Walking can be a truly effective way to boost your health. Even though it may seem like a very basic form of exercise, walking on a constant basis has tremendous health benefits.
More and more mobile apps are designed to become the perfect companion for people who want to walk more and embrace a healthier lifestyle. Walking apps are great because they can provide insightful stats about your physical activity and motivate you to stay focused on your health goals when the initial enthusiasm fades out.
When it comes to Android walking apps you can choose between two different options. You can go for a GPS-based app that not only tracks your activity, but also maps your training route. Just take into account that the GPS use will have a substantial impact on your battery life. At the same time you can opt for apps that use the built-in motion sensors available in all modern smartphones. These will also record your physical activity and will not drain your phone’s battery, since they don’t require GPS.
In this article we’ve compiled a list of both types of Android apps, which you can trustingly put to use in order to get in shape:
ActivityTracker
ActivityTracker is an app designed to automatically keep track of your daily physical activity. This means it will monitor a wide array of parameters, that range from the steps taken and total distance walked to the amount of calories burned and the active time. This Android walking app takes advantage of the built-in motion sensors, which translates into a considerably longer battery life for your smartphone.
With ActivityTracker you’re always up-to-date with your progress in time. This is due to the fact that it displays all the necessary stats about your monthly, weekly, daily and even hourly activity. To help you keep on walking, the app gives you the opportunity to set a weekly target and provides a daily goal based on that target. You can set the target not just for the steps taken, but also for the distance covered or calories burned.
ActivityTracker offers options to import your history from Google Fit, to directly import/export to Google Drive or move your data to a different device. You can enable the fully customizable widgets and the app badge for a quick look at your progress and also share with others your daily results.
- Price: Free (Subscription: $9.99/year)
- Requirements: Android 6.0 or higher
- Download Link: Google Play
MapMyWalk
MapMyWalk was created to monitor over 600 physical activities, including of course walking. The app provides audio feedback during your walks for a series of physical stats, such as for instance the distance covered, the duration, the calories burned, the pace or the elevation. A cool feature is the Routes, which enables you to discover suitable places for walking and share them with other users.
Speaking of others, one of the strong points of this app is getting social. With MapMyWalk you can share your performance on Facebook or Twitter, check out how are your friends doing in comparison to you, you can enter various competitions and win prizes. Truly useful is also the fact that you can connect the app with a multitude of other fitness apps and gadgets like MyFitnessPal and Fitbit, and hence gain useful information about your fitness level and health.
MapMyWalk is definitely a recommended solution to track your walks on Android. Just bear in mind that every walk you take is GPS-tracked, which means it will have a considerable impact on your battery’s life.
- Price: Free (Subscription: $5.99/month)
- Requirements: Android 9.0 or higher
- Download Link: Google Play
Walk Tracker
Walk Tracker is a pedometer app developed to record your daily movement without a negative impact on your battery (no GPS tracking). With the aid of the built-in sensors, the app records and displays your step count, distance, calories burned and walking time. You can start and pause recording when you want and even reset your step count.
Walk Tracker gives you the option to select your goal (lose weight, build muscles or stay healthy) and provides a personalized daily exercise plan based on your selection. The app lets you set and adjust a daily step goal, as well as one for the amount of water you need to drink. If you want to analyze your progress, you can find useful charts for your weekly, monthly and yearly activity.
- Price: Free (Subscription: $2.99/month)
- Requirements: Android 6.0 or higher
- Download Link:Google Play
Pedometer by Simple Design
Pedometer by Simple Design takes advantage of the integrated motion sensors in your Android phone to record your movement. You can start and pause the recording at any moment and even reset today’s step count. The app tracks all the major fitness metrics, including the distance and calories burned, and offers report graphs for your weekly and monthly activity. You can set a daily step goal and start a streak once you’ve reached it two days in a row.
Pedometer by Simple Design gives you the option to enter a training mode that requires GPS activation. In this mode you can select an outdoor or treadmill exercise, set a personal target for the distance, duration or calories, receive voice feedback at set intervals and listen to your favorite music. Being active will allow you to unlock diverse achievements for the daily steps, combo days, total days or total distance. The app also provides personalized walking plans for various goals such as staying fit or reducing stress.
