A few weeks ago, I received an unsurprising push notification: my friend Jared was taking on an Apple Watch activity challenge Jared, ever the competitive type, has always encouraged me to lose weight and incorporate the MyFitnessPal app (which I still hate) into my life

After looking over the rules of the challenge, I started laughing 'Oh, he thinks he can beat me? There's no way I can lose this,' I thought to myself For those who don't know, there is only one Apple Watch Activity Challenge, and its rules are very simple and revolve around a "move," "exercise," and "stand" loop where activity is measured:

I walk twice a day for 55 minutes to work I knew that I would maximize my score because I was walking 55 minutes twice a day to work and needed 30 minutes to fill the exercise loop I had already accumulated 366 points with my new habit

Then again, there wasn't a day that went by that I didn't complete the "move" and "stand" loops, so 200 points was a cinch And the last 34 points? By the end of the first day of the Challenge, all three loop points had been filled

At the end of the day, I checked my app to see Jared's progress on the challenge To my surprise, he too had scored the maximum points for the day" Tie up!" I texted him He replied, "Great! I replied and shared a screenshot of a badge outline that said "Competition Complete" and "Win for Henry" Then, after a brief chat, he asked

It turned out that even if they didn't beat their opponent, they would still get the victory award, but they would both receive 4,200 points, the maximum for that week

Yes, that does not make sense But who says gamification (turning work and everyday life into a fun game where prizes are awarded) has to be perfect? Perhaps there could be a third prize, like "4,200 clubs" or "highest score in competition" After all, it is good that neither of us got anything less than both of the virtual medals we had hoped for

Perhaps Apple will introduce a new level of activity challenges in watchOS 7 For now, this friendly way to keep you and your friends active is just what it says it is

Still, challenges where you have to decide the winner will definitely be more exciting I bet the folks at Apple can rise to the challenge of solving this one