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How to Master One of the Apple Watch’s Most Iconic Features

It’s been an Apple Watch staple from the very beginning.

Apple Watch Activity RingsPhoto by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

By Tucker Bowe

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Welcome to Product Support, a series devoted to helping you get the most out of your stuff.

No matter which Apple Watch you have, old or new, they all track your fitness similarly and sync with your iPhone’s Fitness and Health apps. Additionally, they all use Activity Rings to show you how you’re progressing on your fitness goals throughout the day.

Activity Rings have been a feature of the Activity app — now the “Fitness” app — since the first Apple Watch in 2015, and they haven’t changed much since then. There are three rings, each representing a different fitness or movement goal you should aim to achieve in one day.

Activity rings: What do the red, green and blue rings mean?

• The red Activity ring (your Move ring) represents your movement and shows how many active calories you’ve burned.

• The green Activity ring (your Exercise ring) represents your exercise and shows how many minutes of “brisk activity” you’ve done in the day.

• The blue Activity ring (your Stand ring) shows how many times you’ve stood up throughout the day.

Can you customize your Activity goals on Apple Watch?

Of course! Everybody is different and thus needs different goals.

When you first set up an Apple Watch — any Apple Watch — it asks you some basic information about yourself, such as your sex, age, height and weight, and then it uses that information to automatically set the activity goals that populate the Fitness app. If you want to change those goals, like if you’re hitting them too easily or finding them difficult to complete, you can.

Before watchOS 7 rolled out in 2020, the red “Move” ring, which measures your active calories burned, was the only Activity ring that you could adjust. But now you can customize your Stand hours and Exercise minutes, too. Here’s how to change your activity goals:

  1. Open the Activity app on your Apple Watch.
  2. Scroll down to the bottom of the first (left-most) screen.
  3. Select “Change Goals” and use the “+” or “—” to increase/decrease your goals.

You’ll have to adjust/keep your Move (red) goal first. Then once you hit “Next” you’ll be able to change your exercise goal. And finally, after selecting “Next” again, you’ll be able to adjust your Stand goal. Select “OK” when finished.

apple watch activity rings
After an outdoor run workout, your Apple Watch logs it towards your Exercise goal.
Tucker Bowe

How can you close your Activity Rings each day?

To close your Activity Rings, you have to complete your activity goals — for moving, exercising and standing — that day. It obviously requires effort on your end, but it’s as simple as that.

To achieve your Move goal, you simply have to be active. Run errands, walk your dog, do yard work or just chase your kids around. All these activities burn calories, which your Apple Watch tracks and counts toward your Move goal.

To achieve your Exercise goal, you must do an exercise through the Workout app or a compatible third-party workout app (such as Stava, Nike Run Club, SmartGym or Workouts++). If you are doing an activity (such as a walk, run, or lifting) that raises your heart rate, your Apple Watch will ask you if you’d like it to log that as exercise as well.

To achieve your stand goal, you must get up and move around for one minute each hour — that counts as “one stand.” You have to do this 12 times throughout the day to achieve your stand goal.

Can you customize reminders and notifications?

Yes! Not every one of us wants to be reminded that we haven’t stood up in the last hour. Fortunately, you can adjust these notifications — but only on your iPhone. Here’s how:

  1. Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.
  2. Make sure you’re in the My Watch tab, then select Activity.
  3. You can toggle on/off your various notifications and reminders as you see fit.

How to share Activity and compete with friends

Everybody likes friendly competition, right? That’s why Apple introduced Activity Sharing, a feature that allows you to see the activity of your friends and family wearing Apple Watches. You can send them positive motivational messages (or just banter). To start sharing your activity with friends:

  1. Open the Fitness app on your iPhone.
  2. Tap the Sharing tab and select Get Started.
  3. Choose a friend or family member from your contacts. (You select multiple at once — there’s a limit of 40.)
  4. Tap Sendand wait for your friends to accept the invite.

Once they’ve accepted your invite — or you’ve accepted theirs — you’ll be able to see each other’s activities whenever you want. Open the Activity app on your Apple Watch > swipe to the Sharing screen > and select the person you want to check in on. You can then challenge them to a friend competition to see who is the most active. You can do set up a challenge from either your Apple Watch or iPhone.

If using your Apple Watch:

  1. Open the Activity app on your Apple Watch.
  2. Swipe to the Sharing screen.
  3. Select the friend you want to challenge.
  4. Scroll down and tap “Compete.”
  5. Select “Invite [name]” and wait for them to accept the challenge.

If using your iPhone:

  1. Open the Fitness app and select the Sharing tab (located at the bottom-right).
  2. Tap a friend.
  3. Tap “Compete with [name].”
  4. Tap “Invite [name]” and wait for them to accept the challenge.
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