# Connect your watch or step app to Apple Health or Health Connect

**Updated:** 2026-10-21  
**Applies to:** iPhone · Android 14+ · Android 9–13 · Apple Watch · Galaxy Watch · Fitbit / Pixel Watch · Garmin · Oura · WHOOP  
**Canonical:** https://www.stepsclubapp.com/help/connect-your-watch-or-step-app

## Quick answer

> Start in your watch's app, not in Apple Health or Health Connect. Open its settings, find Apple Health or Health Connect, and allow Steps. Sharing sleep or heart rate doesn't share steps. Your watch's app › Settings › Apple Health or Health Connect › Steps

**Quick check:**
Check where your phone keeps your steps. **iPhone:** Health › **Search** (**Browse** on iOS 18 and older) › **Activity** › **Steps**, then scroll to **Data Sources & Access**. **Android:** Health Connect › **Data and access** › **Activity** › **Steps** › **Entries** (**See all entries** in older versions).

**Your watch's app is there?** It's connected. If the number still looks low, it's timing or order: see [Why are my steps lower than my watch?](/help/steps-lower-than-watch) **It isn't there?** It isn't sending yet. [Pick your watch or app](#pick-your-app) below.

**On iPhone:**

  

**On Android:**

  

## How your steps get there

Your watch, ring or band counts your steps and passes them to its own app on your phone. That app saves them into **Apple Health** (iPhone) or **Health Connect** (Android). Every other app that shows your steps, Steps Club included, reads them from there.

So there are three links: watch → its app → Apple Health or Health Connect. The middle one is where it usually breaks. The app is installed, it shows your steps, and sharing was never turned on.

Your phone's own steps need none of this. An iPhone counts steps into Apple Health on its own. On Android 14 and up, Health Connect counts with your phone too, and on any Android version Steps Club counts with your phone once you allow Physical activity.

## Pick your watch or app

| Your watch or app                   | iPhone                    | Android                     | Guide                                                        |
| ----------------------------------- | ------------------------- | --------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Apple Watch                         | Sends on its own          | —                           | [Apple Watch](/help/connect-apple-watch)                     |
| Samsung Health (Galaxy Watch)       | Not with Watch4 or later  | Turn on in Samsung Health   | [Samsung Health](/help/connect-samsung-health)               |
| Google Health (Fitbit, Pixel Watch) | Turn on in Google Health  | Turn on in Google Health    | [Fitbit and Pixel Watch](/help/connect-google-health-fitbit) |
| Garmin Connect                      | Turn on in Garmin Connect | Turn on in Garmin Connect   | [Garmin](/help/connect-garmin)                               |
| Oura                                | Turn on in Oura           | Turn on in Oura             | [Oura](/help/connect-oura)                                   |
| WHOOP                               | Turn on in WHOOP          | Turn on in WHOOP            | [WHOOP](/help/connect-whoop)                                 |
| Google Fit                          | —                         | Still works, being replaced | [Google Fit](#google-fit)                                    |
| Anything else                       | Look for Apple Health     | Look for Health Connect     | [Something else](#something-else)                            |

Each guide covers setup, a quick check, when that app sends its steps, and the quirks people run into.

## Your watch or app isn't listed

Any watch or band works if its app can share steps with Apple Health or Health Connect. The setting has a different name in every app, but it's always in the app's own settings.

_Android 13 and older:_ Health Connect is its own app there. Install it from the Play Store first.

**iPhone:**

1. Open your watch or band's app and go to its settings.
2. Look for **Apple Health** under Connected apps, Partners or Integrations.
3. Allow **Steps**. Then open the app once so it sends today's steps.

**Android:**

1. Open your watch or band's app and go to its settings.
2. Look for **Health Connect** under Connected apps, Partners or Integrations.
3. Allow **Steps**. Then open the app once so it sends today's steps.

Can't find it? On iPhone, open Health, tap your profile picture, then **Apps** (under Privacy). Tap your app and turn on **Steps**. On Android, open Health Connect, tap **App permissions** (on Samsung phones, **Your health apps**), then your app, and allow **Steps**. Some apps only show up after you start the connection from inside the app.

