Capture Steps Without An Activity

[ADeveloper]

The log list endpoint seems to only capture steps that are grouped into an 'activity,' but when a user wears their device all day, it captures steps that are not part of an 'activity.' What is the best way to capture these steps? 

I don't wish to bias the answer, but as a follow up question for any answer that is 'daily summary endpoint,' how often does this hit the webhook if a user is always wearing the devices?

[JohnFitbit · Accepted solution]

Hi @ADeveloper,

Welcome to the forums!

To my knowledge, there isn't a way to filter out steps recorded from activity out of your daily summary total. You'd have to do that manually by querying the Get Daily Activity Summary endpoint and taking the steps recorded for exercises under the activity array, and subtracting the total from the step count under the summary array. For example:

{
  "activities": [
    {
      "activityId": 90013,
      "activityParentId": 90013,
      "activityParentName": "Walk",
      "calories": 133,
      "description": "Walking less than 2 mph, strolling very slowly",
      "duration": 1587000,
      "hasActiveZoneMinutes": true,
      "hasStartTime": true,
      "isFavorite": true,
      "lastModified": "2023-03-04T18:20:26.000Z",
      "logId": 54190476269,
      "name": "Walk",
      "startDate": "2023-03-04",
      "startTime": "09:46",
      "steps": 2316
    },
    {
      "activityId": 90013,
      "activityParentId": 90013,
      "activityParentName": "Walk",
      "calories": 242,
      "description": "Walking less than 2 mph, strolling very slowly",
      "duration": 2919000,
      "hasActiveZoneMinutes": true,
      "hasStartTime": true,
      "isFavorite": true,
      "lastModified": "2023-03-04T22:01:16.000Z",
      "logId": 54194250998,
      "name": "Walk",
      "startDate": "2023-03-04",
      "startTime": "12:46",
      "steps": 3342
    },
    {
      "activityId": 90013,
      "activityParentId": 90013,
      "activityParentName": "Walk",
      "calories": 74,
      "description": "Walking less than 2 mph, strolling very slowly",
      "duration": 819000,
      "hasActiveZoneMinutes": true,
      "hasStartTime": true,
      "isFavorite": true,
      "lastModified": "2023-03-05T00:15:39.000Z",
      "logId": 54195829523,
      "name": "Walk",
      "startDate": "2023-03-04",
      "startTime": "15:01",
      "steps": 904
    },
    {
      "activityId": 90013,
      "activityParentId": 90013,
      "activityParentName": "Walk",
      "calories": 54,
      "description": "Walking less than 2 mph, strolling very slowly",
      "duration": 717000,
      "hasActiveZoneMinutes": true,
      "hasStartTime": true,
      "isFavorite": true,
      "lastModified": "2023-03-05T00:15:39.000Z",
      "logId": 54195829525,
      "name": "Walk",
      "startDate": "2023-03-04",
      "startTime": "15:35",
      "steps": 838
    },
    {
      "activityId": 90013,
      "activityParentId": 90013,
      "activityParentName": "Walk",
      "calories": 61,
      "description": "Walking less than 2 mph, strolling very slowly",
      "duration": 615000,
      "hasActiveZoneMinutes": true,
      "hasStartTime": true,
      "isFavorite": true,
      "lastModified": "2023-03-05T03:47:54.000Z",
      "logId": 54197701292,
      "name": "Walk",
      "startDate": "2023-03-04",
      "startTime": "19:18",
      "steps": 989
    }
  ],
  "goals": {
    "activeMinutes": 45,
    "caloriesOut": 1500,
    "distance": 6.44,
    "floors": 10,
    "steps": 10000
  },
  "summary": {
    "activeScore": -1,
    "activityCalories": 1687,
    "calorieEstimationMu": 2176,
    "caloriesBMR": 1387,
    "caloriesOut": 2782,
    "caloriesOutUnestimated": 2782,
    "distances": [
      {
        "activity": "total",
        "distance": 14.34
      },
      {
        "activity": "tracker",
        "distance": 14.34
      },
      {
        "activity": "loggedActivities",
        "distance": 0
      },
      {
        "activity": "veryActive",
        "distance": 1.76
      },
      {
        "activity": "moderatelyActive",
        "distance": 5.16
      },
      {
        "activity": "lightlyActive",
        "distance": 5.92
      },
      {
        "activity": "sedentaryActive",
        "distance": 1.13
      }
    ],
    "elevation": 48.77,
    "fairlyActiveMinutes": 88,
    "floors": 16,
    "heartRateZones": [
      {
        "caloriesOut": 1640.98836,
        "max": 108,
        "min": 30,
        "minutes": 731,
        "name": "Out of Range"
      },
      {
        "caloriesOut": 566.46286,
        "max": 133,
        "min": 108,
        "minutes": 154,
        "name": "Fat Burn"
      },
      {
        "caloriesOut": 0,
        "max": 165,
        "min": 133,
        "minutes": 0,
        "name": "Cardio"
      },
      {
        "caloriesOut": 0,
        "max": 220,
        "min": 165,
        "minutes": 0,
        "name": "Peak"
      }
    ],
    "lightlyActiveMinutes": 292,
    "marginalCalories": 992,
    "sedentaryMinutes": 1030,
    "steps": 20269,
    "useEstimation": true,
    "veryActiveMinutes": 30
  }
}

There were 5 activities recorded that day.

(2316 + 3342 + 904 +838 + 989 = 8389 steps)

Total step count for the day is 20269. 

20269 - 8389 = 11880 steps taken outside of recorded activities

As for webhooks, I recommend reviewing the documentation for clarification. Since background syncs occur every 15-20 minutes, it's possible to frequently receive webhook notifications for updates to step count, calories burned, distance traveled, etc. 

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any additional questions.