Does treadmill count for Pokemon Go?

Pokemon Go, one of the most popular games of the century, was designed to encourage players to move around and explore the real world. One popular question that many players are asking is: does the treadmill count for Pokemon Go? The answer is nuanced, and we’ll dig into it in this article.

Direct Answer to the Question

According to the official guidance from the Pokemon Go Team, using a treadmill is not recognized as a movement method that counts towards Distance Walking. This means that if you’re using a treadmill to walk or jog, the game will not recognize those steps as equivalent to real-world movement. This might seem counter-intuitive, but it makes sense considering the game was designed to encourage exploration, socialization, and experience the real world.

However, if you’re considering using a treadmill to contribute to your daily step goals, we have some guidance on that later in the article.

Why Your Treadmill Steps don’t Count

The primary reason why treadmills don’t count for Pokemon Go is the way the game tracks user movement. The game is designed to recognize movement signals from your device’s in-built accelerometer and gyroscope. When you’re running or walking in the real world, these sensors work in conjunction with GPS tracking to register your movements accurately. On a treadmill, these signals are not always reliable, making it impossible for the game to correctly measure your progress.

Pokemon Go’s Adventure Sync Requirement

Even if your treadmill steps count didn’t register, we still need to discuss how adventure Sync work to record these movements.

Adventure Sync

Adventure Sync is a feature that leverages data from your health app, such as Apple Health or Google Fit. When you link your profile to these apps, data is transferred to Pokemon Go, enabling the game to track your daily activities like steps taken, distance travelled, and calories burned.

To take advantage of adventure Sync, you need:

• Adventure Sync enabled (Settings > Adventure Sync in Pokemon Go)
• Authorize your health app by logging into your account using your health app credentials in Pokemon Go
• Turn on Data Sharing for Step Count in your health app settings (Apple Health> Health Data> Share Device Data; Google Fit > Settings > Data Sharing)