Article of the week: a new card on the Journey tab brings our latest Japanese walking article, opened right inside the app. If you like, Ayumi can tell you when a new one is out, at most once a week; you can turn this on or off in Settings.

Small fixes for a calmer app: on the Friends page, badges and rankings now stay in place instead of shuffling, and the Settings page no longer slides sideways while you scroll.

Walk with friends: add a friend with your link or code and see each other's week as stars in the sky, a weekly race and a badge showcase. Only your name, the days you walked and your badges are shared, and only if you turn it on. Gentler reminders now come every other day, around the time you usually walk. Month tabs compare this month and last month with a small leaderboard, and friends who join through your invite get a special price.

New Indoors card: it explains what the treadmill speed does, turns on indoor walking with one tap and shows both speeds. It opens straight from the in-app event.

Ratings are now requested only through Apple's own rating window. The reviews page in the intro and the five-month milestone screen are simpler. Walking on a treadmill? Try the Indoors button on the home screen: it shows the belt speed for each phase.

On a treadmill, the walk screen now shows the belt speed for each phase and tells you to speed up the belt when a fast phase starts. Speeds start at 2.0 mph slow and 3.7 mph fast; change them in Settings or with − / + while you walk, and Apple Watch shows the same speeds. Indoor minutes count even when no distance is measured. Turn it on with the Indoors button on the home screen.

The intro now shows the app as it is today: the new home screen, badge celebrations, the weekly report and the Journey tab. A new home screen: today's plan is a path winding through the season's valley; Ayumi waits at the start, and on days you walk your star hangs in the sky.

A new home screen: today's plan is a path winding through the season's valley; Ayumi waits at the start, and on days you walk your star hangs in the sky. The monthly summary is redesigned: the days you walked hang in Ayumi's sky, in that month's season. Badge levels now have names of their own. Walking on a treadmill or at home? Turn on "I walk indoors" in Settings and a walk where you complete every cycle counts even without distance. At the end of the intro you can now look around the app first.

The intro no longer has a Skip button: everyone starts their first walk knowing how the 3-minute rhythm works. The app now shows its new name, Ayumi, everywhere.

A new icon: the woman you see walking in the app is now on your Home Screen too. The two colors of her legs stand for the fast and the slow minutes.

The monthly summary now opens with a short scene. With the screen off, cues stay on the second even on long walks. You can now rate the app from Settings.

On iOS 26, phase cues now arrive exactly on time, even with the screen off or another app open. To make this work, your walk starts as a workout in Health, and we ask for permission once before you start. Nothing is written to Health unless you save the walk yourself. If you skipped the permission, you can turn it on in Settings under Alerts.

Walk cues are clearly louder now, including the phase chime and the countdown ticks. The summary button is now “Add a photo”. In Journey, the blood pressure bar shows where this week stands. The vibration at phase changes is stronger.

The Journey tab is simpler: the strip and the page it opened are now one. Your start date, the months by name, the three bars and how many days a week you walk sit on the same screen, and when the five months are done you can start a new five months right there. The Fifth Moon badge now lives under Badges → See all.

The five-month journey now lives in the app: we ask at the end of the intro, and the Journey tab (formerly Stats) shows where you are — five months and three bars: fast minutes, walking days, and weeks with three walking days. If you haven't taken your first walk yet, reminders now say something different each time and go quiet on their own after a while. The purchase screen is new: the six-month plan covers the whole five-month journey.

The five-month journey now lives in the app. We ask at the end of the intro, and Stats shows where you are: five months, sixty days, and how many days a week you walk. You can restart the journey from settings whenever you like.

The monthly summary is here. At the start of each month you see where you are on the five-month road the research measured: how many days a week you walked, how many the people in the study walked, and how many of the five months are behind you. A new badge opens when the fifth month closes: The Fifth Moon. Reminders are new: if you haven't walked in three days, we let you know, at most twice a week. And when the week closes, we tell you a new one is starting.

The app is about 5 MB smaller, with the same sounds. Walks that start slow now show the right fast and slow minutes. The phase cue now names the phase. You now choose whether a walk starts fast or slow — Settings, Start with. Your plan has its own screen: switch plans, move to lifetime or cancel, without leaving the app. If you have not walked for a few days, the app sends a gentle invitation. Before your first walk, History and Stats show a sample record so you can see what they will look like. The one-time offer after a walk now arrives on your third walk and says plainly that it will not come again.

You now choose whether a walk starts fast or slow — Settings, Start with. Your plan has its own screen: switch plans, move to lifetime or cancel, without leaving the app. If you have not walked for a few days, the app sends a gentle invitation. Before your first walk, History and Stats show a sample record so you can see what they will look like. The one-time offer after a walk now arrives on your third walk and says plainly that it will not come again.

Finish your first walk and the First Step badge opens — the collection's new first badge. After your first and fifth walks there's a 72-hour first-walk price: the yearly and lifetime plans cost a little less. The yearly renews at that price. Each of your first five walks now ends with a line that knows where you are. Six new rare badges: Starry Night, Northern Lights, Moon Road, Above the Clouds, Four Seasons and Day and Night. Genuinely hard to reach; they wait at the end of the collection. Two more in Settings: you can start each walk with the slow phase, and if you haven't walked for five days the app sends one gentle invitation. Your subscription plan can now be changed inside the app.

When an important update ships, the app now tells you from the inside. We ask once how it's going — if something's missing, you can write to us directly.

Badges on the Stats screen are now tappable — each one opens with its own animation. • Your first five walks are now free — try it without subscribing.

History is a calendar now. • Pick a week, two weeks or four; the days you walked show at a glance, and the length of each line tells you how long you walked. • Days where you earned a badge or added a photo are marked on the calendar. • Tap a day to open its card — the walk's detail and the badges you earned that day are right there. • The heart rate chart in Stats is now the average of all your walks, so you can see the fast-slow shape of a typical walk. • The "slow" cue was being cut off at the end; fixed. French cues now speak in the same voice as the others. • Sessions with no measured distance are no longer written to your history. • Some screenshots in the intro were showing up blank; fixed. • After three completed walks the app asks for a rating once, then leaves you alone.

Cues now reach you with the phone in your pocket. • At every phase change you hear "Fast" / "Slow" along with the chime — even with the screen off. • The starting countdown is no longer skipped when you lock the screen; the three seconds really pass, and you feel them. • When a walk ends in your pocket, the closing line is spoken once — it no longer repeats when you pick the phone up. • All twenty-three badges now animate. Tap a badge under Stats to watch it again. • Sessions with no measured distance are not written to your history. Interval Walk now speaks French — every screen, from the home page to the weekly report.

The weekly summary has been rewritten, and the badges came alive. • When the week closes, its summary is ready: the standout walk, how your heart rate was spread across the zones, the time of day you walk, one observation about what changed, and the badges you earned. The page opens with a short scene. • Earning a badge now plays a short animation, and the walker in every badge is now the woman from the opening scene. • Four colour palettes for the home screen: Paper, Ink, Tile, Sea. Settings moved to the bottom tab bar. • Spoken cues added. They name the phase at each change and tell you when the walk is done. English and Turkish. • Fixed cases where phase alerts did not arrive while the screen was locked. • Walks can now be deleted; photos taken in the app are no longer mirrored. • The 3-2-1 countdown rhythm was fixed; the heart-rate chart marks the peak of every fast phase. • Monthly and yearly subscriptions now start with a one-week free trial.