Features → Competitions
Compete with anyone. On any watch. Fairly.
The dad on a Garmin, the mom on an Apple Watch, the teenager on a Fitbit, the brother who won’t take off his WHOOP — they all compete on the same leaderboard, on the same terms. Five scoring methods, four duration formats, live updates, real-time taunts, and a Past You Ghost row so you’re never alone in a competition.
The cross-wearable layer
Apple Watch’s activity sharing works great — if everyone you know has an Apple Watch. Fitbit challenges work great — if everyone has a Fitbit. Each ecosystem assumes your whole friend group bought into one brand.
Real friend groups don’t work like that. MoveTogether sits above the device layer, reads your activity from whichever tracker you use, and normalizes it so a calorie burn from a Garmin lines up against a calorie burn from an Apple Watch in a way that’s actually comparable.
The result: every device, one leaderboard. Fair.
Five scoring methods. Pick the one that fits your crew.
Different competitions deserve different rules. We ship five scoring methods — the host picks one when they set up the competition.
Ring Close Count
Activity rings, simplified
Earn points each time you close a ring — Move, Exercise, or Steps. Apple Watch friends recognize this instantly; everyone else gets the same fair shot at hitting daily targets.
Percentage of Goals
The fairest cross-fitness method
Points based on how much of your personal goal you complete. A beginner working toward 5,000 steps gets rewarded just as much as an athlete aiming for 15,000. The fairness method.
Raw Numbers
Every calorie, minute, and step
Points for total volume. The most competitive option for friend groups with similar fitness levels who want a head-to-head total-effort race.
Step Count
The classic
Points for every step taken. The original step competition. Works on every device because every device counts steps.
Workout Based
Points only during workouts
Counts only the activity you log inside specific workout types — running, cycling, strength, whatever you choose. All-day passive activity is excluded.
Pick a duration. Or roll your own.
Four presets cover most situations. Each one can be set to repeat — your weekly competition restarts every Monday on its own, no relaunching needed. Add team mode (2, 3, or 4 teams) when individual scoring feels too solo.
Weekend
Sat – Sun
Two-day sprints. Great for ramping up engagement without committing a full week.
Weekly
Mon – Sun
The default rhythm. Most ongoing competitions live here.
Monthly
Calendar month
Longer arcs reward consistency over single big days.
Custom
Any date range
For training blocks, vacations, or 'we challenged each other for the next 19 days' kind of energy.
Live leaderboards. With taunts.
The leaderboard updates in real time as activity syncs from every connected device. Apple Watch users see changes within minutes; users on other trackers typically see updates within 15 to 30 minutes. Pull to refresh for an instant resync.
Live competition events
Dynamic events fire on the leaderboard the moment they happen — keeping the competition feeling alive even when it’s a 30-day arc:
- →A friend closes their last ring of the day
- →Someone overtakes you on the leaderboard
- →A taunt fires when a rival pulls ahead
- →A daily challenge gets completed
- →A personal best for the week is set — yours or anyone else's
The Past You Ghost
Every leaderboard has a ghost row representing your personal best for the equivalent week. It sits in the standings with distinct styling, racing you in real time.
You’re never alone in a competition. Even a solo competition has a real opponent: who you were last time.
Privacy controls
You decide how you appear on competition leaderboards. Display name or real name, exact score or just your rank — set it once in Settings → Privacy and every competition respects it.
Badges for every kind of win.
Badges are the umbrella for every medal in MoveTogether. They unlock automatically the moment you cross a threshold: the celebration animation fires and the medal lands on your Profile. No claiming, no checklist hunting. Many badges climb through bronze, silver, gold, and platinum as you push further.
Competition badges, streak milestones, and achievements are a Pro perk to earn. Seasonal event badges are free for everyone.
Competition badges
3 to earn
Won straight off the leaderboard. First Blood for your very first win, Underdog for climbing from last place to first, Photo Finish for taking it by under 1%.
Streak milestones
14 to earn
Stay active three days a week, week after week. Milestones run from a 5-week streak all the way up to 300 weeks in a row.
Achievements
11 to earn
Lifetime and habit landmarks: Ring Closer, Calorie Crusher, Step Champion, Champion, Early Bird, Night Owl, Iron Will, Weekend Warrior, and more.
Seasonal events
16 and rotating
Limited-time collectibles tied to whatever event is running. Free for everyone, and locked forever once the window closes. More on these below.
