Why your numbers differ from another app or watch

Steps

Mova shows the daily total that Apple Health or Health Connect keeps. If you wear a watch as well as carrying your phone, Health decides which device to trust minute by minute so steps aren’t counted twice. Mova uses that combined total, so it should be close to the total in the Health app.

It can still differ for a while because:

• Timing. Your watch or phone can take a few minutes to share new steps with Health, and Mova reads Health when you open Today. Pull down on Today to refresh.
• A walk you just recorded in Mova. Until Health has counted it, Mova adds the walk’s own steps. Once Health catches up, Mova switches to Health’s figure for that time, so your total might move a little.
• Another app counts differently. A watch app or fitness app may show its own count rather than the combined Health total. Compare Mova with the Health app (iPhone) or Health Connect (Android) instead.
• A device that doesn’t share with Health. Steps only count in Mova if the device or its app writes them to Apple Health or Health Connect. See Using a watch or fitness tracker.

Distance

On Today and in Progress, distance is Health’s total distance, which may include running or other activities. For a walk you record in Mova, the distance comes from GPS (outdoors) or is the number you enter from a treadmill. Daily goals in Mova are always about steps, never distance.

Calories and walking time

These are Mova’s own estimates. Mova doesn’t read calories from Health. It works them out from your walking pace and the weight in your profile, so they won’t match a watch that measures heart rate. Use them as a rough guide. More in How distance, walking time and calories are worked out.

A day looks lower than you expected

If Health only has data for part of a day, Mova marks the day as partial and doesn’t treat the missing part as zero. See Days marked “No step data”.