Get Recent Activity Types

Retrieves a list of a user's recent activities types logged with some details of the last activity log of that type.

Scope: activity

Request

GET	/1/user/[user-id]/activities/recent.json

URI Arguments

user-id

required

The encoded ID of the user. Use "-" (dash) for current logged-in user.

Request Headers

authorization	required	Specify the token type and Fitbit user’s access token. Token type: `Bearer`
accept	optional	The media type of the response content the client is expecting. Supported: `application/json`
accept-language	optional	The measurement unit system to use for response values. See Localization.
accept-locale	optional	The locale to use for response values. See Localization.

Examples

URL
CURL

GET https://api.fitbit.com/1/user/-/activities/recent.json
GET https://api.fitbit.com/1/user/GGNJL9/activities/recent.json

curl -X GET "https://api.fitbit.com/1/user/-/activities/recent.json" \
-H "accept: application/json" \
-H "authorization: Bearer <access_token>"

Element Name	Description
activityId	The numerical ID for the activity or exercise.
calories	Number of calories burned during the recorded activity.
description	Information, if available, about the activity or exercise.
distance	Distance traveled during the recorded activity.
duration	Amount of time (milliseconds) to complete the recorded activity.
name	The name of the activity or exercise.

[
  {
    "activityId": 90013,
    "calories": -1,
    "description": "Walking less than 2 mph, strolling very slowly",
    "distance": 1.61,
    "duration": 1178000,
    "name": "Walk"
  },
  {
    "activityId": 1071,
    "calories": 0,
    "description": "",
    "distance": 0,
    "duration": 973000,
    "name": "Outdoor Bike"
  }
]

Response Headers

content-type	The media type of the response content being sent to the client. Supported: `application/json`
fitbit-rate-limit-limit	The quota number of calls.
fitbit-rate-limit-remaining	The number of calls remaining before hitting the rate limit.
fitbit-rate-limit-reset	The number of seconds until the rate limit resets.

Note: The rate limit headers are approximate and asynchronously updated. This means that there may be a minor delay in the decrementing of remaining requests. This could result in your application receiving an unexpected 429 response if you don't track the total number of requests you make yourself.

Response Type

HTTP Status Code	HTTP response code. List of codes are found in the Troubleshooting Guide.
Status Message	Description of the status code.
Response Body	Contains the JSON response to the API call. When errors are returned by the API call, the errorType, fieldName and message text will provide more information to the cause of the failure.

Response Codes

200	A successful request.
400	The request had bad syntax or was inherently impossible to be satisfied.
401	The request requires user authentication.

Note: For a complete list of response codes, please refer to the Troubleshooting Guide.

Additional Information

The response if provided in the format requested using units in the unit system which corresponds to the Accept-Language header provided.

A recent activity record contains the distance and duration values recorded during the last time the activity was logged. The record retrieved can be used to log the activity via the Log Activity endpoint with the same or adjusted values for distance and duration.

Distance, pace and speed

The Fitbit devices use the following formulas to calculate distance, pace and speed. Please note, stride length is approximated by the person's height and gender.

distance = steps * stride length
pace = time(sec) / distance
speed = distance / time(hour)

Daily activity summary and auto-detected exercises' (recorded using Smart Track) distance are estimated values based on steps and stride length. Devices that support on-device or connected GPS will record distance, pace and speed from the GPS data when the exercise is initiated using the on-device Exercise application. If the person begins moving before receiving a GPS signal, steps and stride length are used to calculate distance until the GPS connects. Intraday distance values, returned by the Intraday endpoints or Activity TCX endpoint, can be more accurate since they use the GPS data. To determine how the exercise was recorded, see "logType" values.

Some people have noticed that the standard formula for calculating pace and speed doesn't always provide accurate results. That's because pace and speed are calculated from the GPS data, while the total distance is an approximate value based on how the tracker calculates distance (GPS vs steps & stride length). The mobile application duplicates the tracker distance value by displaying the exercise summary view. This is done to provide a better user experience for the consumer. When the user drills down into the exercise details, like data charts or maps, they should see the more accurate data coming from the GPS or Intraday data.

Developers who need to display the most accurate distance values, we suggest using only the intraday distance data points instead of the activity summary.

See How does my Fitbit device calcuate my daily activity? for more information.

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