Great news for Sports Trackers who have been waiting for the ability to use Sports Tracker with Apple Watch – it is now possible with the new stand-alone version! Just wear the watch, record an exercise with the watch app and get the workout data from the watch to Sports Tracker without any extra effort.
What are the benefits of syncing Sports Tracker and Apple Watch?
The ability to use Sports Tracker with Apple Watch truly brings a lot of extra to the tracking experience. Obviously it is awesome that you can now track activities without having to carry your phone with you. Also the selection of sports you can track becomes wider as you can track swimming, surfing and other such sports by only using the watch.
Another great benefit is the ability to combine the Apple Watch features with the Sports Tracker experience. As the Apple Watch has wrist heart rate, it’s super nice to enrich your workout data with the maximum or average heart rates of your workouts. Note that the watch app supports Sports Tracker heart rate belt when paired with the Apple Watch.
It’s of course also highly motivating to see the tracking attributes directly from your wrist during the workout. Whether you are a runner, biker or a hiker, you can keep up with your speed, pace or heart rate by just checking your watch.
All the watch workouts are synced through HealthKit, and that’s why the phone doesn’t have to be connected to Apple Watch while exercising. Thanks to HealthKit, all syncing and data transitions happen seamlessly on the background, without requiring manual effort from the user.
It’s also great that of the watch apps you can use either Sports Tracker or Apple’s Workout and the data is imported to Sports Tracker. Using the Sports Tracker watch app also contributes to Apple Watch activity rings.
Sports Tracker watch app provides a seamless user experience
When it comes to the user experience, the Sports Tracker watch app deserves credit for its effortless usability. I very quickly learned how to take the app into use, adjust the settings and do the tracking. Syncing the workout data to Sports Tracker didn’t require any effort from the user.
A feature I liked maybe the most was customizing the displayed tracking attributes. The watch shows three commonly used default attributes, but you can easily switch them to fit your needs – also during the workout. For instance, while running and biking I wanted to compare my constant speed and pace with my average speed and pace and could manually adjust the attributes with just a couple of taps.
Other attributes to choose from are distance, calories, steps, heart rate and average heart rate. The tracking view is simple and clear. It’s also nice that you can easily pause the tracking from the watch. When I wanted to take a break from a run to catch some pictures of the beautiful Finnish summer, I just needed to tap a button on the screen.
I was a bit worried if syncing the workouts would be complex, but was pleasantly surprised that after saving my workout, I right away got a notification to my phone that the workout was synced.
Sports Tracker watch app supports an extensive range of sports. Note that shallow water activities like swimming can be tracked with Apple Watch Series 2 and 3 models. The Apple Watch has GPS so you’ll notice a location tracking status icon (arrow) in the bottom right corner of tracking view, if it’s an outdoor activity.
What has changed in Sports Tracker App?
The Sports Tracker feed view has a new Apple Watch icon on the top left corner which opens up an Apple Watch menu. Profile settings have a new setting Sync from Apple Watch which requests needed HealthKit permissions and enables Apple Watch workout import from HealthKit. (This setting can be enabled also from the Apple Watch menu or by summoning the ST app from Apple Watch.)
In Sports Tracker App:
- Go to Profile >> Settings
- Allow Sync from Apple Watch
- Allow Save to Apple Health
Notice that the feed view loading indicator has a new state, syncing Apple Watch activities.
How to use the Sports Tracker watch app
Using Sports Tracker watch app is simple and easy. These steps will get you started with using the Sports Tracker watch app:
- Open the Sports Tracker app from the Apple Watch home menu
- Choose the activity type by rotating the crown. By tabbing the activity type you can see your latest activity types, popular activity types and list of all activity types.
- On the second sheet of the home view you find the tracking attributes. This view shows a set of default attributes, but customizing is also possible. Tab the attribute you want to replace and choose an attribute you want to display.
- Start the workout by pressing Start. During the exercise the watch shows the tracking view.
- You can pause the tracking by pressing Pause.
- Finish the workout by pressing Finish and save and you’ll get a summary of the workout. Sync from Apple Watch is triggered when new workouts are received in the background from HealthKit.
Note that a locked iOS device does not have access to HealthKit, so if sync starts when the device is unlocked and is interrupted by locking, workouts which did not finish syncing are queued and processed when the sync is triggered next time (for example when the user opens up the Sports Tracker app).
Minna Kansikas – Lover of sports and new technologies
Read more
Sports Tracker FAQ section for Apple Watch
Listen to music on your Apple Watch
Use the Health app on your iPhone or iPod touch
Tip: If you need support with the app please contact our customer service.
Andreas
Thanks alot. That sounds fantastic. Now I can finally buy an Apple Watch and no longer have to use my old Nokia Navigator to track my runs.