What to Do When Your Galaxy Watch Counts “Fake” Steps

Some people encounter an issue with their Galaxy watches where steps are being counted even when they are cycling or driving. Although not a significant problem, it is a topic that arises from time to time.

There are two possible reasons behind this issue: one straightforward and one slightly less obvious.

The Watch Detects Fake Steps

This is the straightforward reason. Your watch counts steps continuously, regardless of the mode it is in (such as sleep, theater, or do not disturb), or the type of activated exercise (running, cycling, swimming).

This actually makes sense because no matter what you’re doing, there’s still a possibility of taking some steps. For instance, even while on a train, you may walk around a little. If your watch detects steps when you haven’t been walking, it’s likely that the movement of your hands matches the patterns of walking. This can be caused by your gestures while driving or even by the quality of the road.

What you can do: In the former case, you can try to be less active with your gestures. In the latter case, the only option is to remove your watch from your wrist.

Your Phone Detects Fake Steps

Not everyone is aware of this, but the Samsung Health app on your phone also detects and counts steps. The results from your phone’s step count are merged with the steps measured by your watch.

Samsung hasn’t disclosed the exact logic, but it’s likely something like:

for every minute compare steps counted by the watch and by phone and use the higher number

Usually, this logic works seamlessly and goes unnoticed by users. However, in certain situations like cycling or driving, your smartphone may be in a shaky pocket or placed in a vibrating car holder, leading it to register these movements as steps.

So, when you suspect that your watch is counting fake steps and you’ve confirmed that your hands aren’t moving, it might actually be your phone.

What you can do: To test this and avoid such inaccuracies, you can disable step counting in the Samsung Health app on your phone. his is not a super intuitive process, I’ve explained the steps to do this in a separate post — “Disable Samsung Health Steps Counting on a Phone”.