A phone in a pocket or a watch on a wrist counts your steps all day, and you've probably glanced at that number without much thought. A step challenge turns it into something you do together for a set stretch of days.
A group step challenge is easy to start, and a few choices up front keep the numbers fair for everyone. This guide covers how to start a step challenge with friends, from what to count to how steps turn into miles.
Say four friends start together. One has an Apple Watch, one has a Fitbit, one just carries a phone, and one is half a foot taller than the rest. Their totals won't match exactly, and the tall friend covers more ground on the same number of steps.
What you're counting
A step challenge can count two different things, so pick one before you invite anyone. All-day steps are everything your phone or watch records, from the walk to the car to the trip to the fridge. Deliberate walks are only the steps from walks you head out on purpose, which people usually log themselves afterward.
All-day steps are simple because the device does the work, and the totals come out big. Deliberate walks take more effort and give smaller totals, but they reward the friend who goes out for a lap after dinner as much as the friend whose job keeps them on their feet. It depends on your group. Say which one you chose in the invite, since the target in the next section depends on it.
Set one goal number that each friend can reach on their own total, so everyone can finish. A shared group total usually ends up resting on the one or two most active people. Because everyone aims for the same number, choose it with your least active friend in mind.
Picking the number
Start with what people already do. Ask each friend to check their daily average on their phone's health screen for the last couple of weeks, then pick one target a little above what the group does now, low enough that your least active friend can still reach it. Research can help you choose a range. A 2022 analysis that pooled 15 studies of 47,471 adults found that people who took more steps a day were less likely to die over the follow-up period, up to about 6,000 to 8,000 steps for adults 60 and over and 8,000 to 10,000 for younger adults. Those were observational studies, so they can't show that stepping more causes the difference, and the authors note there's no evidence-based public health guideline for a daily step count, so the popular 10,000 figure is one target among several.
A 2025 review of 57 studies found the benefits for several outcomes flattened out somewhere around 5,000 to 7,000 steps a day, and that 7,000 steps a day was linked to a lower risk of dying than 2,000. It can't say that 7,000 is a magic cutoff, and the studies weren't about friends or challenges.
That points to a wide band, so there is room to pick a number that suits your whole group. This table turns a daily goal into miles at 2,000 steps to a mile, a common estimate we'll look at below.
| Steps a day | Miles a day | 7 days | 14 days | 30 days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3,000 | 1.5 | 10.5 | 21 | 45 |
| 4,000 | 2.0 | 14 | 28 | 60 |
| 5,000 | 2.5 | 17.5 | 35 | 75 |
| 6,000 | 3.0 | 21 | 42 | 90 |
| 7,000 | 3.5 | 24.5 | 49 | 105 |
| 8,000 | 4.0 | 28 | 56 | 120 |
| 10,000 | 5.0 | 35 | 70 | 150 |
Our goal guide's monthly tables run from 15 to 75 miles. That guide counts miles from walks, runs and other planned activity, and those miles work out to about 1,000 to 5,000 steps a day. All-day steps run much higher, and 7,000 a day comes to about 105 miles in 30 days. The two guides count different things, so a group counting deliberate walks might aim for the monthly miles in that guide, while a group counting all-day steps would start from the table above. For picking a goal your group will actually hit, read Choosing a Miles Goal Your Group Will Actually Hit.
Turning steps into miles fairly
Distance from steps is steps times stride length. Fitbit's help page says its devices work out distance that way, starting from a stride length based on your height and sex, and lets you update it by tracking a GPS run or measuring your own.
A step is one foot landing, and a stride is two steps. Some device settings use "stride" for a single step and others mean the pair, so check which one yours wants.
The height rule is a starting point
You'll often see the rule that a walking step is about 42% of your height. When researchers tested it on 130 healthy young adults, it came out short, 0.71 meters on average against 0.78 measured, and the match for individuals was only moderate. That's young adults only, so check it against your own steps.
A faster pace takes fewer steps per mile
When you speed up, each step covers more ground, so a mile takes fewer of them. In a treadmill study of 44 adults, the average number of steps for a mile ran from 1,064 for a six-minute mile (men) to 2,310 for a 20-minute mile (women). Faster paces took fewer steps. The group was young (average age 27) and wore one pedometer model, and the authors say their estimates are specific to people of normal weight, so the exact numbers won't match everyone.