- Price: Free (Subscription: $39.99/year)
- Requirements: Android 4.4 or higher
- Download Link: Google Play
Sportractive
Sportractive is a GPS-based Android app designed to track more than 25 indoor and outdoor fitness activities, like walking, hiking or cycling. The app displays a wide range of physical stats for your workouts: the distance, the time spent active, your pace and speed, the elevation or the amount of calories burned. It can also monitor your heart rate through Bluetooth.
Sportractive wants to keep you active, that’s why it enables you to set multiple fitness targets. According to your preferences, you can set a personal goal for the duration of your workout session, for the distance walked, the calories burned or for interval training. The app stores all your workouts and provides in-depth analysis for each of them. There’s also a feature to transfer fitness data to and from other apps.
- Price: Free (IAP: $1.49)
- Requirements: Android 5.0 or higher
- Download Link: Google Play
Argus
Argus is not your classic walking tracker app for Android. This is a complex app that can assist you in multiple ways in order to become fitter and healthier. With Argus you can monitor your walks or runs using either GPS or the 24/7 pedometer which promises to be quite gentle on the battery life thanks to ultra-low battery usage technology. Of course, as previously mentioned, this app can do much more for your fitness needs.
Argus can measure your heart rate during your physical activities, can provide you with a customized weight-loss program and help you improve your diet and nutrition thanks to its impressive food database. You can also use it to monitor and improve your sleep, since it’s got sleep tracking capabilities. The great thing about it is that you can let everybody know about your fitness achievements. The app lets you easily share your results with millions of users, invite family and friends and take part in various challenges.
- Price: Free (Subscription: $9.99/month)
- Requirements: Android 5.0 or higher
- Download Link: Google Play
Walking for Weight Loss
If you want to drop those unwanted pounds in a progressive and effective manner, this one is definitely worth trying. Walking for Weight Loss by Leap Fitness Group is a GPS-based walking app particularly developed to help you be more active, burn more fat and lose weight the right way. How? By providing a professional workout program and mixing normal walking exercises with more intense activities.
The app comes with a 3-month training plan, which includes 3 to 7 workout sessions during a week. There are different workout levels available according to your fitness level (beginner, intermediate or pro) and also audio feedback to assist you during your training sessions. Walking for Weight Loss will record all your physical activity, from the distance walked to the time and pace, and will provide report graphs with your weight trends.
- Price: Free (Subscription: $6.99/month)
- Requirements: Android 4.4 or higher
- Download Link: Google Play
Charity Miles
Charity Miles gives walking a noble purpose. Every time you go for a walk, a run or ride your bike, you earn money for charity and hence give a helping hand to those in need. This is a great app because it gives you the opportunity to do a good deed for others and also because it motivates you to move more and keeps you in shape.
Charity Miles is simple to use. Select the type of exercise you’re doing and the charity you wish to support and simply tap on Start when you engage in a new workout session. The app will measure various stats such as your distance, time and speed. It will keep a history of the miles walked over time and will also display how much money you’ve donated each month.
- Price: Free (Contains ads)
- Requirements: Android 6.0 or higher
- Download Link:Google Play
Walkmeter
Walkmeter is a truly advanced solution for tracking a wide range of exercises. With this GPS-based app you can monitor anything from walking, hiking and running to cycling and skiing. Why is it an advanced solution? Well, because the developers place at your disposal all the fitness features you may need. These include splits, intervals, laps, zones, training plans, maps and more.
Walkmeter provides information regarding your walking time, the distance, the current, fastest and average pace, the calories burned, elevation or heart rate. The app gives you the opportunity to configure the stats you wish to hear, to listen to announcements that motivate you to go on and also to comments from friends and followers. You can visualize your workouts on a calendar and sort them by routes and activities, see your weekly, monthly and yearly history and enjoy multiple options to import and export your data.
- Price: Free (Subscription: $9.99/year)
- Requirements: Android 6.0 or higher
- Download Link: Google Play
Walkster
Walkster is an interesting walking app, which provides various exercise plans based on your fitness level and your necessities. What the app does is basically tell you how much you need to walk in order to lose weight in a specific timeframe. You can set a daily step goal, log your weight and see your progress since you started and how many pounds you need to drop to reach your goal.
Walkster uses GPS to record your physical activity and display your route on a map. The app keeps track of your step count, the distance, the calories burned, walking time, speed and pace for every walk. You can also benefit from voice assistance during your sessions, analyze your walking activity for each day, week, month and year and share your fitness stats with friends and followers.
- Price: Free (Subscription: $4.99/month)
- Requirements: Android 5.0 or higher
- Download Link:Google Play
