How to do an Apple Watch competition with a group of friends

Apple makes it genuinely easy to challenge one friend to a 7-day Activity competition from your Apple Watch. What it doesn't let you do is put your whole friend group in a single competition on one leaderboard. If you've gone looking for that and come up empty, you're not missing a setting — it isn't there.

Here's exactly why, the workaround people try first, and how to actually run an Apple Watch group competition.

Why Apple's Activity competitions are one-on-one only

Apple's built-in competitions live inside the Fitness app's activity sharing. You compete head-to-head, earning a point for every percent you add to your Move, Exercise, and Stand rings — up to 600 a day, 4,200 over the week. It's a clean format. But each competition has exactly two participants: you and the one person you invited. There is no group mode, no shared leaderboard of five friends, no way to merge competitions.

The workaround that doesn't really work

The usual first attempt is to start a separate one-on-one competition with each friend. Now you're in four competitions at once, each with its own score, none of which talk to each other. Nobody can see a single ranking, the person in 3rd has no idea they're in 3rd, and there's no group banter because there's no group. It's four private duels, not a competition.

How to actually run an Apple Watch group competition

Use an app built for groups that reads your Apple Watch data through Apple Health, then puts everyone on one live leaderboard. That's what MoveTogether does: you create one competition, invite as many friends as you want, and everyone's ranked together in real time. Your Apple Watch rings flow in through Apple Health automatically — no extra tracking, no manual entry.

The bonus, and the part Apple structurally can't match: your friends don't need an Apple Watch. Someone on a Garmin, a Fitbit, a WHOOP, an Oura ring, or just their iPhone can be in the same group competition as you. MoveTogether normalizes everyone's activity with Percentage of Goals or Ring Close Count scoring so it stays fair across devices — see Apple Fitness vs MoveTogether for the full side-by-side.

To set one up:

1. Install MoveTogether and connect Apple Health (this pulls your Apple Watch rings, steps, and workouts).
2. Create a competition, pick a length — weekend, week, month, or a custom window — and a scoring method.
3. Invite everyone with one link. They join the same leaderboard regardless of which device they wear.
4. Watch it update live, all week, in one ranking.

Which scoring method to pick for a group

• Mixed devices, fairness matters most: Percentage of Goals — everyone competes against their own targets, so a casual walker and a marathoner can race fairly.
• Everyone's on Apple Watch: Ring Close Count feels closest to Apple's native format.
• You want a pure step challenge: Step Count — most steps over the window wins.

If you also want a recurring rhythm rather than one-off competitions, Move Leagues drops you into a weekly cohort that resets every Monday — a standing group competition you don't have to re-create each time.

Apple Watch, Apple Fitness, and Apple Health are trademarks of Apple Inc. MoveTogether is an independent app and reads Apple Health data with your permission.

Stop reading. Start competing.

MoveTogether is free on the App Store. Bring whatever wearable you've got — or just your iPhone.