Frequently Asked Questions

Steppers syncs directly with Apple Health to read your step data. This means your steps are automatically tracked by your iPhone or Apple Watch, and Steppers pulls this data in real-time. No manual input required!

No! Your iPhone tracks steps on its own using the built-in motion sensors. An Apple Watch will provide more accurate tracking, but it's not required to use Steppers.

Yes. Steppers is free to download and use. Step tracking, leaderboards, Ranked, daily challenges, streaks, achievements, daily quests, food tracking, workouts, weight, and health analytics are included. Steppers+ is an optional one-time $9.99 lifetime purchase for extras such as editing the home screen, two streak freezes a month, and a higher daily shoebox cap. On the paywall, Continue for free sits under that purchase. Unused freezes do not carry into the next month. If you already have a Steppers+ subscription, it still unlocks those extras. Steppers+ does not raise your Ranked rating or make daily challenges easier.

You can add friends by sharing your unique QR code or username. Just tap the add friend button, and either scan their QR code or search for their username. You can also share a direct link that opens right to your profile. From Socials, an invite pays a Rare shoebox when you send it, up to 5 a day and 25 in all, then 2 Legendary shoeboxes when that friend joins. Every 10 friends who join unlock one full Stoon. If someone invited you, enter their code or username during setup.

If you don't hit your daily step goal, your streak resets to 0. But don't worry — just start walking again and you'll build it back up! The key is consistency, and every day is a new opportunity.

An overtake happens when you pass a friend's step count for the day. If your friend had more steps than you in the morning, but you catch up and surpass them by evening, that's an overtake! It's a fun way to track your competitive progress throughout the day. While Ranked is on, passing a friend can also count toward that day's rank.

The social Rings tab was removed. Activity rings for steps, overtakes, and quests are still on the home screen, and step battles are still in chat. Ranked is its own tab in Steppers, beside Leaderboard.

Daily quests are the mission list in the app. They refresh on a schedule and cover steps, active minutes, distance, and more. Complete them for XP. They are not the same thing as the one Daily Challenge on the Steps screen, and they are not the Ranked ladder.

STEPPED is your weekly activity recap — think of it like Spotify Wrapped, but for your steps! It shows your total steps, daily average, best day, streak, and achievements earned over the past week, all in a shareable card. Find it on your Profile page and share it with friends!

You can pin up to 3 of your unlocked achievements to display on your profile as badges. They show up on your profile for friends and other users to see. Go to Profile > Settings > Pinned Badges to choose which achievements to show off!

XP comes from daily quests, daily challenges, shoeboxes, and the first time you reach a new Ranked rank. As you accumulate XP, you level up. Your level and progress bar are on your profile, and each level asks for more XP than the last.

Stoons are collectible cards for movies, books, songs, and TV shows. You find them in shoeboxes and fill each card in pieces. Search the collection from the Stoons screen. If a title is missing, Request Stoon drafts an email to thesteppersapp@gmail.com. Stoons are not a currency.

When you view a friend's profile, you'll see a head-to-head comparison card showing your stats side-by-side — today's steps, streak, total steps, and achievements. It's a fun way to see how you stack up against your friends!

Yes! Tap the Active Minutes card on the home screen, then tap the goal label to open the goal adjustment sheet. You can set your daily active minutes goal anywhere from 5 to 120 minutes in increments of 5. Your goal syncs across devices.

Steppers has 100+ achievements across Steps, Streaks, Social, Quests, Ranked, Passport, and more. They unlock from what you actually do, and a later rank drop does not take a Ranked trophy away. You'll get an in-app banner when a new one unlocks.

Steppers makes logging meals easy with barcode scanning and nutrition label recognition. Just scan a barcode or point your camera at a nutrition label to instantly log the food. You can also search and add foods manually. Track your daily calories, protein, carbs, and fat to stay on top of your nutrition goals.

The Cal Report is your shareable daily nutrition summary — like a receipt for your eating. It shows your total calories, macros (protein, carbs, fat), and a breakdown of everything you logged that day in a clean, shareable card format. Find it in the Foods tab and share it with friends!

Yes! Steppers now includes full workout tracking. Log exercises with sets, reps, and weights, build custom workout routines, and track your progress over time. It's all integrated alongside your step tracking so you can see your complete fitness picture in one app.

Steppers provides health analytics for everyone, including weight and BMI, body composition, heart rate, sleep, vitals, active hours, distance trends, and weekly health reports. Charts show your progress over time.

After you accept a daily challenge, Steppers puts it on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island. It uses the same System style as the challenge window: your hunter rank, the task, a progress bar, and the time left. It stays through the grace period after the deadline, including past midnight, and leaves once the challenge is cleared, failed, or that grace period ends. A challenge that is only waiting for an answer does not appear there. Workouts, step battles, and Passport still have their own Live Activities. There is no separate daily step-goal Live Activity.

