’s time, each app caught steps the other missed, only the larger side counts, so the day can come out a little low. This mostly affects an app that keeps one record for the whole day, beside a second device worn at different times.
  • Calories compare hours. A record that crosses into the next hour can add a little to an hour another app also recorded.
  • Workout estimates stay within the day. A workout app can show more calories for a workout than FitCrew’s Activity calories, when its estimate is more than the day’s Active calories.
  • Data can arrive late. A watch might sync days later. FitCrew re-reads older days on the first sync of each day.
  • Older days stay put. Changes reach today and the 30 days before it. Older days keep their totals, and finalized challenge results stay locked.

Questions

If a day looks wrong, check what your devices saved in the Health app or Health Connect first. Then email support with the date and the apps involved.
Email support
Health sources and methodology