Set up in 10 minutes

Install Activate Fitness from the App Store, create your account, and tap the link in the verification email. When asked, set an Admin PIN. It protects every setting and is never shared with your child.

Tap Add a New Profile → A Child, enter their name and age, and give consent.

In your child’s profile, tap Add Device. Answer whether they use a wearable, then follow the short guide. You’ll get a 6-digit code. It expires in 10 minutes, so have their iPhone in hand. Tap Send Link to text them the App Store link.

Install Activate Fitness, open it, tap “Setting up a child’s device?” and enter the 6-digit code. A setup checklist appears. Work through it top to bottom:

1. Allow Health access. When the Health screen appears, tap Turn On All, then Allow. This is how steps are counted.
2. Allow Screen Time access. Your child confirms with Face ID or their passcode.
3. Allow notifications so they know when time is running low.
4. Set the activity goal, e.g. 1,000 steps = 10 minutes.
5. Lock Screen Time Settings. This is step 5 below, the most important one.
6. Choose app restrictions: the apps and categories that need earned time.

Without this, your child can turn Activate Fitness off in Settings. Tap Open Settings in the checklist, then:

1. Tap Screen Time, scroll to the bottom and tap Lock Screen Time Settings.
2. Choose a 4-digit passcode that only you know.
3. When asked for an Apple Account for passcode recovery, enter your Apple Account, not your child’s.
4. Back on the Screen Time screen, turn on Content & Privacy Restrictions and leave its other settings as they are.
5. Come back to Activate Fitness to finish.

Why each part matters: the passcode stops changes to Screen Time; your Apple Account stops your child from using “Forgot Passcode”; and Content & Privacy Restrictions is what makes the passcode protect Activate Fitness. On its own it doesn’t block anything.

Your phone shows “All steps completed successfully!” and your child’s card appears on your dashboard with “Active recently”. That’s it: they now earn screen time by moving.

Pair an iPhone first, since it counts steps all day. Then in their profile tap Add Device again. Both devices share one screen-time balance. Because of an Apple limitation, choose the same apps and categories again on the second device, and do step 5 on it too.

• Apple Watch: works automatically, and closing the Exercise ring can earn bonus time.
• Garmin, Whoop, Oura: in that app, turn on sync to Apple Health.
• Fitbit: in the Google Health app, go to profile → Partner apps → Apple Health and turn on Steps.

Long-press the Home Screen until apps wiggle, tap Edit (or +) → Add Widget, search “Activate Fitness” and add the Medium size. It shows time and steps, and starts or pauses screen time with one tap.

Tap Add a New Profile → For Myself and follow the checklist: allow Health and Screen Time access, set your goal, and choose the apps you want to earn. The same rule applies to you: 1,000 steps can mean 10 minutes.