Just got the Withings Steel HR Sport model, and the app is installed on Google Pixel 4XL (Android). I have put the watch in both Walking mode and Indoor Walking Mode. I walked for exactly 1 mile and 1.5 miles on the treadmill. Even though the number of steps coincides with the previous smartwatch (Garmin Vivoactive HR) distance calculation is completely off. I looked in the forums for an answer and unable to find any. I checked my profile to make sure I have my height as 5 ft 6 inches. I have attached the text from my 1.5 mile walk on the treadmill. It shows 28 minutes, 3150 steps and a distance of 0.02 miles?????????
I tried Indoor walking mode, and it does slightly better, but still wildly off. Here is an 1.0 mile walk on treadmill with the Indoor Walking setting. (My Garmin watch overestimates at 1.13 miles and similar step count) but Withings/Healthmate shows a distance of 0.08 miles
-
I am not sure if anyone monitors this forum or not, so I send the above question as an email and I did get an response/non-response depending on the perspective.
Sherwin (Withings)
Jun 24, 2020, 9:04 PM GMT+2
Hello,
Thank you for reaching out to us. I'm sorry to hear that the distance tracked by your Steel HR Sport seems not properly being tracked. Let me look into this.
To start with, I appreciate you attempting to do some tests to isolate the issue.
The distance calculation that Withings use is accurate for most users. However, some users may have a stride length which differs from this average which can cause the distance to not be accurate.
To obtain the most accurate distance data, I recommend that you launch workout mode on the watch when going on a walk, bike ride, or run as this uses the GPS feature of your mobile device to track your distance instead of stride length. You can find instructions on how to launch workout mode and use the connected GPS feature of the watch here.
While at present it is not possible to manually adjust the stride length, I am happy to forward this as feedback to our development team. I apologize for the inconvenience that this is causing.
You can also manually edit the distance of a walk or run if it is still inaccurate. I have included a link that explains how to do this.
https://support.withings.com/hc/en-us/articles/224619428
Best regards,
Win
Customer Service | Withings
-
Even before I got the response from Withings, I had given up on exercise modes and started walking/running without "starting" any mode on the watch. Lo and behold, whether I was walking outside or inside on the treadmill, watch was registering steps and accurate distance. I walked 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 miles on treadmill, and the distances were within 0.08 miles of distances on the treadmill. Same experiment with walking outside with the GPS on, was also within 0.04 miles.
Then the question becomes, if the watch can autodetect the walks and measures distance correctly, but if you engage the "Walking" or "Indoor Walking" modes - it completely measures the distance wrong. Someone in the software has actually messed this up so badly. -
I have exactly the same problem. Seems like the measured distance in the Health Mate app is DOUBLE the distance shown on the watch. Also, when I launch a running mode, 1 out of 2 times it doesn't even show up in the app..
My fiance also has the same watch and same app. We were comparing our distances, when we went for exactly the same walk and guess what: his distance, both on the watch and in the app were almost double my distance.
It's super frustrating that you you can't rely on it! Can the support team please help? And yes, I inserted the right heigh and weight in my profile.
Comments
4 comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.