Daily challenges
A fresh push, every day.
Short, specific goals — step targets, calorie goals, exercise minutes, workout types, or ring closures — generated daily to push you just past where you’ve been.
Pro users get personalised challenges set 10–20% above their recent averages, so the bar scales as you do. Free users get templated challenges from a shared pool.
Seasonal events
Limited-time, collectible.
Themed competitions appear in the Compete tab when they’re running: Spring Step Surge, October Streak, whatever’s in season. They come with exclusive event badges you can only earn during that window.
Once a seasonal event ends, its badge is locked. Collector’s items, by design.
The weekly recurring loop
Move Leagues — a new league every Monday.
Alongside the competitions you create with friends, every MoveTogether account is automatically in a weekly Move League — a fresh cohort of ~30 movers at your tier, reset every Monday at 00:00 UTC. Top finishers promote up the 10-tier ladder (Walker → Jogger → Runner → Strider → Athlete → Sprinter → Champion → Elite → Master → Legend). Bottom 5 demote. Local comparison, weekly cadence, free for everyone.
From invitation to final standings.
Upcoming
The host creates the competition, picks scoring and dates, and invites friends via link, code, or in-app invite. Settings stay editable up to the start.
Active
Leaderboards go live. Scores update in real time. Friends can still join mid-competition — only their activity from join onward counts.
Completed
Final rankings lock in, the winner is announced, and the competition moves to your history with full final standings and head-to-head records.
Competition questions, briefly answered.
Can I compete with friends who are on different wearables than me?
Yes — that's the whole point of MoveTogether. Two paths: Apple Health (no wearable required — Apple Watch, Tonal, Peloton, MIRROR, NordicTrack, 100+ fitness apps, or iPhone-only) or one of 6 dedicated wearables (Google Fitbit, Garmin, WHOOP, Oura, Strava, Polar). All compete on the same leaderboard. We pull a normalized set of metrics from each source so it's fair no matter who's wearing what. Google Pixel Watch is coming with the Google Health API transition before September 2026.
How does scoring work? Doesn't each device measure activity differently?
You pick from five scoring methods when you create a competition: Ring Close Count, Percentage of Goals, Raw Numbers, Step Count, or Workout Based. Each one handles cross-device differences differently — Percentage of Goals is the most universally fair, because a 5,000-step day for a beginner counts the same as a 15,000-step day for an athlete relative to their own targets.
How long are competitions?
Weekend (Saturday–Sunday), Weekly (Monday–Sunday), Monthly, or a fully custom date range. Any of them can be set to repeat automatically so each cycle starts fresh on schedule.
Can I join a competition that's already running?
Yes. You can join an active competition mid-stream — only the data from when you joined onward counts toward your score, so you're not penalised for arriving late, but you're also not handed catch-up points.
How fast does the leaderboard update?
In real time. Apple Watch users see updates within minutes; users on other trackers typically see updates within 15 to 30 minutes as their device's data syncs. Pull-to-refresh forces a manual sync anytime.
What is the Past You Ghost?
The Past You Ghost is a row on every leaderboard that represents your personal best for the equivalent week. It's there even when you're alone in a competition — you're always racing your previous self.
Are badges only for paid users?
It depends on the badge. Competition badges, streak milestones, and achievements are a Pro perk to earn. Seasonal event badges are free for everyone. Anyone can compete and see live leaderboards for free, and every tier can view the Badges screen.
What are daily challenges?
Short, specific goals generated fresh each day to push you just beyond your comfort zone. For Pro users, daily challenges are personalized — targets are set 10–20% above your recent averages so they scale with you. Free users get general challenges from a template pool.
Can I run an Apple Watch competition with more than one friend?
Yes. Apple's own Fitness app only lets you compete one-on-one — to compete against several friends you'd have to run separate side-by-side competitions. MoveTogether puts everyone in a single group competition on one live leaderboard, with as many friends as you want, and they don't even need an Apple Watch — friends on Garmin, Fitbit, WHOOP, Oura, or just their iPhone compete on the same board.
Can I run a step challenge with friends?
Yes. Pick Step Count as your scoring method and the competition becomes a straight step challenge — most steps over the weekend, week, month, or a custom window wins. Because MoveTogether reads steps from every connected source, your friends on Fitbit, Garmin, or Apple Watch all show up in the same step challenge, not just people on the same device.
