Quick start

Which phone do you have?

On iPhone

Your iPhone already counts your steps, so there is nothing extra to install.

1. Open The Ismaili app and go to Active Living.
2. Tap Get Started, then Connect Health.
3. Apple Health will ask what you want to share. Turn on Steps, Distance and Active Energy.
4. Tap Allow.

Your dashboard should fill in within a moment.

If you tapped Do Not Allow

The app cannot tell that you refused — Apple deliberately hides that from apps. You will see a dashboard of zeros rather than an error message.

To fix it, open Health, tap your profile picture, then Apps and Services, then The Ismaili, and turn all three on. There is more detail in my dashboard shows zero.

On Android

Android needs two separate things, and missing either one leaves you at zero:

1. Health Connect — where health data is stored and shared.
2. An app or watch that records your steps — Health Connect does not count anything itself.

Set it up

1. Get Health Connect. On Android 14 and newer it is already built into Settings. On Android 8 to 13, install it from the Play Store.
2. Connect something that records your steps:
   • Samsung phone → set up Samsung Health
   • Pixel or most others → set up Fitbit or Google Fit
   • A watch → Garmin, Amazfit and others
3. Open The Ismaili app, go to Active Living, and tap Connect Health.
4. Allow all three permissions: Steps, Distance and Active calories burned.

Health Connect does not count your steps

It only stores what other apps put into it. Your permissions can be perfectly set up and you will still see zero if nothing is writing data. This is the single most common reason Android users think the feature is broken.

Verified on a real device

On a Samsung Galaxy running Android 13, the permission screen shows three rows — Active calories burned, Distance and Steps. If you see fewer than three, something is wrong and we would like to know: tell us.

Not sure your device can do this?

Check in ten seconds with the compatibility checker.

It still is not working

Go to something is wrong and pick whatever sounds closest.