Connect your steps & calories

Apple Health is built into every iPhone and usually tracks your steps and active calories automatically. You just need to let Yodha read it:

• When Yodha asks for health access, tap Allow and turn on Steps, Calories, and Workouts.
• Already declined? Open Settings → Health → Data Access & Devices → Yodha and enable the categories.

Android reads health data through Health Connect, a hub that's built into Android 14 and newer (and a free app from the Play Store on older versions). Yodha reads your steps and calories from there.

Steps: on recent Android versions Health Connect can now count your steps itself, straight from your phone's sensors. Once you give Yodha permission to read steps, it starts counting, with no extra app needed.

Calories (and steps on older Android phones) still come from a fitness app that records them into Health Connect. If Yodha shows no calories, or no steps on an older phone, set that up:

1. Track your activity in a fitness app. Use a step or fitness app you like (many phones include one). Open it at least once so it starts recording.
2. Allow that app to record activity. Grant it the Physical activity permission when prompted. Without it, the app can't count your steps or calories. Some apps also ask for Location for distance; that's optional.
3. Connect that app to Health Connect. In the app's settings (or in Health Connect itself) allow it to write steps and calories to Health Connect.
4. Let Yodha read from Health Connect. Grant Yodha access to Steps, Calories, and Workouts when it asks. You can review this any time in Health Connect → App permissions.

In Yodha, the Open Health Connect button takes you straight to the screen where you can see connected apps and data sources.

Yodha scores your active calories— the energy you burn moving — not your total calories, which also include the energy your body uses at rest just to stay alive. Counting only the active part keeps the leaderboard fair, so it's real movement that earns points.

On iPhone, Apple Health reports your active calories directly, so Yodha uses them as they are.

On Android, some apps (for example Samsung Health) only share your totalcalories with Health Connect, not the active ones. When that happens, Yodha works out your active calories from your total — by removing an estimated resting burn — or from your steps, so your movement is still scored fairly even when active calories aren't available on their own.

Small differences are normal. Health Connect and Apple Health de-duplicate steps when more than one source (for example, an automatic counter and a manually logged walk) covers the same time, counting those minutes once. Yodha reads that de-duplicated total, so it won't double-count overlapping activity, which can make it read a little lower than an app that adds everything together.

Reach your organisation admin, or email [email protected].