How Do Active Minutes Work

How Do Active Minutes Work

What are Active Minutes? 

Active Minutes are a metric for tracking increased activity levels as recorded by your device.  Depending on your device, and device manufacturer, Active Minutes can be calculated in slightly different ways. Typically, active minutes are recorded when your heart rate is elevated, or your movement is continuous for 10 minutes or more at a moderate or greater intensity (for most people this is approximately a rate of 75 steps per minute).  It is important to note, Active Minutes is not a universal term and may not be called Active Minutes in your device account, (depending on your activity device, they may have a different name). 

Not all activity is counted as active minutes; a slower-paced walk may not count towards your active minutes total. Motion Connected does not calculate any Active Minutes. Only active minutes calculated by your device will sync to your Motion Connected account.

How Do I Earn Active Minutes?

iPhone/Apple Health Users

The Apple Health app for iPhone unfortunately does not record active minute data. If you are only using an iPhone to record your steps, you won't be able to record or sync any active minute data to Motion Connected regardless of how much or how intense your activity is. 

*If you are using a device that syncs data to Apple Health such as the Apple Watch, if the device app sends your activity time to the Health app as Exercise Minutes you will then be able to get credit for Active Minutes in your Motion Connected account.

All Other Users

Google Fit, Fitbit, and Garmin can all record active minute data. If you aren't syncing Active Minutes to your Motion Connected account, this indicates that your device isn't registering your activity as active time. Each device and manufacturer tracks Active Minutes differently, so you will need to refer to your specific device brand to learn more about how they track those minutes.

*Within Google Fit, Active Minutes are called Move Minutes. The Move Minutes you see in Google Fit should sync to Motion Connected as Active Minutes.
*In Garmin the Active Minutes are called Intensity Minutes.  Motion Connected does not provide double credit for the high intensity minutes as the Garmin system does.
*Fitbit is currently promoting their new Active Zone Minutes which are not the same as the Active Minutes that they track and report to Motion Connected.  For more details on the difference between Active Zone and regular Active Minutes from Fitbit please click this link: Fitbit - What are Active Zone Minutes or active minutes

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