Finally, Apple understood that a lot of people use their Apple Watches as a fitness tracker. I certainly do. The workout app on the Apple Watch is my favorite by far (granted, there’s not much third party competition). And in watchOS 3, Apple’s making some changes to highlight this fitness and lifestyle nature of the Apple Watch.

Activity, if you’re not familiar, is the app on your Apple Watch that shows those three rings for Calories, Exercise and Stand. It’s the app that records how active you’ve been on the day, and gives you achievements when you break a record or reach a new personal goal.

Now, Apple is making this entire thing social. You can now add your friends and share your Activity data with them. You’ll be able to see their activity, access leaderboards, and even challenge your friends and send them messages to motivate them.

But before you can do any of that, you’ll need to add the said friend to Activity Sharing. Here’s how to do that.

Adding Someone to Activity Sharing

You can’t do this on the Apple Watch. So pick up your iPhone running iOS 10 and open the Activity app (search for it using Spotlight).

Now, go to the last “Sharing” tab. And tap “Get Started“.

Now tap the “+” button on the top-right.

And start searching for the contact you want to share the Activity data with. The person on the other side will need to have an Apple Watch running watchOS 3.

Once you’ve sent the invite, all you have to do is wait.

When the person accepts the invite, you’ll get a notification.

You can then go to the Sharing tab again to see all the friends you’ve added. Tap on one name to see options for removing them.

Using Sharing Feature on Apple Watch

The fun part now begins, on the Apple Watch.

Go to the Activity app (or from the Activity watch face, tap on the rings), and swipe to the second page. This is the sharing page.

You’ll see the rings for added contacts here. Tap on a contact and you’ll see their detailed data, just like it shows on your Activity screen.

Swipe down to the bottom and you’ll find the “Send Message” option. From here, you can send the contact pre-formatted messages, the motivational kind we talked about earlier.

You’ll also get weekly reports about shared activity.

Your Favorite Workout Apps

Do you use the Apple Watch for tracking workouts? Share your favorites apps with us in the comments below.