A user walks 10,000 steps in a day. Sounds healthy. But those steps happened in two short bursts — a morning walk and an evening errand — with 10 hours of uninterrupted sitting in between. Their step count looks great. Their movement pattern doesn’t.
The Activity Score captures this distinction. It measures daily physical activity across six factors that together reflect not just how much someone moves, but how they move — how their activity is distributed, how intense it gets, how much time they spend sitting, and whether they’re building vertical load. Each factor is independently scored from 0 to 100 with its own sub-score and state, so the overall number always comes with a clear explanation of what’s working and what isn’t.
All six factors work with smartphone data alone. No wearable required. This makes Activity the most accessible score in the platform — every user in your app can get a meaningful activity assessment from day one.
| State | What It Means |
|---|---|
| High (80–100) | Well-distributed, sufficient movement throughout the day |
| Medium (60–79) | Decent movement overall, but weak spots in distribution or intensity |
| Low (40–59) | Notable gaps — likely too much sitting, too little intensity, or both |
| Minimal (0–39) | Very little movement detected — recovery day or significant inactivity |
Science: Every factor in the Activity Score is grounded in peer-reviewed research. For the evidence behind each one, see The Science Behind the Activity Score.
Activity Score Factors
The Activity Score is built from six factors. Each returns a value (what was measured), a sub-score (0 to 100), a state (minimal, low, medium, high), and a goal (a static, evidence-based target).
Steps
Total steps taken throughout the day. The most universally understood movement metric — and the most commonly tracked. Research shows meaningful health benefits start well below the 10,000-step goal; even 4,000–6,000 daily steps significantly reduce mortality risk compared to being sedentary. But steps alone miss the pattern. 10,000 steps packed into one hour with 14 hours of sitting is very different from the same steps distributed throughout the day. That’s why steps is one factor among six, not the whole score.
Goal: 10,000 steps
Active Hours
The number of hours in a day during which any movement was recorded — from light walking to structured exercise. This factor measures distribution. Are you moving throughout the day, or cramming activity into a single window? Even light movement in an hour counts: standing, a short walk, stretching during a call. Research shows that distributing activity across more waking hours reduces metabolic risk independently of total exercise volume. A goal of 12 hours means movement detected in most of the waking day — not 12 hours of exercise.
Goal: 12 hours
Extended Inactivity
Total time spent in prolonged sedentary periods without movement breaks. This is an independent health risk — even people who exercise regularly face higher cardiovascular and metabolic risk if they also sit for long, uninterrupted stretches. The score improves when a user breaks up sitting with even 2–3 minutes of movement every 30–60 minutes. Extended inactivity and active hours often move together: a user with few active hours almost always has high inactivity, and addressing one tends to improve the other.
Goal: 4 hours (240 minutes) or less
Active Calories
Total calories burned during active periods. A direct measure of energy output — relevant to weight management, metabolic health, and cardiovascular fitness. Active calorie estimation is more accurate with wearable data, where heart rate enables better energy expenditure calculation. Without a wearable, it’s estimated from motion and activity type data. Still meaningful, but precision improves with a wearable.
Goal: 500 kcal
Intense Activity Duration
Cumulative time spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) — brisk walking, running, cycling, strength training, sports. This is the factor that captures structured exercise. Short bursts of higher intensity yield outsized health benefits: even 10 minutes of vigorous activity per day measurably reduces mortality risk. The WHO recommends 150 minutes per week of moderate activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity, which works out to roughly 20–30 minutes per day. A goal of 30 minutes reflects that evidence.
Goal: 30 minutes
Floors Climbed
Number of floors ascended during the day. Stair climbing requires significantly more energy and muscle engagement than walking on level ground — it’s a practical, everyday form of vigorous activity. Each additional flight per day is independently associated with reduced cardiovascular risk. For many users, this is one of the easiest habits to adopt: take the stairs instead of the elevator.
Goal: 10 floors
How Factors Interact
The real power of the Activity Score isn’t any single factor — it’s the relationships between them.
Volume vs distribution. A user can hit a high step count while still scoring low on active hours and high on extended inactivity. This pattern — concentrated movement with long sedentary gaps — is common in desk workers who exercise in one burst. The factor breakdown makes this visible: steps look fine, but the distribution factors tell the real story.
Intensity vs duration. Some users are active for many hours but at very low intensity — gentle walking, light household movement. Their active hours and step count may be strong while intense activity duration stays low. These users are distributing movement well but may benefit from adding short bursts of higher-intensity activity for cardiovascular and metabolic health.
Vertical load. Floors climbed is often the first factor users can improve by changing a single habit — choosing stairs over an elevator. It’s a small change that compounds: stair climbing is vigorous enough to meaningfully contribute to intense activity duration and active calories simultaneously.
When your product reads the factor breakdown, look for these patterns. The lowest sub-score identifies the weakest link, and the relationships between factors suggest whether the user needs more movement, more distributed movement, or more intense movement.
Pairing with Readiness
A low Activity Score doesn’t always mean a user should move more. When Activity is low and the Readiness Score is also low, it often signals that the body is recovering — accumulated fatigue, poor recent sleep, or elevated physiological strain. In this case, low activity is appropriate, not a problem to fix.
Product tip: When both Activity and Readiness are low, frame messaging around recovery rather than underperformance. “Your body is recovering — rest is the right call today” builds trust. Pushing harder when readiness is low risks injury and erodes user confidence in your recommendations.
Factor-to-Habit Guide
When a factor scores low, your product can surface a targeted, sustainable habit. The right recommendation is small, specific, and daily — not an overhaul.
| Factor | When Low, Suggest… |
|---|---|
| Steps | ”Park a bit farther out” or “take a walking meeting” — small additions that fit existing routines |
| Active Hours | ”Stand or move for a couple of minutes each hour” — distribution, not duration |
| Extended Inactivity | ”Break up sitting with a 2-minute walk every 30–60 minutes” — the most impactful micro-habit |
| Active Calories | ”Add 10 minutes of brisk walking to your commute” — moderate intensity boosts calorie output efficiently |
| Intense Activity Duration | ”Even 10 minutes of vigorous activity counts” — lower the barrier to getting started |
| Floors Climbed | ”Take the stairs instead of the elevator” — one of the simplest daily swaps |
Phone vs Wearable
Activity is a score where all factors are available from phone data alone — 100% coverage without any additional hardware. This makes Activity a broad-reach score for products targeting general user populations.
Wearable data improves precision, not coverage. Heart rate data enables more accurate active calorie estimation and better intensity classification (distinguishing moderate from vigorous activity based on heart rate zones rather than motion alone). Exercise detection also becomes more granular. But the score produces meaningful, actionable results with phone data alone — the difference is accuracy at the margins, not the presence or absence of factors.
Further Reading
- The Science Behind the Activity Score — peer-reviewed evidence for each contributing factor
- What are Health Scores and Score Factors — foundational guide to the scoring model
- Activity Score — Docs — API reference, schemas, permissions, and integration details
- Readiness Score Explained — recovery and preparedness scoring that complements daily activity
- Wellbeing Score Explained — holistic health score that includes activity factors