StepStation Docs

What is StepStation? #

StepStation tracks the miles you walk on a walking pad or treadmill desk, turns them into daily and weekly goals and streaks, and lets you compete with friends in squads. It runs in any modern browser on desktop and phone.

The app has four tabs: Station (today's walking), Stats (history and records), Social (squads) and Settings.

Guest mode vs. an account #

• Guest: everything works without signing up. Walks are saved only in this browser on this device.
• Account (Google or email): your walks sync across devices, are backed up, and you can join squads, organizations and buy Pro.
• Signing in after using guest mode keeps your guest walks and merges them into your account.

Sign in: the Sign in button at the top right.

Install StepStation as an app #

• Windows / Mac (Chrome or Edge): Settings → Desktop app → Install app, or use the install icon in the address bar. It opens in its own window.
• Windows shortcut: if install isn't offered, Create shortcut downloads a small script that adds a desktop icon.
• iPhone: Safari → Share → Add to Home Screen.
• Android: Chrome menu → Install app.

When a new version is ready, a green Update button appears in the header. Updating keeps all your walks and settings.

Setup and the guided tour #

Setup asks about your walking setup (walking pad, Bluetooth, watch) and your goals, then sets sensible defaults. The guided tour highlights each part of every tab with a short explanation.

Settings → Guided tour or Setup (top right of Settings). You can run either again anytime.

Units: Imperial or Metric #

Switch between miles/lbs/mph and km/kg/km/h. Everything converts instantly, including history, treadmill controls, calories and benchmarks. Your data is stored once; only the display changes.

Settings → the Imperial | Metric switch next to the page title.

Header readout #

The header shows Today and Week totals and a clock on every tab. The totals include the walk in progress, so they rise as you walk.

On phones the readout is hidden to save space.

Daily Goal #

• The ring fills as you walk toward your daily target. Use −/+ or type a number to change the goal.
• Remaining is what's left; Time to Goal is how long that takes at your current pace.
• When you reach the goal you get a small celebration.

This Week #

Tracks Monday–Sunday distance against your weekly goal, with how much is left and your week's rank against your own past weeks. The week resets Monday at midnight, local time.

Live Treadmill #

Tracks a walk as it happens, from your pace and time.

1. Press Start. The green dot pulses and miles count up at your pace.
2. Pause stops the count; press again to resume.
3. Log it saves the session to today's walk log and resets the counter.
4. The red reset button clears the counter without saving. Tap it twice (it asks "Sure?").

• Pace (−/+) should match your treadmill's speed; distance is pace × time.
• Incline PRO raises calories per mile to account for the climb.
• You can tap the miles and type the number your treadmill shows; tracking continues from there.
• The line under the controls shows how far to your goal and when you'll finish. Details splits today into logged and live miles.
• Walks under 0.01 mi aren't logged ("Too short to log").

Bluetooth treadmill sync PRO #

Connect a Bluetooth walking pad and StepStation reads its speed and distance directly, instead of estimating from time.

• Works with WalkingPad, UREVO, Kingsmith and other FTMS (Fitness Machine Service) treadmills.
• Needs a browser with Web Bluetooth: Chrome or Edge on Windows, Mac, ChromeOS or Android. Safari and iPhone don't support it.

Live Treadmill → gear menu → Connect Bluetooth Treadmill, then pick your device.

Floating miniplayer PRO #

A small always-on-top window with your live miles, today and week progress, Pause / Log it / reset, and pace and incline steppers. It stays above calls, code and spreadsheets.

• Shrink it to a compact pill that shows just miles and pace; Expand brings it back.
• Uses your current theme. Needs Chrome or Edge on desktop; it's not available on phones.

Live Treadmill → gear menu → Floating Miniplayer.

Today's Walk Log #

• Type miles and press Log walk to add a walk you did away from the tracker. Logged treadmill sessions appear here too, newest first.
• Remove a walk with its ✕. An Undo toast appears for a few seconds.
• The log's gear menu has Include in Daily & Weekly (count the log toward your goals; on by default) and Sync wearables.
• A day can hold at most 60 miles. This keeps squad leaderboards honest.

Wearables #

When wearable sync is on, walking recorded by your watch is added to today's total, and anything already counted by the treadmill isn't counted twice.

• Walking outside treadmill sessions is added as extra miles.
• During treadmill sessions, one source is used, picked by During treadmill walks, trust: Treadmill / Watch.
• Watch data arrives through the StepStation phone app (Apple Health / Health Connect), which is coming soon.

Settings → Smart Features → Wearable sync.

Walk History #

Every past day with miles, steps, calories and pound equivalent. Edit a day's miles in place.

Your full history is kept on every plan. Exporting it as CSV or JSON is PRO.

