More popular than WhatsApp: Sweatcoin fitness app pays you for running

 Hardly in the stores, already at the top of the download charts: Sweatcoin is the app of the hour, which is currently even leaving WhatsApp and Instagram behind. The idea: The fitness application pays users for exercise outdoors.

Sweatcoin is available as a free download directly from the Apple App Store or from Google's Play Store . The app works with its own virtual currency, the so-called Sweatcoins. Every step taken outdoors is converted into Sweatcoins, which can then be redeemed for partner offers for products or activities. But how does it actually work? 

Before the app can even be used, it asks for various data and authorizations that are required for participation in the style of a chat. This is already quite sensitive data, for which not everyone would like to give the approval - but then no Sweatcoins can expire. 

Users have to give their name, their e-mail address, their telephone number - and of course also the approval of location and fitness data. Of course, it is not possible to determine a distance traveled without an accelerometer and GPS. 

However, everyone who uses apps like Sweatcoin must also be aware that a movement profile can theoretically be generated with such releases. By the way: Google and Apple also generate such profiles, unless this is deactivated. 

In order for Sweatcoin to work, the app must run in the background, i.e. it must not be closed manually. However, the developers emphasize that the battery consumption is low. 

How does Sweatcoin measure the steps?

Sweatcoin has its own algorithm that currently counts around 65 percent of all user steps. This percentage is to be increased in the future, currently to prevent fraud attempts. 

And important: the app only measures data that is also generated outdoors - so users will not be able to avoid leaving their own four walls. Which, by the way, is initially also the purpose of Sweatcoin. For 1000 steps outdoors you receive 0.95 Sweatcoins in the standard version. At some point in the future, however, movements will also be measured indoors.