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 and Active Energy.
• 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.

So something has to be recording your activity into Health Connect first. On most phones an app already does, often one that came with the phone, such as Samsung Health. On some phones nothing does yet, and that is the single most common reason Yodha looks empty on Android.

Rather than guess, check it. The whole answer is on one screen.

1. Check whether anything is recording

In Health Connect, open Data and access → Activity → Steps and tap See all entries.

• Entries listed, with an app name beside them? Something is recording. Skip to step 3.
• Empty? Nothing is writing your activity yet. Do step 2.

2. Set up a source (only if step 1 was empty)

1. Pick a fitness app. Many phones include one, such as Samsung Health. Open it at least once so it starts recording.
2. Let it count your activity. Grant it the Physical activity permission when asked. Without it, the app can't count your steps or calories. Some apps also ask for Location for distance; that's optional.
3. Let it write to Health Connect. Open Health Connect → App permissions, tap that app, and turn on everything under Allowed to write. If the app isn't listed at all, open it and look for Health Connect in its own settings to make the first connection.

Newer versions of some apps, Samsung Health among them, no longer have their own sync switch. If you go looking for one and there isn't any, that is expected. Health Connect's Allowed to write list is the switch.

3. Let Yodha read

Grant Yodha access when it asks. In Health Connect → App permissions → Yodha you should see exactly three things under Allowed to read, all turned on:

• Steps
• Active calories burned
• Total calories burned

Yodha doesn't ask for anything else, so that list is complete.

Why it can still look empty today

Health Connect doesn't backfill. It records forward from the moment a source is connected, so it won't have last week's activity, and a phone set up this morning shows nothing at all until you move. Your first activity of the day fills it in. Yodha syncs when you open it, so open it again after you've been moving.

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 total calories 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].