Bristol moves+
Get more active, more often, with help from Bristol Moves+, a free app for Bristol students and staff. Collect points for your daily activity and use them to redeem a variety of rewards.
About Bristol Moves+
Bristol Moves+ is a free app exclusively for students and staff at the University of Bristol. By connecting an activity tracker to the app, users collect points for the daily activity they do.
Bristol Moves+ incentivises individuals to be more active, more often. Our primary aim is to use Bristol Moves+ to support University of Bristol students and staff who currently have lower activity levels to achieve more daily movement, for the benefit of their physical and mental wellbeing.
- Compatible with Apple Health, Google Fit, Strava, Garmin, Fitbit and Withings
- Track walking, running, swimming and cycling activity
- Redeem points for rewards including; clothing, food and drink vouchers and more
- Complete in-app Challenges for bonus points
- Join public groups or create your own group with peers
- Unlock in-app achievement badges
I love the app and the rewards! [Moves+] encourages me to get outside and I’ve noticed a difference in my mood because of it.
How to join Bristol Moves+
- Download the Moves+ app from the Apple or GooglePlay store
- Register for a Moves+ account using your name and University of Bristol email address
- Verify your account
- Connect your preferred activity tracker
Don't forget to allow notifications from Moves+ in your device's settings, to receive updates from the Bristol Moves+ team.
Opt in to hear from us via email to receive our quarterly community newsletter, Bristol Moves+ News, direct to your inbox, including:
- Early-bird announcements of upcoming challenges and rewards
- Blogs and articles written by the Bristol Moves+ team
- Spotlights on members of the Bristol Moves+ community
Bristol Moves+ News
Bristol Moves+ News is our quarterly newsletter. Each edition will share the latest updates from the app developer, OpenPlay, and Bristol Moves+ HQ, plus upcoming challenge and rewards, and stories from our Bristol Moves+ community.
If you have something that you would like to share in the next edition of Bristol Moves+ News, get in touch by emailing bristol-moves-project@bristol.ac.uk
Frequently Asked Questions
What are Challenges?
Users can join Challenges and be awarded bonus points if they complete the challenge in the allotted timeframe.
Users can join Global Challenge (open to all Moves+ users) or Group Challenge (open only to those part of a particular group).
Please note: Users can only join one Challenge per activity type at any one time. For example, you can simultaneously be part of a cycling challenge and a swimming challenge, but not two cycling challenges. Users can join a Global and a Group Challenge at the same time, as long as the activity type is different. For more information about Groups and Group Goals visit the OpenPlay FAQ website.
What are Groups?
Groups can be found under the Explore tab. There are two types of Groups available in the Bristol Moves+ app - Public Groups and Private Groups. Users can join as many group as they like, but you may find it more beneficial to only join groups that are aligned with you and your interests.
Public Groups: Public groups are set up by Bristol Moves + HQ. Group members can participate in exclusive Challenges and also read the Group's updates feed.
Private Groups: Private groups can be created by users for themselves and their peers. You can create a Group Goal that everyone within your group can work towards together. Unlike challenges in Public Groups, you will not collect bonus points for reaching a Group Goal, just a sense of achievement!
We ask that usrs only join groups that are genuinely relevant to them, so that everyone can get the most out of this feature. We reserve the right to remove groups or group content from the app that is deemed to be inappropriate or violates the Terms of Use. For more information about Groups and Group Goals, visit the OpenPlay FAQ website.
Can I interact with friends in the app?
You can find friends in the People section of the app, found in the Explore tab.
My Friends: View your list of in-app friends.
All Moves+ users: Search for people you know here and add them so they appear in your Leaderboard
Invite friends: Send an invite to a friend not currently using Moves+ and collect 100 bonus points for each referral if your friend goes on to register.
There isn't currently a discussion feature within the Bristol Moves+ app that allows you to exchange messages with friends. If you want to share your Moves+ progress and achievements with the community, join our Viva Engage Group! You can also read the latest from our community in our newsletter which will be dropping into your inbox quarterly.
How do I redeem rewards?
The rewards available to redeem will be shown in the 'Rewards' page of your Bristol Moves+ app. The app will display rewards as:
- Available - you can redeem this reward
- Coming soon - the reward will become available on a set date in the future
- Not enough points - you cannot redeem until you collect more Moves+ points
Details about 'how to redeem' your reward will be written in the Reward Description of each listing. Additional information and any Terms will be listed in the Terms of Service of each listing.
It is important to read the Reward Description and Terms of Servie in full for each reward before redeeming, so that you are aware of all of the information and any action that may be required by you, the user.
Please note: points will not be refunded for rewards redeemed by accident, or for not following the instructions provided.
Why does my Moves+ app look different?
