It took five iterations of the Apple Watch, but Apple finally added in Apple Watch Competition into watchOS 5. Adding in an Apple Watch competition can help you motivate yourself to move that little bit extra. I know I have done laps around the house just to get those extra points at the end to beat a friend I was challenging to a competition.

If you’d like to spice up your fitness life, here’s everything you need to know about Apple Watch competitions and how to get points in Apple Watch competitions.

Becoming Friends

To start a competition, you will need to be friends on the Activity section of your Apple Watch.

To become friends with someone:

• Go to the Activity app on your iPhone and then go to the Sharing tab on the bottom toolbar.
• Click on the plus button in the top right corner.
• The app should populate with your friends that have an Apple Watch, or you can search for a friend, and the app will search through your contacts.
• Once you find the name of the friend you’d like to compete against, tap on the name
• A request will be sent to that person. Once they accept, you will be able to see each other’s rings and accomplishments.

You must be friends with someone in your Activity App before you can start an Apple Watch Competition. Once you are friends, you will be notified when your friend completes an activity like running or walking or once they complete one of their Activity Circles. These notifications are meant to motivate you to move your body, but they can become annoying as well. By pushing on that friend’s name in the Sharing Screen, you will have the option to mute notifications from that friend that is constantly crushing goals.

Starting an Apple Watch Competition

There are two ways to start an Apple Watch competition against a friend.

Starting an Apple Watch Competition Off a Notification:

• When a friend closes a goal or gets a fitness award, you will be notified on your Apple Watch.
• Scroll down on the notification.
• There will be an option to Compete. Pushing on that button will send a request to your friend.

That’s it! Your competition will start the next day.

How to Start an Apple Watch Competition inside the Activity App:

• In the Activity app on your iPhone or Apple Watch, go to your friends’ list. (Swipe to the side on Apple Watch, sharing tab on iPhone).
• Scroll to whichever friend you’d like to compete with.
• Push on their name, and you will see their activity circles.
• Scroll down you will see the same “compete” button.
• Push the “Compete,” Button, and the Apple Watch will send the request to the user.

Users can have more than one challenge, but group challenges aren’t available yet.

Challenge accepted – How to Get Points in Apple Watch Competitions

Challenges start the day after a challenge is accepted, and all challenges last for seven days, regardless of what day it starts with.

So how do you get points in Apple Watch Competition? It’s simple. You earn a point for every percentage of your daily rings you close. So you’ll get a point every hour you stand up for one minute.

During the challenge, users get points based on the completion of their Activity circles. Since each ring is part of your daily goal, you’ll get points just for standing up. You also get points in Apple Watch competitions for going over your goal. Having the competition based off of your goal evens the playing field as long as everyone is playing fairly. If I wanted to challenge someone with a lower goal, it doesn’t mean they will have it easier.

Still, you’ll need to be active and close your goals to win competitions on Apple Watch. Of course, you could always lower your goal, but are you winning then? That’s going to get into the ethical questions about apple watch competitions.

If you’re in an Apple Watch Competition, you will get frequent updates (usually every morning) about how the competition is going. As well as when a competitor closes a goal.

You can also see how the competition is going whenever you want by heading to the Activity app and swiping to the sharing list.

Who is the winner?

At the end of the seven days, whoever has the most points will be declared the winner. Not only will they have bragging rights, but they will also get a nifty trophy for their digital trophy case.

On the back of the trophy it tell you the date you won the competition. You will also get the chance to request another competition if you need to compete again.

Wrapping up

Now that you know how to set up and how to get points in Apple Watch competitions, you’ll reach those fitness goals in no time!

Using Apple Watch Competition can help drive your fitness goals even more and hold you accountable for your weekly fitness. Of course, I think there’s some room for improvement, like having a group competition. Of course, there are apps for that.

But competing against a friend has helped me to push myself just that little further to win. And that feeling can’t be beaten when trying to get fit.

Need an Apple Watch to jump in on the competition? Check out these deals on Amazon, and help the site a little.