Pedometer for your phone: steps, distance and calories

No. A browser gives the motion sensor only to an open, visible page, so the tool keeps the screen on for the whole walk. If the screen turns off anyway or you open another app, counting pauses, and when you come back the tool says how many minutes were missed. For a pocket there is pocket mode: a black screen with no buttons.

Counting starts only after 7 steps in a row at an even pace (8 in slow walking mode), and then those first steps are added too. A jolt or two, picking up the phone or a bump in the road have no such rhythm and are not counted. For the same reason a walk shorter than 7 steps, like crossing a room, is not counted.

Distance is the number of steps times your step length. By default the step length is 0.414 × your height. For a more exact figure, walk a route you know — a running track lap or a measured path — and enter the real distance under "Walked a known distance?". Running steps are longer, so calibrate a run separately.

Turn on "Slow walking" in the counting settings. It notices soft, slow steps — with a cane, a walker, after an illness — that the normal mode treats as noise. Switch back in a car or bus: on bumps the car's sway looks like slow, even steps.

The number 10,000 comes from the name of a pedometer sold in Japan in the 1960s, not from research. A 2022 analysis of 15 studies (Paluch et al., The Lancet Public Health) found that the benefit grows with steps and levels off at about 6,000–8,000 a day for people over 60 and 8,000–10,000 for younger adults. Set a goal you can keep.

The tool estimates energy from walking speed (cadence × step length) and your weight using standard MET values, and the figure includes what your body burns at rest. Many watches show only the "active" part and also use heart rate. Treat the number as an estimate for comparing your own walks, not as a measurement.