How to Use Your Apple Watch With Runna

When pairing your Apple Watch with Runna, your upcoming Runna workouts will show up right on your watch guiding you through every step with live pace coaching, recovery countdowns, and prompts to speed up or slow down. When you're done, your run syncs back to Runna automatically and Pace Insights breaks down how you matched up against your targets.

There are two ways to record Runna workouts on your Apple Watch:

This article covers how to connect your Apple Watch, set everything up, and get the most out of your runs when using Runna with an Apple Watch.

Apple Watch and Runna

Runna currently supports:

If your Apple Watch cannot run a supported watchOS version, it will not be compatible with Runna.

Apple Workouts Watch App and Runna

Since iOS 26, some older device combinations can no longer access Runna workouts through the native Apple Workouts app integration, particularly:

However, as long as your watch supports watchOS 10.6.2 or higher, you can still use the Runna Apple Watch app directly to record workouts and receive audio cues.

To pair Runna with your Apple watch:

Once connected, install the Runna Apple Watch App to access your workouts from your wrist — or set up the Apple Workouts Watch App integration if you'd prefer to record your workouts there.

What to expect after connecting Apple Watch with Runna:

How to disconnect your Apple Watch from Runna:

This will remove your Runna workouts from your Apple Watch and stop completed workouts from syncing automatically — reconnect at any time to resume.

After connecting your Apple Watch with Runna, you can install the Runna Apple Watch App:

Once installed, the Runna Apple Watch app lets you access, start and record Runna workouts directly from your watch.

You can complete your Runna workouts directly in the Apple Workouts Watch app thanks to our WorkoutKit integration!

If you'd prefer to see and start your Runna workouts directly in the native Apple Workouts app:

Once you’ve followed these steps, you’ll be able to start your Runna’s scheduled workouts directly from Apple Workouts/Apple Fitness Watch App and have your completed workouts sync back to Runna.

Important: Runna's personalised audio cues (pace coaching, lap splits) are not available when recording through Apple Workouts or Apple Fitness Watch App. To get audio coaching during your run, use the Runna Apple Watch app instead.

Compatibility Note: If your workouts aren't syncing to the Apple Workouts Watch app, this may be due to device or watchOS compatibility. For example, upgrading your iPhone to iOS 26 while using an Apple Watch Series 5 (watchOS 10) can cause workout syncing to stop working, as older watches may not support the version of watchOS required for this integration. If you are unsure whether your device is compatible, please contact Support.

What works:

What doesn't work:

If you use both Strava and Runna for your workouts, we recommend only connecting Runna to Strava and not have your Apple Watch paired with Strava as well.

To connect Runna with Strava:

With this setup, each run recorded on your Apple Watch (either from Runna Watch App or Apple Workouts/Fitness Watch App) will sync to Runna and Runna will sync it to Strava.

Runna's personalised audio cues — including pace alerts ("speed up" / "slow down"), lap splits, and coaching prompts — are fully supported on the Runna Apple Watch app. If you use Apple Workouts Watch App to record your workouts, Runna audio cues won’t play.

On your Apple Watch:

To adjust how often cues play, set your preferred feedback distance from the Runna app on your phone: tap Record Workout → Outdoor Run → Settings → Feedback Distance.

Where audio cues play depends on which device you started your workout from. This means:

This also applies if you’re using Workout Mirroring.

For the best experience, we recommend connecting your headphones to the device you're starting your workout from. Here’s the full guidance: ****

If you’re having issues with audio cues on your Apple Watch with Runna, please check out our Troubleshooting Guide for the Apple Watch.

Take a few minutes before your first run to check these settings — they'll make a real difference to how smoothly your workouts go.

To change Runna Apple Watch settings, swipe right on the home screen.

Turn Audio Cues ON so you can receive live coaching during your runs.

You can enable Auto Pause in the settings menu so your workout automatically pauses when you stop moving, or choose to manually pause/resume your workout in two different ways:

If you enable Double Tap to End Lap in settings, you can end a workout step early (such as warm-ups, rests, or intervals) and move straight to the next section.

This can be useful if you:

If you select Free Run when opening the Runna Apple Watch app, you can choose to record either an Outdoor or Treadmill workout. During a Free Run, double tap the watch screen to create a new lap if you’ve enabled Double Tap to End Lap. This will be used for lap metrics (like lap pace) and shown in your activity summary.

If you have an Apple Watch Ultra, we recommend setting up the Action Button to control Runna during your workout:

Once enabled, the Action Button will perform the following:

Recording your workout from your Apple Watch using the Runna Apple Watch App gives you the full Runna experience: structured workout steps, live audio coaching, pace targets, and vibration prompts directly on your wrist.

During your run:

With Workout Mirroring enabled (Connected Apps & Devices → Apple Watch → Enable Workout Mirroring), you’ll also be able to control your workout from your phone. See Apple Watch Workout Mirroring for more details.

For treadmill runs, we recommend starting from the Runna app on your iPhone. Your iPhone tracks distance and pace from the treadmill, and your Apple Watch streams heart rate, cadence, and calories automatically.

After the run, you can adjust distance and speed directly in the Runna app. Both the phone and watch recordings merge automatically.

→ For more information on recording a treadmill workout with a smartwatch, check out Recording a Treadmill Workout with Your Compatible Smartwatch.

If you started or recorded your workout from the Runna Apple Watch app:

If you started or recorded your workout from the Apple Watch Workouts or Apple Fitness app:

If your completed workout on Apple Watch isn't showing in Runna:

→ See Run Recorded on Apple Watch or Apple Fitness not Showing in Runna — How to Fix it

If you’re seeing issues with the distance, pace, or GPS your Apple Watch is reporting, calibrating it can help improve accuracy. Calibration also helps your watch learn your fitness level and stride length, which can improve tracking when GPS is limited or unavailable.

To be able to hear audio cues and music (from Spotify or other music apps), here’s what you can do:

If you’re not using a music app, we recommend downloading your music or podcasts directly to your Apple Watch and pairing your headphones to it.

Yes! The Runna Apple Watch app lets you control which metrics appear on your workout screens, add and remove screens, and reorder them to suit how you train with an Apple Watch.

Note: This feature is currently available in Runna Labs (app version 8.34.0 and later). If you don't see it, it may not have rolled out to your account yet.

To set it up:

You can restore your screens to the default setup, even if you removed them, by tapping Restore Defaults.

A few things to know:

If you have any questions about using your Apple Watch with your Runna plan, please don’t hesitate to contact us. If you’re experiencing technical issues with your watch, we’ll do our best to help, but in some cases you may need to contact Apple directly for further support.