Are steps measured on the phone or watch?

sberman wrote:

I am quite certain steps are measured only using the iPhone. Further, I believe if you are wearing the Apple Watch and not carrying the iPhone, your steps are not measured.

This is incorrect.

Steps can be measured by both devices. When you wear Apple Watch during general daily activities, it uses arm motion to track movement via its accelerometer. The built-in Activity app offers fitness and activity-related estimations including steps taken and distance covered. The Workout app also uses the accelerometer along with the heart rate sensor.

You can quickly check your step count on the watch by opening the Activity app on your watch:

- Swipe up into Glances and swipe left / right to the Activity app (or open the app from the Home screen).

- The screen on the far left shows all three activity rings.

- Swipe up on that screen to see active calories, total steps and your total distance for that day.

- The same information is also synced to the Activity app on your iPhone, where you can also view data for any previous day.

More info:

Use the Activity app on your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Use the Workout app on Apple Watch - Apple Support

If you take both your watch and iPhone with you on outdoor walks or runs (certain settings are required - see below), you can calibrate Apple Watch to improve the accuracy of distance estimations (teaching it your stride length at different speeds):

Calibrating your Apple Watch for improved Workout and Activity accuracy - Apple Support

Whilst the iPhone can also measure steps, iPhone-sourced data is not synced to the Workout or Activity apps on your watch. Health and fitness data is stored instead within the Health app on iPhone (where the iPhone and watch are listed as separate data sources). Combined data from all sources (and you may have others - eg a blood pressure monitor) is shown in the Health app Dashboard, where the top graph is steps taken, using combined total steps from your iPhone and Apple Watch.

To see the data, on your iPhone open the Health app and to go: Health Data tab > Fitness > Steps > Show All Data - some data points may have a phone symbol, whilst most will likely have a watch symbol.

First, the name is Apple Watch, not iWatch.

I am quite certain steps are measured only using the iPhone. Certainly the iPhone measured steps long before the Apple Watch was sold. Further, I believe if you are wearing the Apple Watch and not carrying the iPhone, your steps are not measured.

Yes, I agree my post was in error and can confirm Jonathan's observations, notably his last paragraph.

Sorry for providing inaccurate information. I appreciate the correction. I obviously learned something.

You're welcome! I'm glad to have helped 🙂