Apple Watch Activity Tracking

If you wear an Apple Watch, your workouts can count toward your peer-to-peer fundraiser. BetterUnite connects to Strava, and Strava can pick up the workouts your Apple Watch records. Once you set this up, a walk, run or ride on your watch goes to Strava automatically, and you bring it into your fundraiser with one click.

This article walks you through the one-time setup and how to import your workouts.

Before you start

You will need:

• An Apple Watch paired with your iPhone.
• The Strava app on your iPhone, signed in to a Strava account. A free account works.
• A fundraising page in a peer-to-peer campaign that tracks activities, with Strava connected. If you have not connected Strava yet, open the Activity Tracking tab on your fundraising page and click Connect to Strava.

Why Strava? Apple keeps Apple Health data on your iPhone and does not offer a way for websites to read it directly. Strava's iPhone app can read your workouts from Apple Health, so it acts as the bridge between your watch and BetterUnite.

Step 1: Connect Strava to Apple Health

1. Open the Strava app on your iPhone and go to the You tab.
2. Tap the settings icon in the upper corner.
3. Tap Manage Apps and Devices, then Health, then the plus icon.
4. Tap Connect.
5. On the Health Access screen, turn on Workouts and Workout Routes, then tap Allow.

You can change these permissions later in the Apple Health app under Sources, then Strava.

Step 2: Turn on Automatic Uploads

1. In the Strava app, go back to Settings, then Manage Apps and Devices, then Health.
2. Turn on Automatic Uploads.

From now on, workouts you record with Apple's Workout app go to Strava on their own. Strava sends you a notification when each one arrives.

Step 3: Record your workouts

You can record on your watch in either of two ways. Both end up in Strava.

With Apple's Workout app

Start a workout in the Workout app that came with your watch, the same way you normally would. With Automatic Uploads on, it goes to Strava after you finish.

With the Strava app on your watch

The Strava app for Apple Watch usually installs itself when you have Strava on your iPhone. If you do not see it, open the Watch app on your iPhone, tap My Watch, find Strava and tap Install. Workouts you record in it upload straight to Strava when your watch is near your phone or connected to Wi-Fi or cellular.

Using a different workout app? Strava only picks up workouts from Apple's own Workout app or from the Strava app. Workouts recorded in other apps on your watch will not reach Strava this way.

Step 4: Import your workouts into your fundraiser

1. Open your fundraising page and go to the Activity Tracking tab.
2. In the Strava section, check that the status says Connected.
3. Choose a From and To date. The dates start out covering the last 7 days.
4. Click Import.

BetterUnite shows how many activities were imported and how many were skipped. Imported workouts appear in your activity list and count toward your goal and your pledges right away.

You can import as often as you like. Workouts you already imported are skipped, so nothing gets counted twice.

Which workouts count

Your campaign organizer decides which kinds of Strava activities count toward the campaign, and whether they count in miles, kilometers, minutes or hours. For example, a walking campaign might count walks and runs in miles but not bike rides.

If a workout is skipped when you import it, the campaign probably does not track that kind of activity. Contact your campaign organizer if you think it should count.

Troubleshooting