**No Apple Health or Health Connect setting at all?** Then that app keeps its steps to itself, and no other app can see them. Your phone's own count still works.

## Google Fit

Google Fit can still pass steps to Health Connect. In Google Fit, tap **Profile**, then **Settings**, and under **Health Connect** turn on **Sync Fit with Health Connect**.

But Google is moving Google Fit users to the Google Health app and ending the Google Fit connections other apps use. For steps that keep arriving, switch to one of these:

- **Your phone alone:** on Android 14 and up, Health Connect counts steps with your phone. Nothing to install. Steps Club also counts with your phone on any Android version once you allow Physical activity.
- **A watch:** connect its own app to Health Connect directly, from the [table above](#pick-your-app).

## Put your watch first

When your phone and your watch count the same walk, Apple Health and Health Connect don't add them. They keep the count from whichever source is higher on your list. So once your watch's app is sending, put it at the top.

- **iPhone:** Health › **Search** › **Activity** › **Steps** › **Data Sources & Access** › **Edit**, then drag your watch or its app to the top. A new app usually lands at the top on its own.
- **Android:** Health Connect › **Manage data** › **Data sources and priority**, choose **Activity**, then tap the three dots (⋮) next to your watch's app and **Move up** until it's at the top. _Android 13 and older:_ don't see **Manage data**? Tap **Data and access**, then **Activity**, then **App priority**.

The full walk-through: [How Apple Health and Health Connect decide your step count](/help/how-apple-health-and-health-connect-count-steps#change-order).

**On iPhone:**

  

**On Android:**

  

## Why it works this way

Watch makers keep your data in their own app first. Apple Health and Health Connect are the shared place on your phone, and each app has to be allowed in, by you, one data type at a time. That's why turning on "Steps" matters: an app can share sleep or heart rate and still not share steps.

Most apps also send in bursts, to save battery. Some send when your watch syncs, some only when you open the app, and WHOOP often not until the next day. Each guide says when its app sends.

**In Steps Club:**
  **Settings › Step sync › Why is my number different?** lists every app that
  sent steps today. Below it, **Don't see your watch or app?** opens these same
  steps for the app you pick.

## Common questions

- [Will my watch or band work if it isn't listed here?](https://www.stepsclubapp.com/help#watch-not-listed)
- [I use Google Fit. Will my steps still sync?](https://www.stepsclubapp.com/help#connect-google-fit)
- [Why isn't Samsung Health sharing my steps with Health Connect?](https://www.stepsclubapp.com/help#samsung-health-not-sharing)
- [How do I get my Fitbit or Pixel Watch steps into other apps?](https://www.stepsclubapp.com/help#connect-fitbit-steps)
- [How do I make my watch count instead of my phone?](https://www.stepsclubapp.com/help#watch-not-phone)

## Still off?

- [Apple: Manage Health data on your iPhone](https://support.apple.com/108779)
- [Google: Get started with Health Connect](https://support.google.com/android/answer/12201227)

## Sources

- [Manage Health data on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch](https://support.apple.com/108779) (Apple)
- [Get started with Health Connect](https://support.google.com/android/answer/12201227) (Google)
- [Find your Health Connect data](https://support.google.com/android/answer/12201872) (Google)
- [Manage your Health Connect data](https://support.google.com/android/answer/12990553) (Google)
- [Phone step tracking with Health Connect](https://support.google.com/android/answer/16786157) (Google)
- [Health Connect on Google Fit](https://support.google.com/fit/answer/12830119) (Google)
- [Google Fit (developer page)](https://developers.google.com/fit) (Google)
- [A new era for your wellness, introducing the Google Health app](https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/google-health/google-health-app/) (Google)
- [Which Galaxy wearables are compatible with iPhone?](https://www.samsung.com/ae/support/mobile-devices/galaxy-wearables-that-are-compatible-with-ios/) (Samsung)