Samsung health phone pedometer ignores 40% steps on pixel9pro

[Whoopy S]

Samsung health is not accurate when running on Google pixel 9 Pro. I think it reads around 60% from the phones built in pedometer. Something that was not an issue when it was on my s10 and zflip3.

I have Google Fit and Fitbit also running to compare steps on this device. if I am not wearing my Samsung watch I would still like to record my steps via phone pedometer. The steps on Samsung health miss chunks of 30 minute sections via pedometer. I can see this when I run 4 measures side by side for a day. Samsung watch on airplane mode, Samsung health on phone pedometer, Google fit on phone pedometer, Fitbit on phone pedometer. The watch,  Google fit and fitbit are very close, the Samsung health on phone is missing about 40%.

This was successfully implemented on android when running on a zflip3, any ideas why this is so bad running on android on Google pixel 9 Pro.

Health connect is off.

Background usage allowed.

Thanks

 

[Glenntech]

The app will predominantly be made to work on a Samsung phone. That's why the Samsung phones you had were giving a better reading.
So it depends on how well the potentiometer works really on the Pixel.

With any of these apps from any manufacturer, none are accurate and without any supplementary devices like a watch. It could even be affected by which pocket you keep the phone in.
They are all basically a guide to see your progress.

Google own Fitbit and like Samsung. Fitbit products are designed to work with the Pixel phones. So like Samsung Health, on Samsung phones, Fitbit will give a more accurate result on Pixel phones.

[Whoopy S]

Thanks for the reply but I cannot agree. And the evidence backs this up. 

The Samsung health service runs on android and will subscribe to a message that a step has occured raised at an operating system level.

I walked to a pub on Friday. Then walk back.

Samsung health recorded 32 steps on the way there and 1000 for the same journey back.

Same phone same pocket same person same journey.

I don't accept it's about interpretation. The steps are being registered and raised from the device and OS or the other apps wouldn't count them either. Samsung health doesnt bother with the notification for some reason.

I do accept there may be dedicated chip work for fitbit being on pixel.

But 32 on way there and 1000 on way back is a bug and it's inconsistent with itself!

[Whoopy S]

What I will do is add another 3rd party (non Google) step counter app to see if this suffers the same issue. That would indicate the publisher rather than the subscriber.

[Whoopy S]

Ok. So I installed a separate 3rd party app non Google pedometer and compared today.

App called "pedometer app - step counter" made by acetools team.

This read steps from the phone events and was identical to Fitbit app for most of the day.

Unfortunately it looks like a Samsung health thing be it not running for periods of time or something.

Bottom right widget is independent step counter app:

 

[Whoopy S · Accepted solution]

I'm conscious I'm replying to myself each time but I'm sharing thoughts and discoveries in case this is helpful to others in the future.

Continuing on the idea Samsung health stops listening at points of the day I looked further at app background use and permissions 

In android under battery settings there is per app a toggle to "Allow background usage" which I already enabled previously. 

You can select the text itself to reveal a further sub level of options.

The default toggle is "Optimised". There is also "unrestricted".

Running this today shows a comparative step count to the other apps on the phone.

So that seems to be the answer.

The downside is how resource hungry the Samsung health service wants to be.

Going from optimised to unrestricted shows an increase in battery usage since last charge

Optimised: 10%

Unrestricted: 20%

Thanks 👍 

 

[jflorida]

I also have the pixel pro 9 and same thing happened, would not always count steps in samsung health. I did what you suggested about the unrestricted and that seems to work now. Like someone else said, samsung health is optimized for samsung phones so other brands even though they are android can have issues. Ran into issues with one plus  phones as well.