Step challenges you can join without knowing anybody
Most step challenge apps ask you to round up friends before you can start. That is the step where most people stop. An open challenge is a public step challenge Upkeep publishes for everyone at once — one tap to join, no invite, no group to organise, and your steps verified automatically from the day you start.
An open challenge is a themed step challenge anyone using Upkeep can join in one tap. Upkeep sets the daily step target, the number of days and how many rest days you get; you just join and walk. Steps come straight from Apple Health or Google Fit, never typed in by hand, and the same anti-cheat checks apply as in a private challenge. It is free, it needs no invite, and you can run one alongside your own private challenges.
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How an open challenge works
Four steps, and only one of them is yours
1. Upkeep publishes the challenge
Each open challenge has a theme, a daily step target, a start date and a fixed run of days. Some allow rest days, some do not. All of that is set before it opens, so everybody who joins is walking to the same rules.
2. You join with one tap
No invite code, no group to assemble, no waiting for anyone to accept. Open the app, find the challenge and join it. If it has already started you can still join — you simply begin from the day you arrive.
3. Your steps count themselves
Upkeep reads your step count directly from Apple HealthKit on iOS, or Google Fit and Health Connect on Android. There is nothing to log and nothing to submit. Hit the daily target and the day counts; miss it and it does not, unless you have a rest day left.
4. It ends, and you get the record
On the last day the challenge closes and you get the final standings along with your own count of days hit and days missed. Open challenges are one-off events, so a finished one does not restart — new ones are published from time to time.
Open challenge or private challenge?
Same engine underneath. The difference is who is in the room.
| Open challenge | Private challenge | |
|---|---|---|
| Who can join | Anybody using Upkeep | Only people you invite |
| Invite needed | ✗ | ✓ |
| Who sets the rules | Upkeep | Whoever creates it |
| Group size | Open-ended | 3 to 20 people |
| Automatic step verification | ✓ | ✓ |
| Anti-cheat checks | ✓ | ✓ |
| Counts towards your streak | ✓ | ✓ |
| Repeats weekly | ✗ | ✓ |
| Price | Free | Free |
Who open challenges are for
You just installed the app
A private challenge needs three people before it starts. An open challenge needs nobody. You can be walking against other people on day one instead of waiting for friends to accept an invite.
Your group went quiet
Groups drift. An open challenge gives you something to walk towards that does not depend on anyone else showing up, and it runs alongside your private challenges rather than replacing them.
You want a bigger room
Twenty people is a good group. A few hundred is a different kind of pressure. If a small leaderboard stopped motivating you, an open challenge widens the field.
Open challenge questions
The things people ask before joining
An open step challenge is a public step challenge that anyone using the app can join without an invite. Upkeep publishes them with a theme, a daily step target and a fixed run of days. You tap once to join, and from then on it works exactly like a private challenge: your steps are read automatically from Apple Health or Google Fit and you appear on the standings with everyone else who joined.
A private challenge needs someone to create it and invite between three and twenty people, and only those people can see it. An open challenge is created by Upkeep, needs no invite and no organising, and is open to everybody at once. Everything else is the same — the same verification, the same daily target, the same rest days, the same free access.
No. That is the point of them. A private challenge needs a group you have already assembled, which is the single biggest reason people never start one. An open challenge lets you start walking against other people on the day you install the app.
Yes. Open challenges are free, like every core feature in Upkeep. There is no entry fee, no stake and no subscription required to join one or to appear on its standings.
The same way as in every other Upkeep challenge. Steps are read directly from Apple HealthKit on iOS or Google Fit and Health Connect on Android — never typed in by hand. Multi-signal anti-cheat checks run on top of that, including step-cadence analysis, GPS plausibility and heart-rate correlation, so a day that could not have been walked does not count.
It finishes on its last day and you get a results screen with the final standings and your own record of days hit and days missed. Open challenges are one-off events rather than a weekly recurring series, so a finished one does not restart. New ones are published from time to time.
Yes. An open challenge counts towards your normal concurrent challenge allowance, so you can run one alongside a private group challenge or a solo challenge and have every day count for both.
Join the next one
Open challenges live on the Social tab. Install Upkeep, connect Apple Health or Google Fit, and join whatever is running.