Measure your own
Find a distance you know, such as a running track or a hallway you've measured with a tape. Walk it at your usual pace, count your steps, and repeat a few times. Divide the distance by your average step count to get your step length, then divide 5,280 feet (1,609 meters) by that length in the same units. If your step measures 2.5 feet (0.76 meters), that's 2,112 steps to the mile (about 1,312 to the kilometer).
Why 2,000 steps to a mile is a common estimate
Plenty of people and apps use 2,000 steps to a mile as a rule of thumb. For adults from 5 feet to 6 feet 4 inches walking 14 to 20 minute miles, that study's height tables give roughly 1,730 to 2,370 steps per mile. 2,000 sits inside that band, so it works as an average and will be a little off for nearly everyone.
If you log your challenge in Miles With Friends, the app converts a daily step count at the common estimate of 2,000 steps to a mile. Because that's an average, it can credit some people with somewhat more distance than they walked and others with somewhat less. Anyone can enter their own measured distance by hand instead. The app doesn't count steps, so your phone, watch or Fitbit does that part, and you can connect a Fitbit and let the day's activity sync in. An event has one goal that everyone aims for, and if you'd rather not rank people against each other, you can choose a progress board instead of a leaderboard to show shared progress without rankings.
Different phones and watches
Phones and watches use different sensors and sit in different places on your body, so two friends on the same route can end the day with slightly different totals. Agree on one source for each person, have everyone use the device they already own, and measure everyone against the same goal rather than against each other's totals.
Ground rules
Decide these before the challenge starts.
- When the day ends. Midnight in each person's own time zone is the simplest rule.
- A forgotten phone or a dead watch. Decide whether people can add a rough count or whether that day stands as recorded.
- Illness and injury. Agree that anyone who is sick or hurt can rest and catch up later.
- Joining late. Count from the day someone joins, so they don't inherit a gap and nobody else gets a head start.
Sending the invite
Pick a start date, ask people one at a time, and put the details in the invite: what's counted, the goal, and how miles are worked out. Your First Challenge walks through the setup in about ten minutes. For a format beyond a straight total, try our route and destination formats, and if you wonder whether the group will fade after the first week, read why friend challenges fizzle and how to head that off.
Start small, with a week or two.
Frequently asked questions
How do you do a step challenge with different devices?
Have each person use the phone or watch they already own, and agree that everyone reports from that one source every day. Measure everyone against the same goal rather than against each other's totals.
How many steps is a mile?
The common estimate is 2,000, and real numbers depend on stride length and pace. In the treadmill study above they ran from 1,064 to 2,310. Measuring your own gives a closer figure.
How many steps should we aim for?
There's no evidence-based public health guideline for a daily step count, and the studies above point to a wide band. Start near what your group already does and pick one number.
Does running count more steps?
Not per mile. Faster running takes fewer steps because each step covers more ground. Slow jogging can take about as many as brisk walking. In the treadmill study, people took slightly more steps jogging a 12-minute mile than walking a 15-minute mile, 1,951 against 1,935.
How do I find my step length?
Walk a distance you've measured, count your steps, repeat a few times and divide, as described above. If your tracker has a stride setting, check whether it wants one step or two.
What if my friends have different heights?
Taller people tend to take longer steps, so on the same step count they usually cover more distance. If you're comparing steps, that doesn't matter. If you're comparing miles, pick one conversion for the whole group or let each person use their own measured stride.
Is there a free app for this?
Yes, Miles With Friends is free, and our guide to the app explains how it works.
References
- Paluch AE, et al. Daily steps and all-cause mortality: a meta-analysis of 15 international cohorts. Lancet Public Health, 2022. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9289978
- Ding D, et al. Daily steps and health outcomes in adults: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis. Lancet Public Health, 2025. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40713949
- Hoeger WWK, et al. One-mile step count at walking and running speeds. ACSM's Health and Fitness Journal, 2008. doi.org/10.1249/01.FIT.0000298459.30006.8d
- Barreira TV, Rowe DA, Kang M. Parameters of walking and jogging in healthy young adults. International Journal of Exercise Science, 2010. intjexersci.com/ijes/vol3/iss1/2
- Fitbit Help (Google Health Help). How does my Fitbit device calculate my daily activity? support.google.com/googlehealth/answer/14237111