Accept today's challenge. It appears on its own while that challenge is in progress, on iPhones that support Live Activities. You can still turn Live Activities off for Steppers in the iOS Settings app under Steppers, then Live Activities.

Steppers offers several Home Screen widgets: a step counter with daily progress, activity rings for steps, overtakes, and quests, a friends leaderboard widget, and a daily quests widget. Those rings live on the home screen. There is no separate social Rings tab. Long-press your Home Screen, tap the + button, and search for "Steppers" to add them.

Steppers keeps you engaged with notifications for: friend requests, achievement unlocks, quest completions, streak milestones, and daily goal achievements. When the app is open, you'll see beautiful custom in-app banners instead of system notifications.

When you're using Steppers, achievements, quest completions, and other events trigger stylish custom banners that slide down from the top of the screen. They feature colorful gradients, icons, and can be dismissed by swiping up or tapping. It's a more immersive way to celebrate your wins!

Absolutely! You'll get special notifications when you hit streak milestones like 3, 5, 7, 10, 14, 21, 30, 50, 100, and even 365 days. These come with a flame animation to celebrate your consistency. Keep that streak going!

Ranked is an opt-in ladder in the Steppers tab. You start at Bronze III and climb through Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Elite, Champion, and Unreal. While it is on, your badge shows on the leaderboard, and the Steps screen shows that badge, your percent to the next rank, and today’s gain. Turn it off and friends see Unranked. Your progress, titles, and diamond frame stay saved.

Every 1,000 steps adds to your rank during the day. Every 10,000 steps, that gain gets a bigger multiplier, up to ×3. Passing a friend counts right away. Under 3,000 steps the bar can still move, but that day cannot promote you. Your place locks in just after midnight on your phone's clock. A day under 3,000 steps drops the bar by 3%, and the live gain from that day does not stick. Bronze keeps 150% of each gain, Silver 125%, and Gold 100%, so those ranks climb faster. Higher ranks keep less. Champion keeps 12%. Unreal holds until the 8-week season ends, then the badge drops and Unreal has to be earned again. Steppers+ does not change any of this.

The first time you reach a rank, you can earn shoeboxes, XP, Stoons, and a title. Diamond I also unlocks a diamond frame on your profile avatar. Bronze III pays nothing because that is where you start. Dropping down and climbing the same rank again does not pay those rewards a second time. Titles stay under your username even if you later turn Ranked off. Champion and Unreal also show on the global leaderboard. Stoons are collectible cards, not a currency.

Yes. App Store version 1.7.4, released October 19, 2026, fixes the crash that quit 1.7.2 when it tried to create today's Daily Challenge. That happened when Health access was on, the time was at or after the challenge alert (8:00 AM unless you changed it), and today's challenge was not already saved. Version 1.7.1 never had it. If you are still on 1.7.2, update from the App Store.

One challenge appears on the Steps screen each day, after the alert time you set. It might ask for steps before noon, a distance, a stretch of active hours, flights climbed when stair trials are on, or something harder as you climb. The deadline stays on that same day. A harder rank or a tighter challenge can end earlier than 11:59 PM. Clear it for XP and shoeboxes. This is not the daily quest list, and it does not share a streak or rank with Ranked.

Your challenge rank runs E, D, C, B, A, then S. Higher ranks ask for more and pay more XP. The first time you clear a rank you can unlock a title and equip it under your username. Hunter rank drops one step only when that challenge names it. Rank E cannot drop. Steppers+ does not lower the target or add to the reward.

Each challenge names one penalty, or two. Failing deals only those. That can be a streak reset, a one-step hunter rank drop, a level drop, lost XP, one unopened shoebox, one Stoon reset to zero, a half-pay next clear, or a harder next challenge. Rank E cannot drop. Reaching 75% of the main goal still pays a quarter of the XP. Declining, or letting the challenge expire, is not a failure. Decline keeps the streak, unless you pass three times in seven days. Titles you already unlocked stay.

Motivators are AI-simulated walking companions that appear on your leaderboard alongside real friends. They have different motivation levels (low, medium, high) and generate realistic step patterns to give you something to compete against, even when your friends aren't active.

Yes! You can enable or disable individual Motivators from the Motivators tab. Toggle them on to add competition to your leaderboard, or turn them off if you only want to see real friends.

Your step data is only shared with friends you've added. We take privacy seriously — you control who can see your activity. You can read our full Privacy Policy for more details on how we handle your data.

Yes! Go to Profile > Settings > Privacy to control what non-friends can see. You can toggle visibility for your step count, streak, and achievements individually. Friends can always see everything on your profile.

Yes! You can delete your account at any time from the Settings page in the app. This will permanently remove all your data including step history, friends, and streaks.

First, make sure Steppers has permission to access Apple Health. Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Health > Steppers and ensure "Steps" is enabled. If it's already enabled, try pulling down to refresh on the home screen, or close and reopen the app.

We'd love to hear from you! Send us an email at thesteppersapp@gmail.com and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.