How do I choose my preferred hand in app settings?

[NiuR]

I am a left-handed person, but not entirely. I use my left hand when eating and washing dishes, but I use my right hand when writing and operating the mouse. So, how do I choose my preferred hand in the app settings? 😅

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[JohnnyRow · Accepted solution]

Can't really answer that, but I'll tell you what it is for.  Any tracker worn on the wrist cannot really directly detect steps, but has to infer them from arm and wrist movement, as in the regular swinging of your arm as in walking, so step count is never exactly precise but does come out fairly close over the course of a day.  Some steps are missed and some extra steps are added from non-step movements of the wrists.  The handedness question is to add a filter to try to prevent some extra steps being added from movements of your dominant hand.  Some examples of this might be from brushing your teeth or hair.  I honestly have no idea how much difference this handedness really makes.  Sometimes I switch wrists for a few hours just to give my wrist a break and don't bother changing the setting.  The only thing this would affect is step count; the other statistics such as calorie burn and zone minutes are based on heart rate.  So I guess the answer would be the hand that does things that you think might be mistaken for step movements.

I would not be overly concerned about this if you are just getting set up; you can always go back and change it later.

[NiuR]

Thank you very much for your detailed answer, which is very helpful to me. Now I don't have to worry about this problem anymore, thank you！

[Dawn2007]

My steps are logged regardless of whether or not I swing my arm.  It tracks my steps when I mow my lawn and when I walk with my cat stroller.  I know in the past and other trackers wrist movement is important but my Charge 5 doesn't seem to be affected by it.

[JohnnyRow]

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@Dawn2007 wrote:

My steps are logged regardless of whether or not I swing my arm.  It tracks my steps when I mow my lawn and when I walk with my cat stroller.  I know in the past and other trackers wrist movement is important but my Charge 5 doesn't seem to be affected by it.

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You are right. It is not necessarily swinging the arms, though I guess that is the intent.  It can just be vibrations interpreted the same, such as some get from bicycling, motorcycling, or for some even driving a truck.