Setting up Watch Walks on iPhone and Apple Watch

Your everyday steps carry you down famous real-world trails, right on your wrist and in your pocket. No account, nothing to start. Just walk. Here's the whole setup, start to finish.

What you'll need

• An iPhone (iOS 16 or later).
• An Apple Watch Series 4 or later (watchOS 10 or later). Optional, but lovely on the wrist.
• The Health app, built in. Watch Walks reads your step count from it.

Step 1 · Install the app

Get Watch Walks from the App Store on your iPhone. It's free to install, and the Inca Trail is free to walk.

Get it on the App Store

Step 2 · Open it and allow Apple Health

Open Watch Walks and, when asked, allow it to read your step count from Apple Health. That's the one permission that matters, because your steps are what carry you along the trail. You can also allow notifications so a quiet nudge arrives the moment you reach a landmark.

Step 3 · Add the Apple Watch app

The Apple Watch app installs alongside the iPhone app automatically. If it doesn't appear, open the Watch app on your iPhone, scroll to Available Apps, and tap Install next to Watch Walks. Add the complication to your watch face for a glanceable progress ring.

Step 4 · Just start walking

That's it. There's nothing to start and no activity to record. Wear your watch, live your day, and each day's steps move you further down the trail. Glance at the app (or your watch face) whenever you like to see how far you've come and what's ahead.

How walking works on Apple

Watch Walks reads the steps Apple Health already records from your iPhone and Apple Watch together, including the steps in a tracked walk or run. Non-step activities (cycling, swimming) add no steps, so they add no trail distance. Your steps stay on your devices; there's no Watch Walks account and no server of ours. Your trails and medals ride your own iCloud account, so a new iPhone picks them up.

Choosing and getting more trails

The Inca Trail is free. In the Explore tab you can browse them all, filter by region, length or terrain, and buy any other trail once. It's then yours forever. Finish a trail and you can walk it again, forward or in reverse, and earn a rank on its medal.

Troubleshooting

• No steps are counting. Open Watch Walks → Settings, or the iPhone Health app → Sharing, and make sure Watch Walks can read Steps.
• The Watch app is missing. Open the Watch app on iPhone → Available Apps → install Watch Walks.
• Progress looks behind. Pull to refresh in the app; it re-reads Health and syncs with your watch.
• Still stuck? Email watchwalksupport@gmail.com.

← Back to Watch Walks · also on Garmin and Wear OS.