OpenPlay (the Moves+ app developers) released an update to the Moves+ platform on Wednesday 6th December 2023. If your phone auto-updates your app, there is nothing you will need to do. If it doesn’t, we'd recommend manually updating your Bristol Moves+ app to see the changes. Once updated, all users will receive a ‘walk through’ of the changes when they next log in.
What’s new?
Key updates include:
• Home screen – you can view your ‘total’ points on the home screen
• Home screen – you can now see your ‘active’ (current) and ‘past’ challenges
• Home screen – easy access to your inbox
• Explore page – easier access to groups, challenges, leaderboard and friends
• Leaderboard – see your previous performance(s)
• Leaderboard – refreshes every 2 hours for more up-to-date stats
• Tracking & syncing – there's been a focus on improving the accuracy with linked devices using GoogleFit
These updates are to improve the functionality of the Moves+ platform, as well as the user experience.
Troubleshooting
If you are having issues with the Bristol Moves+ platform, please read the information below regarding common troubleshooting issues, or visit the FAQ page on the OpenPlay website for more detailed guidance.
If your account verification email hasn't arrived or isn't working
We are aware of a delay in Moves+ users receiving their verification emails. Verification emails are sent straight away from the Moves+ app system but are required to pass through a security system before being delivered to you. In some instances the verification link will have expired before the email is received by the user. The APP developers are aware of the issue and are working on a solution.
If your verification email has timed out by the time you receive it, you will need to delete the account and start the sign up process again.
We have received feedback from our users that they have successfully been able to create an account, so the time taken to receive the verification email varies and is not always problematic in the account set-up process, so please keep trying!
If your activities aren't syncing
Problems with syncing your activity are often related to one of the points below:
- Your tracker did not sync the activity to the cloud before the Moves+ sync and therefore the data might be lost (check back the following day and if you have not received the points contact your university administrator)
- You disconnected or newly connected a tracker (see points above for how we provide points when disconnecting and connecting a tracker)
- You need to update your tracking app
- You should ensure that you have opened your tracking app, check that the data is updated and wait 20 minutes before manually syncing
- Bluetooth or auto-syncing for your tracking app is turned off (see Troubleshooting guidance)
- You are not logging activities correctly (e.g. you did not track a run with a distance associated)
If you are having trouble syncing your activity, please try the following steps:
- Ensure your tracking and Moves+ apps are both up to date .
- Use only the nightly sync and do not try to manually sync if the data doesn’t look right for a particular day – often the points will catch up if they were initially incorrect and often the nightly sync is more accurate for this.
- Disconnecting and re-connecting your tracker – under ‘Edit Profile’.
- Force closing Moves app and re-opening it.
- Make sure you have a good internet connection when opening your Moves app.
Troubleshooting - Google Fit and FitBit
If you are using Google Fit or Fitbit to track your activities, you will need to re-open the Google Fit and Fitbit apps multiple times per day, as the the activity data transfer is not automatic, and only starts transferring once the apps are opened. For these tracking apps it is important to open the app throughout the day (and especially in the evening) so that your activity data begins to upload to the Cloud. Once the app has finished uploading to the Cloud in the evening (usually takes around 15 mins), you can perform a manual sync in the Moves+ app.
If the problem persists, please contact us via email with:
- A brief overview of the issue, ideally including the dates you first noticed the problem
- Which device and operating software you are using (e.g. iPhones use iOS and Samsungs is Android)
- Which tracker you are using (e.g. Fitbit, Strava, Garmin etc)
- If you are using a wearable device or if you are tracking through your phone directly
- Screenshots from your Moves+ app and from your activity tracker to show any discrepancies
We will investigate the issues directly with the App developer and get a response to you as soon as we can.
If your steps in Moves+ is different to your tracker app
Users with wearable watches may notice that there is a greater discrepancy between their Moves step levels and the steps shown on their app.
This is largely due to the way watches record data and what is then sent to the Moves platform. When a wearable device logs an activity, it shows the user the ‘Perceived’ activity (e.g. you completed 10,000 steps today). When the tracker is sent to Moves, the data that is sent is the ‘Actual’ activity (e.g. 8,000 steps). Therefore, it is only possible for us to show the ‘Perceived’ rather than ‘Actual’ steps on our platform.
There are a number of reasons for the difference between Perceived and Actual data. For example:
- A user’s watch picks up steps whilst they are in the gym on a bike or rowing machine. Perceived steps shown on the fitness app includes these ‘steps’, whereas the Actual data sent to us doesn’t include these as the fitness app recognises that these were not actual steps but just general movement.
- A user takes their watch off and puts it in their bag whilst travelling. The watch will pick up ‘steps’ whilst travelling but when the data is sent these steps are removed as the fitness app recognises they are not genuine steps (no heartbeat etc).
Updated Terms and Privacy Policy
We have updated our Bristol Moves+ Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Please take a moment to have a read.