Streaks & Solar Flare Shields

How the streak system works: the full guide

How streaks work

Your streak counts the consecutive days you've hit your daily step goal. Every day is judged against the goal you had on that day, so raising your goal later never rewrites history, and lowering it doesn't fake a past you didn't walk.

A few things that make Step Step streaks kinder than most:

Today never breaks your streak while it's in progress. Until midnight, today is simply "pending": your streak stands on the days already banked.
You don't need to open the app. Steps are read from Apple Health, so a day you walked counts even if you never launched Step Step that day.
Past streaks stay visible on your streak calendar, dimmed, not erased. Only the run connected to today (or yesterday) is your active streak.

Solar Flare Shields

Life gets in the way: sick days, travel days, days that just get away from you. Solar Flare Shields are Step Step's answer: each shield protects one missed day, so your streak carries straight through it. On your calendar a protected day shows a blue shield instead of a hole, and your streak line flows over it unbroken.

Protection is automatic (and optional)

If you miss a day and you're holding a shield, it deploys itself, no action needed. This works even while the app is closed: a background check protects your streak and sends a "Streak protected" notification so you know it happened. Prefer a pure streak? Turn off Automatically Use Shields in Settings → Step Streaks and shields are never spent for you; there's also a Show Streaks switch that hides the streak system entirely while your history quietly keeps counting.

Changed your mind? Every deploy can be undone from the shield vault: the shield returns to your stock and the day goes back to being a miss. Nothing is ever spent behind your back that you can't take back. And if a shielded day turns out to have hit its goal after all, say your Apple Watch synced its steps late, Step Step notices and refunds the shield automatically.

Earning shields for free

Shields are earned, not just bought, and most people never need to pay for one:

Your first shield is a gift, waiting on your streaks page when you start.
Streak milestones each earn one: 7 days, 14 days, 30 days, and then every 30 days after that, forever (60, 90, 120…). A long streak never runs dry. Milestones count days you genuinely hit your goal; a shielded day keeps your streak alive, but it doesn't earn the next shield for you.
Completing the Liftoff checklist (your first-week pre-flight steps) banks a bonus shield.
Pro members receive 2 shields on upgrade, then 1 more every month.

Shields live in your vault: 4 slots free, 8 with Pro. A grant that arrives while the vault is full simply waits for a free slot rather than piling up forever; the vault always shows all 8 slots, so you can see exactly what Pro adds.

Bridging a broken streak

Sometimes a streak breaks before a shield could save it: you were out of shields, sick for a couple of days, and only noticed later. If the break is fresh and small, you can still repair it:

A bridgeable break is a hole of 1 or 2 missed days in an otherwise solid streak (at least 3 hit days before the gap), noticed within about a week.
The streaks page shows the gap exactly as it is: your run in white, the missing days as ghosted shield outlines.
One shield covers one missed day. When you hold enough shields (earned or bought), a "Use N shields" button appears; one tap repairs the whole gap at once and your streak reconnects as if you never stopped. It's all-or-nothing: Step Step never spends part of your stock on a gap it can't finish. Both halves count again: a 4-day run + 2 bridged days + the days since = one streak.
Not interested? Tap Let it go. The break is released for good, the app never asks about it again, and a fresh streak begins the day you next hit your goal.

What can't be bridged: a gap of 3 or more days. That streak has genuinely ended, and that's by design. Bridges exist for a sick weekend, not for rewriting a month; a streak you can buy back from any distance stops meaning anything.

The vault

Your shield vault, protected-day history and the store all live on the streaks page (tap the shield count). If you'd rather stock up than wait for milestones, packs are available, in the US: a single shield $0.99, a 3-pack for $2.49, and a 5-pack for $3.99. The store only offers a pack when it actually fits your free slots, so you can never pay for shields you can't hold; a full vault says so honestly instead of selling you more. Purchased shields never expire.

Step Step never charges to "restore" a streak and never frames a miss as a fee. Shields protect the future automatically, the ladder keeps them coming for free, and letting a streak go is always a first-class, guilt-free choice.

Notifications you may see

Evening warning (optional): around 8pm if today's goal isn't met yet, with exactly how many steps you're short.
Streak protected: a shield auto-deployed while you were away.
Bridge offer: sent once when a fresh, bridgeable break is detected. It opens the streaks page; it never mentions purchases.

All of these respect the streak-alerts toggle in Settings → Notifications, and go quiet entirely if you hide streaks in Settings → Step Streaks.

Quick answers

Do shielded days count toward milestones and medals? A bridged or protected day is a full member of your streak, so your streak number and streak medals carry through it. The free-shield milestone ladder is the one exception: it counts genuine goal-hit days only.
Can a shield be applied to any old day? No. Shields protect recent misses (automatically) and fresh 1–2 day breaks (bridging). History further back stays history.
What happens at midnight if I miss my goal? Nothing dramatic: your streak isn't marked broken until the day is truly over, and if you hold a shield it bridges the day on its own.
Where do I see all this in the app? Streaks page → the shield count opens the armory; the ⓘ button there opens the full "How Shields Work" guide.

Mechanics current as of July 2026. Questions? support@step-step.app