Modify History: import, export, reset #

• Import: upload or paste .csv, .tsv, .txt or .json. Works with exports from Apple Health, Garmin, Strava, Fitbit and spreadsheets (a date column plus a distance column). Choose merge (add to your data) or replace (overwrite it).
• Export PRO: download all your walks as CSV (in your current units) or JSON.
• Reset: erases all history. You must type DELETE to confirm. It can't be undone.

Walk History → Modify History.

Streaks & Streak Shields #

• Your streak counts consecutive days with any walking (more than 0 mi).
• Today doesn't break the streak until the day is over. Until you walk today, the streak shows as at risk (once it's 3+ days).
• Streak Shields PRO: each streak has 2 shields. A missed day uses one automatically, so the streak continues. Shields refill when a new streak starts.
• Free accounts have no shields: a missed day resets the streak to 0.

The Streak Shield chip next to the Station heading shows shields left.

Activity heatmap PRO #

One square per day, one column per week, shaded by miles: grey (none), light and mid green (up to 3 and 6 mi), dark green (up to 10 mi), gold (over 10 mi). Today has a blue outline. Hover a day (or tap on a phone) to see its distance.

Desktop shows 365 days; phones show a half-year view. Open StepStation on a computer for the full year.

Lifetime Totals #

Total distance, steps, calories and pound equivalent since your first walk. See How calories work.

Best Streaks & peak volume #

Your best 30-day and 7-day totals, your longest streak and your current streak.

Active days vs. calendar days #

Averages over days you walked vs. all calendar days, so you can see both "how much when I walk" and "how much overall".

Distance in Perspective #

Compares your miles to real places and journeys: the Grand Canyon, the Camino de Santiago, the Appalachian Trail, Route 66, coast to coast across the US, around the Moon and beyond. Pick the time range (all-time, this year, month, week, today, best week, best day) and the benchmark.

Trophy Room #

Over 240 badges for distance milestones (First Mile → Century Club and far beyond), streaks, race distances, mountain climbs and more. Each shows progress toward unlocking; Up next shows your closest badge. Unlocking one shows a celebration you can share.

Boards: your personal leaderboards #

• Weekly ranks your weeks; Daily ranks your days.
• Rank curve sorts by distance; Timeline plots by date. Click a point to highlight it in the table.
• The table shows medals, distance and hours. To take is how many more miles would beat the next rank, or reach #1.

What is a squad? #

A squad is a group that shares a leaderboard and a goal. Everyone's walking updates the board live, including who's walking right now.

Create or join a squad #

• Create: tap the squad name → New squad. Pick a name and emoji.
• Invite: the blue Invite button copies a link. Anyone who opens it can join (subject to the limits above).
• Join: open an invite link, or squad name → Join with a code.
• Switch squads: tap the squad name at the top.
• You can try at most 10 join codes an hour.

The board: lanes, bars and filters #

• Lanes shows a race track per person with their game piece; Bars shows columns.
• Filters pick the period (this week, month, all time) and the measure (miles, steps, calories, hours).
• Big squads show the top 10 (bars: 8, or 5 on phones) plus your own row, with Show all to expand.
• Tap anyone for their streak, pace, live status and High-five.
• Awards: Champion, Longest streak, Fastest and Top climber for the period.

Competitive vs. Squad Goal #

• Competitive: everyone races each other.
• Squad Goal (cooperative): everyone's miles add up toward one shared target, shown as one bar split by contribution.

Squad gear → Squad settings (owner only): name, mode, goal and period.

Your lane style #

Pick your game piece (emoji), color and bar pattern. Everyone in your squads sees it.

Squad gear → Your lane style.

Squad owner tools #

• Remove or Ban a member: tap them on the board. Banned people can't rejoin with the invite code.
• New invite code (gear menu): the old link stops working; current members stay.
• Post standings to Slack / Discord: add a webhook in Squad settings, then post from the gear menu.
• Delete squad: type DELETE to confirm. It's removed for everyone.
• If your Pro ends, only your oldest squad accepts new members until you renew.

Organization Squad #

Every organization on StepStation for Organizations gets its own squad, marked Organization Squad.

• Members are added when they join the organization, if "Show me on the Organization Squad" is on (it's on by default).
• It has no invite link; only organization members can be in it.
• You can leave it and keep your Pro. Rejoin anytime from Settings → your organization → Rejoin it.
• Leaving the organization also removes you from its squad.

Themes #

24 themes in four groups: Calm, Studio, Dark and Vivid. FREE Apple Light and Apple Dark. PRO the other 22.

Tap a Pro theme without Pro to preview it for 3 seconds.

Goal Machine #

Works backward from a target. Choose weight loss, distance, time or daily steps, set a deadline and walking days per week, and it gives you the daily miles and minutes needed. You can apply the result as your daily goal.

Targets & treadmill defaults #

Daily and weekly goals, default pace and default incline. Shows your calorie burn per hour and per mile, including the incline boost.

Personal metrics #

Weight, height and (optional) body fat %. Height sets your stride for steps; weight and body fat drive calories. Leaving them blank uses defaults.

