{"id":286779,"date":"2025-11-27T21:19:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T21:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/286779\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T21:19:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T21:19:13","slug":"smartwatch-walk-distance-looking-funny-youre-not-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/286779\/","title":{"rendered":"Smartwatch walk distance looking funny? You’re not alone"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/p>\n

Kaitlyn Cimino \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

TL;DR<\/p>\n

How your smartwatch measures distance may vary depending on what kind of exercise you\u2019re tracking.
\nWalks, in particular, can rely on step data rather than GPS, resulting in potentially inaccurate figures.<\/p>\n

Wearables like smartwatches<\/a> are utterly packed with sensors, and in using them we gather all sorts of data. But just how accurate are all of those numbers? With some, like calories burned during an exercise, it makes sense that the figure\u2019s just an estimate, and we shouldn\u2019t expect it to be precise. Other numbers, like how many steps you\u2019ve taken, we\u2019d assume were exact figures. Which of those camps would you think distance measurements fall into?<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t want to miss the best from Android Authority?<\/p>\n

\"google\"google<\/a><\/p>\n

Since smartwatches are generally equipped with GPS receivers, it would make sense that any distance measurements they report are as accurate as the GPS position data they\u2019re computing. But over on Reddit\u2019s Pixel Watch sub, user almosttan<\/a> has been sharing a very confusing development that happens on their Pixel Watch 4 when comparing the distance clocked on a walk to the distance measured while running or cycling.<\/p>\n

First noticing a discrepancy a few weeks back, almosttan initially suspected that their Watch 4 was computing walk distance by multiplying the number of steps taken by their entered stride length, rather than actually using GPS measurements. And after testing that theory across a few other modes of locomotion, it\u2019s looking increasingly plausible.<\/p>\n

Check out these two journeys, back and forth from the same points. Granted, the route taken is a little different between them, but that on its own doesn\u2019t seem to explain the massive disconnect in distance reported.<\/p>\n

\"watch\"watch<\/p>\n

Just to double-check, we measured both of those in Google Maps. The bicycle ride is just about right on the money:<\/p>\n

\"watch<\/p>\n

Stephen Schenck \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

But when we\u2019re looking at the walk, the actual distance traveled turns out to be over four times as far as what the watch reports:<\/p>\n

\"watch<\/p>\n

Stephen Schenck \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

Now, this makes us very curious what almosttan has entered for their stride length (and what it actually might be), but there\u2019s clearly a problem here with computing walk distances.<\/p>\n

Those screenshots from before are of the Strava app, and at least if you\u2019re using Strava on the web, you might have some luck there. There\u2019s clearly GPS data available (since we can see the route), and Strava offers a \u201cCorrect Distance<\/a>\u201d tool in your browser that should allow it to recompute your walk\u2019s true length.<\/p>\n

But is there a better approach to all this? Where is this bad data actually originating? We know that Fitbit supports automatic stride length correction<\/a>, using GPS data and your step count to get a more accurate measurement \u2014 but Google\u2019s support docs mention that\u2019s for runs, so we wonder if walking is a blind spot there.<\/p>\n

Right now, we\u2019re reaching out to Google to see if it can shine any light on what\u2019s going so very wrong here \u2014 and we\u2019ll update you with anything we hear back. In the meantime, just make sure you don\u2019t have a wildly inaccurate stride length saved, and maybe think about logging your walks as just very slow runs.<\/p>\n

Thank you for being part of our community. Read our\u00a0Comment Policy<\/a> before posting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kaitlyn Cimino \/ Android Authority TL;DR How your smartwatch measures distance may vary depending on what kind of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[9916,786,844,2603,57183,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-286779","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gadgets","8":"tag-fitbit","9":"tag-gadgets","10":"tag-google","11":"tag-google-pixel-watch-4","12":"tag-strava","13":"tag-technology","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}