Happy Hump day! For my midweek blog, today let's talk about a new app we've been trying out.

Today's app review will take a look at "Matchup". What is Matchup you may ask? Well, one thing it is not is a dating app, as one might assume by the title. What it is, is a fitness challenge app. If you recall, we were doing a Fitbit Challenge here at the SYDCON headquarters, and it got kind of tricky as some of us migrated to Apple Watch, and others stayed on Fitbit.

So what we did was those of us on Apple Watch switched our Fitbit to mobile mode and had our iPhones tracking our steps as a Fitbit, while still using our Apple Watch. To say it got tedious is an understatement. Apple and Fitbit never matched (most often were not even close), and just try to correlate a step goal to an Apple Watch calorie or activity goal. Ugh, it got frustrating and fast. So, we found the Matchup app. It is available in the iTunes Store. Matchup offers the fun of competition over multiple fitness wearables like Jawbone, Fitbit, Withings, UP, Misfit, Garmin as well as iOS (not directly on  Apple Watch).  Hooray, problem solved. I could ditch the mobile Fitbit and use only my Apple Watch (by way of the Health App).

Well, while the app allows us to connect with different platforms, it has its quirks. One quirk is that when Dave set up a challenge between the two of us and our son, it poopooed it. You see it didn't like it because there were an odd number of competitors. Well, that is silly. Why on earth do you have to have an even number of competitors to do a fitness challenge?

Another thing is that you have to sync the Health App on the iPhone and then go into the Matchup app and sync that to show progress. Too many steps, in my opinion. But, temporarily it solved the problem of me using two different trackers. On many days I lost the challenge because if I was working out and didn't have my phone strapped to me I lost out on steps. But since I wear my Apple Watch all day, I benefit from all day steps. Also, because I am the only one with an iPhone 6 Plus as well as the only female - that means I have smaller pockets and don't carry my phone every time I get up from my desk. See the guys around here always have it in their pockets and were appearing to have more steps than me, but I wasn't getting credit for a walk down the office hall for instance.

Do you utilize any fitness challenge apps? If so, I would love to hear about what you use. What devices it supports, etc. While I would say if you are in the situation I was and are looking for an alternative to mobile Fitbit, give it a whirl.  It is a free app, so that makes it worth a try. However, I am glad I didn't spend any money on this one. It has potential but needs to be more user-friendly.