Smart features #

• Wearable sync: see Wearables.
• Streak reminder: one notification a day after the hour you choose (default 7 pm) if you haven't walked and your streak is on the line. Needs notification permission, and StepStation open or installed.
• Weekly recap email: every Monday: your miles, streak, squad ranks and who passed you. Unsubscribe from any recap.

Erase history #

Deletes every logged day from this device and your account. Type DELETE to confirm. This can't be undone, so export first.

Free vs. Pro #

Prices #

• Monthly: $4.99/month. Cancel anytime.
• Annual: $39.99/year ($3.33/month, save 33%), with a 7-day free trial.
• Founder: $69 once. Pro for the life of StepStation, every future Pro feature and a numbered gold badge. Limited to 250.
• Organizations: $5 per member per month. See below.

Payments are handled by Stripe; StepStation never sees your card.

Free trial #

Annual starts with 7 days free. You're charged on day 8 unless you cancel before then. One trial per person and per card; a card that already had a trial is billed right away.

Cancel, change card or get a receipt #

Settings → your plan → Manage Subscription opens the Stripe billing portal: cancel, update your card, or download invoices. Cancelling keeps Pro until the end of the period you paid for.

Refunds: see the Terms. If something went wrong, email support@stepstation.app within 14 days.

Referrals: a free month #

When someone joins your squad within 7 days of creating their account and later pays for Pro, you get a free month of Pro (or 30 days added to your subscription). A trial alone doesn't count, and payments from your own card don't qualify.

StepStation for Organizations #

For companies, churches, clubs and schools: the organization pays and every member gets Pro.

• Set up: Settings → StepStation for Organizations → enter a name and seat count → checkout ($5 per seat per month).
• Invite: Copy invite link and share it. Each person who joins uses a seat.
• Admin view: each member's week, last week, month, all-time miles and streak. Change seats or open billing anytime.
• Members: see a privacy notice before joining. Leaving the organization ends the Pro it provides; members with their own Pro keep it.
• Each organization also gets an Organization Squad.

Distance #

Live distance = pace × time walking. With Bluetooth, the treadmill's own distance is used instead. Logged and imported walks use the distance you enter.

Steps #

Steps per mile = 63,360 ÷ stride (inches), where stride = height × 0.414. With no height set, StepStation uses 2,100 steps per mile.

Calories #

• Default (ACSM walking equation): oxygen use = 0.1 × speed + 1.8 × speed × grade + 3.5 (ml/kg/min, speed in m/min). Calories/min = oxygen × weight (kg) ÷ 1000 × 5.
• With body fat set (Katch-McArdle): your resting burn comes from lean body mass (370 + 21.6 × lean kg per day) instead of the population average, so results are more personal.
• Incline adds the 1.8 × speed × grade term, so each 1% of incline noticeably raises calories per mile.
• Defaults when not set: 197 lb, 3.0 mph.

Pound equivalent #

Calories ÷ 3,500, the common estimate for a pound of body fat. It's a motivating comparison, not a medical measurement.

Days, weeks and time zones #

Days follow your device's local time. Weeks run Monday to Sunday. Squad boards reset on the same schedule for each member's own week.

Sync and offline use #

StepStation saves every change on your device first, so it works offline. When you're signed in, changes upload in the background and sync to your other devices. The chip next to the Station heading shows whether your data is saved on this device or synced.

Who can see my data? #

• Only you see your history and body metrics.
• Squad members see your display name, photo, lane style and the totals shown on the board.
• An organization admin sees your name, email, miles and streak.
• StepStation never sells your data. Read the Privacy Policy.

Export or delete everything #

Export from Modify History. To delete your account and all its data, email support@stepstation.app from your account's address. It's done within 30 days. Cancel any subscription first.

Sign-in doesn't finish #

Make sure you're on app.stepstation.app, allow pop-ups and cookies for it, and try again. If the button is stuck on "Please wait…", close and reopen the sign-in window. Email sign-ups need you to confirm the email first.

Bluetooth treadmill won't connect #

• Use Chrome or Edge (not Safari or an iPhone).
• Close the treadmill's own app. Most pads accept only one connection.
• Turn the pad on and walk a few steps so it starts advertising, then connect.

My walks don't match on two devices #

Make sure both are signed in to the same account and online, then reload. Walks saved offline upload the next time the device is online.

I don't get streak reminders #

Allow notifications for StepStation in your browser, keep the app open or installed, and check the reminder hour in Settings → Smart Features.

I can't join a squad #

• "Free accounts can be in one squad": leave your current squad or upgrade to Pro.
• "This squad is full": free-owner squads hold 5, Pro-owner squads hold 50.
• "Invalid invite code": the owner may have made a new code. Ask for the new link.
• "Too many attempts": wait an hour.

Still stuck? #

Email support@stepstation.app with what you tried and your device and browser.