Lock Instagram or any app until you've hit your step goal

You never decide to skip the walk.
You decide to sit down for a minute first.

So the feed waits for the number. Your iPhone is already counting it in your pocket, and the walk to the bus, the lunch errand and the dog all go toward it. There's no session to start.

🚶

Walk 6,000 steps today

your iPhone counts them on its own

5,100 of 6,000

1,400 to the bus 1,100 lunch errand 2,600 the dog

then they open: Instagram

A number to hit, or a hundred steps at a time.

Hit your daily goal

Steps first

Until today's steps are in, the scroll apps stay locked. Hit the number, and they open on their own for the rest of the day. Tomorrow morning the count starts at zero and the walk comes first again.

🚶 6,000 steps → Apps open all day

Build a balance

Earn & spend

Every hundred steps earns a minute. You choose what each minute buys, from three minutes of scroll down to a third of a minute. Let it roll over and one long Saturday walk is still paying out on Wednesday.

🚶 3,000 steps → 30 min banked

What each one sends to Apple Health.

Tonic never talks to a tracker directly. If its steps reach the Health app, they count.

iPhone on its own

Counts your steps live, with no setup and nothing to buy. If the phone is usually in your pocket, your steps already reach Tonic. A separate tracker only matters when you walk without it.

Apple Watch

The fullest fit: steps, workouts, brisk minutes and daylight all count, mostly with nothing to switch on.

Garmin

Works once you turn on Apple Health sharing in Garmin Connect (More, Settings, Connected Apps, Apple Health). Steps arrive on a delay, not live; opening Garmin Connect usually pushes the latest ones into Health within a minute or two.

Fitbit (now the Google Health app)

Writes steps, workouts and mindfulness to Apple Health since its August 2026 update, once sharing is on. Steps land in batches when the app syncs, not step by step.

Oura

Built for sleep and readiness, not steps; its step and workout sharing is limited. If you wear an Oura and carry your phone, the phone's steps do the work.

Whoop

Has no step counter. If it shares workouts to Apple Health, a workout goal can work instead.

Two devices at once

If your phone and your watch both count, Apple Health uses one at a time and Tonic shows the same total as the Health app.

iPad

An iPad on its own has nothing counting steps. With an iPhone or Watch in the picture, steps reach the iPad through iCloud once you have opened the Health app there.

Nothing to log

You never open Tonic to unlock.

Tonic reads one number: the step total in Apple Health, the same one you see in the Health app. Your iPhone writes it on its own; a watch or tracker adds the steps you take without your phone. When the goal is reached, Tonic opens your apps by itself.

No check-ins, no proof photos. Your iPhone counts every step on its own, and Tonic reads the total the Health app shows.

Unlocks from the background. Usually within a minute of the count hitting your goal, with nothing to collect.

Any tracker, or none. Apple Watch, Garmin or Fitbit through Apple Health, or the phone in your pocket alone.

Counts steps from

📱 ⌚ Garmin Connect

your iPhone alone, or any tracker that shares with Apple Health

Apple Health

One-time setup: allow Tonic to read Steps when it asks; it sits under Read, a separate list from Write. A separate tracker also needs Apple Health sharing switched on in its own app.

Walkers set up things like this.

🚶
Steps or a workout, whichever happens first
A gym day covers it, and so does a long walk.
🚶
Reach for Reddit early and it takes more taps each time
15 taps, then 20, then 25, until your steps are in.
🚶
Weekdays only, the walk comes first
Saturday and Sunday, Instagram opens like normal.
🚶
Bank all week, spend it by Sunday
The balance can clear every Monday, so each week starts from zero.
23 min banked

"Because it knows when I've hit my steps and unlocks automatically I actually stuck with this one." App Store review, July 2026

Quick answers

Do I need an Apple Watch or a Fitbit?

No. Your iPhone counts steps on its own, live, as long as it is on you. A separate tracker only matters when you walk without your phone.

Does it work with Garmin, Fitbit or Oura?

Garmin and Fitbit, yes, once you switch on Apple Health sharing in their app. Tonic reads the step total in Apple Health, never the tracker itself, and tracker steps arrive on a delay rather than live. Oura shares steps in a limited way and Whoop has no step counter, so a workout goal suits them better.

Do I have to open Tonic after my walk?

No. When your steps reach Apple Health, Tonic notices in the background and unlocks the apps itself, usually within a minute; the exact timing is up to iOS. Very rarely it runs late, and opening Tonic or tapping the notification unlocks them right away.

My steps aren't showing up.

Check that sharing is on in your tracker's app, and that Steps is allowed under Read in iPhone Settings, Health, Data Access & Devices, Tonic. Opening your tracker's app usually pushes its latest steps into Health within a minute or two. If Health missed a walk, log it from the rule and it counts right away.

What about a treadmill, or a walk without my phone?

If nothing on you counted the steps, Apple Health has nothing to give Tonic. A watch or tracker on your wrist fixes that. Otherwise log the walk yourself from the rule; only today can be logged, and a log can be deleted.

What does it cost?

Free to start: lock two apps and earn from one source, steps included, for as long as you like. Tonic Unlimited lifts the limits on apps and ways to earn, for $29.99 a year or $9.99 a month, with the first 7 days free.

Steps from Garmin, Fitbit and other trackers, step by step → · Steps not counting?

Checked against the app on November 1, 2026.

Ways to earn

By habit

Help

How much

When and where

Help

Lock Instagram
until you've
hit your steps.

You never decide to skip the walk.
You decide to sit down for a minute first.