Connect your runs with Health Connect
RunTeaming does not record your runs. Something else already does that — a watch if you wear one, the phone in your pocket if you do not — and all RunTeaming does is read what is already there, through Health Connect, the part of Android that holds health data and decides which apps may see it.
You do not need a watch. Both Samsung Health and Google’s Fitbit app record a run from the phone alone: start the run in the app, carry the phone, and it lands in Health Connect the same way a watch’s would. Garmin is the one exception on this page — Garmin Connect needs a Garmin device to have recorded the run in the first place.
There are two connections to set up:
- Whatever records your runs has to be sending them into Health Connect.
- RunTeaming has to be allowed to read them back out.
The second takes about ten seconds. The first is the one that catches people out, and it works differently on every brand. Find yours below.
First, find Health Connect
On Android 14 and newer it is already built into the phone. Open your phone’s Settings and search for Health Connect — where it sits in the menus varies by manufacturer, so searching is quicker than hunting. On Android 13 and older, install Health Connect from the Play Store.
Open it and look at App permissions. If nothing is sharing data with it, that is exactly the problem the rest of this page fixes.
Connect Samsung Health to Health Connect
Samsung is the fiddliest of the three, and it fails silently — every permission can read as granted while nothing at all is being written. If you run with a Galaxy phone or watch, work through this carefully.
Open Samsung Health and go to its Settings.
- Turn on Sync with Samsung Cloud, near the top. On current Galaxy phones the privacy consents below cannot be changed until this is on.
- Go to Connected apps and services → Health Connect and allow access.
- Scroll down to Privacy and turn on Consent to the processing of health and wellness data.
- Close Samsung Health completely and reopen it. Nothing appears until you do.
Step three is the whole game. With that consent off, Samsung Health writes nothing to Health Connect and gives you no hint as to why — the permissions all say granted and Health Connect sits empty. It is not a permission, it is a consent, and it is buried several screens away from the permissions it silently overrules.
You will see other consents in that same Privacy list — cycle tracking, health records, medication data, location information, and consent to the use of health data for AI training and modelling. RunTeaming needs none of them. Leave them off. The league reads four things and nothing else: that a run happened, how far you went, how fast, and your heart rate.
Once it is working, Samsung backfills. Runs you recorded before any of this was connected turn up too, so you do not lose the weeks you ran before you joined.
Connect Garmin to Health Connect
Open Garmin Connect, go to Settings, and look for Health Connect. Some versions list it under Connected apps instead. Tap Connect and allow the data types it offers.
Two things worth knowing before you go looking. Garmin’s Health Connect sharing needs Android 14 or newer — on Android 13 the option does not exist at all. And both Garmin Connect and Health Connect have to be fully up to date, or the setting is not there to find.
Garmin only ever writes to Health Connect and never reads back out of it. Your Garmin keeps syncing to Garmin Connect exactly as it does now; nothing about your existing setup changes.
This section assumes you own a Garmin. If you do not, you are not stuck — record the run with Samsung Health or the Fitbit app on your phone instead, and follow that section.
Connect Fitbit and Pixel Watch to Health Connect
Google’s fitness app is the Fitbit app, which is being renamed Google Health. That is the one to use with a Pixel Watch or a Fitbit. The old Google Fit app is being retired, so do not start there.
Open the app, tap your profile picture, then Health Connect near the bottom. Turn on Sync with Health Connect, confirm on the next screen, and allow what it offers to share — make sure Exercise and Distance are among them.
There is a second way in if you cannot find that one: the Today tab, then the devices icon, then Set up Health Connect.
As with Garmin, it writes into Health Connect and does not read back out.
Let RunTeaming read your running sessions
Once connected, just open the RunTeaming Android app. It automatically reads your recorded runs, scores them and updates your league. Your team, scores and standings are all in the app. The website is optional and shows the same league information. Check the RunTeaming Android page for current Google Play availability. Everything above is worth setting up first, because the app backfills the runs it finds waiting.
Once you have it: open RunTeaming and sign in with Google. It asks Health Connect for four permissions, all read-only:
- Exercise — that a run happened, when it started, and how long it lasted.
- Distance — how far you went.
- Speed — used to reject readings that are not physically possible.
- Heart rate — used to tell a run from a bike ride, and nothing else.
Allow all four. RunTeaming asks for no location permission of any kind and cannot see where you run — there is more on exactly what it reads and sends on the privacy page.
The app can import available running history. You start with a provisional handicap; monthly recalculation uses your recorded runs. See how handicaps work.
Health Connect or RunTeaming showing no runs?
Work through this in order. The fault is almost never where people look first.
- Open Health Connect and look for yourself. If Health Connect is empty, RunTeaming is reading correctly and the problem is upstream. Go back to your brand’s section above. This is where the fault nearly always is.
- On a Galaxy, check that consent again. It is the one in step three, and it can be switched back off by a Samsung Health update without telling you.
- Restart the app that records your runs. Samsung Health in particular does not start writing until it has been closed and reopened.
- Check the run is long enough. Very short sessions are refused on purpose, so a two-minute walk to the postbox will not appear as a run.
- Check it was recorded as a run. The league reads running sessions. A bike ride, a walk or an untagged workout will not be counted.
Still stuck? Mail info@runteaming.com and say which phone and which app records your runs. That is usually enough to spot it.
New to the league? Read how RunTeaming works, see scoring examples or join the league.