Challenging your friends and family to a virtual step challenge is simple with the Stridekick app! Whether you want to invite your parents or grandparents, fitness-loving friends or even friends who avoid the gym at all costs, Stridekick's step challenges are for everyone to enjoy regardless of fitness level or age. Stridekick also makes it simple to participate even without a fitness tracking device. Your friends just need a smartphone to participate! Learn more about inviting your friends to a challenge on Stridekick below.

Creating a Stridekick Challenge

First things first, before you invite your friends and family to your challenge, make sure you have a fun challenge ready to go! If you need more guidance on creating your first Stridekick challenge, this blog post on creating your first challenge is a great place to start.

Inviting Your Friends And Family

After you've created a challenge on Stridekick, you're now ready to invite your friends and family to join you! While participating in challenges alone can still hold you accountable, inviting your friends and family will bring in an aspect of social motivation to help you reach your goals. Plus, it's definitely more fun to compete when you've got friends or family members to aim to outstep!

Who can join my challenge?

Stridekick is available on the Apple App Store for iPhone users, Google Play Store for Android users, and online at app.stridekick.com on desktop and laptop computers. Your fellow challenge participants just need access to one of these devices in order to access the Stridekick platform.

Do all participants need a fitness tracker to join?

Stridekick is compatible with Fitbit devices, Apple Watches, Garmin devices that track steps, Misfit and Withings devices, and more. If a participant you're inviting doesn't have one of these devices, they can instead set up their smartphone as their fitness tracker or request access to Stridekick's manual entry option.

Click here to learn more about setting up your iPhone as your fitness tracker, or click here for more information on setting up your Android phone as your fitness tracker. You can also learn more about the devices and apps we are compatible with here and learn about Stridekick's manual entry option for users who don't have a device or smartphone to use to track their steps here.

How many people can I invite?

Each user-created challenge on Stridekick holds up to 10 participants including yourself, which means you can invite up to 9 other people to your challenge.* There is also a 5 challenge limit on the number of challenges you can run at any given time.

*Interested in running a step challenge for a larger group or organization instead? Check out our MoveSpring platform for your next step challenge.

Are my challenges on Stridekick private?

All challenges on Stridekick, besides our community challenges, are private challenges. Participants must be invited through the app by the challenge creator or have access to the invite link to join your challenge. Outside of these two options, there isn't a way for outside users to gain access to and join your challenge.

Ready to invite your friends and family to your Stridekick challenge? Learn how below.

Option 1: Invite your participants via an invite link

If your friends and family aren't on Stridekick yet, or you're not sure of your friend or family member's username on the app, you can send them a direct link to your challenge (via text, email, etc.) that they can click to join! We suggest this method especially when you're just starting out since you won't have to search for each participant by username or full name in the app to invite them. Once they've been added into your challenge, you'll then be able to add them as friends from there for future challenges.

Follow the steps below to invite your participants via an invite link:

1. From your Dashboard, locate your challenge under the Challenges heading and tap View challenge.
2. Tap Details, scroll all the way to the bottom of the page, and select COPY. This is how you gain access to your challenge's invite link to share it.*
3. You are now able to paste your link to send it to your friends and family either through text, email, or any other messaging platforms. Once they sign up or sign into their Stridekick account after clicking the link, they should be automatically added into your challenge.
4. Once a user joins from your invite link, you'll see them added into your challenge.

Option 2: Invite your participants via an in-app invite

If you've added your friends and family as friends in the Stridekick app, sending them an in-app invitation to your next challenge is another easy way to invite them.

Follow the steps below to invite your participants via an in-app invite:

1. From your Dashboard, locate your challenge under the Challenges heading and tap View challenge.
2. Tap Details, scroll all the way to the bottom of the page, and select Invite friends.*
3. Choose up to 9 friends to invite to your challenge. Just tap Invite next to their name. An INVITE SENT message will pop up under each user you have invited. From here, you can also tap Cancel to remove an invitation.
4. Once you're done sending out your invites, tap Done
5. Once your invite has been accepted, you'll see the user added into your challenge.

Note: You will only be able to access the option to create challenges and invite participants from the mobile app. Creating challenges and inviting participants is not available via the Stridekick website at this time.

Let the Challenge Begin!

Now that you know how to invite your friends and family to your challenge, you'll be able to see your friends' scores in your challenge to help push you to reach your goals. Everyone in your challenge will also have access to a challenge chat so you can motivate each other there as well. Use it to share photos of you getting your steps in for the day or to send some friendly smack talk! Learn more about the chat feature in Stridekick here.

For more challenge ideas for your next challenge on Stridekick, be sure to check out our guide to creative Leaderboard ideas or our guide on Streak challenges. Happy stepping!