Step 1: Pick the app everyone can use
- Mixed iPhone and Android: StepUp (its listing says it is free with no features behind a paywall, works across iPhone, Android and most wearables, and supports groups of a few friends up to 15,000 people) or Pacer (creating a challenge, inviting people and the live leaderboard are free, according to Pacer's site). Checked 8 Nov 2026.
- Two people with Apple Watches: start a competition from the Activity app on the watch. It lasts 7 days and scores points for closing your Activity rings (Apple Support). It is a head-to-head between you and one friend, so it suits a couple or a pair of siblings better than a whole family.
- Everyone on iPhone, steps and workouts: Stride: Fitness Challenge. Free for up to 15 people, no email or passwords, and steps and workouts come from Apple Health automatically. Disclosure: we make it.
- Family already on Fitbit: the Google Health app (the new name of the Fitbit app) ranks friends by weekly steps or cardio load. It has no challenges, and its help page says kids can no longer add or have friends there (Google Health Help, checked 8 Nov 2026).
Before adding children, check each app's age rating and terms. On the App Store on 8 Nov 2026, StepUp was rated 9+, Pacer 13+ and Stride 4+ (StepUp, Pacer, Stride).
Step 2: Choose a rule that's fair across ages
A teenager, a parent with a desk job and a grandparent won't walk the same amount, and a pure "most steps wins" board is usually decided in the first two days. Three fairer options:
- Points for hitting a daily goal instead of total steps, so a 70-year-old who reaches their goal scores the same as a teenager who triples it.
- Personal goals. A large 2022 meta-analysis found the link between more steps and lower mortality levelled off around 6,000–8,000 steps a day for adults 60 and over and 8,000–10,000 for younger adults (Paluch et al., Lancet Public Health 2022). It's observational, but it's a reasonable reason not to hold Grandma to 10,000.
- Let other movement count. If someone swims, cycles, lifts or uses a wheelchair, a steps-only board leaves them out. In Stride, workouts of 20 minutes or more score points, and wheelchair users can count pushes instead of steps.
Step 3: Set dates and send one link
One to four weeks is enough for a first round; Pacer's own guide suggests the same range and sending invites about a week ahead (Pacer). Post the join link or code in the family group chat, name a start day, and say what the winner gets (picking the next movie night is plenty).
Does a family competition actually help?
There is some evidence it can, at least while it lasts. In the BE FIT randomized trial, 200 adults from 94 families in the Framingham Heart Study tracked steps for 12 weeks. Families who played a game with points and levels met their step goals on 53% of days, compared with 32% in the control group; after the game stopped, the gap narrowed to 44% vs 33% over the following 12 weeks (Patel et al., JAMA Internal Medicine 2017). In short: competition and teamwork helped, and the effect faded once the game ended, which is an argument for running repeat rounds rather than a single month.