Trying out new habits? Track them on an accountability app with friends!

As we began the New Year, I decided to exercise in the morning. Now as I write this two months into the year, I'm happy to report that every morning I wake up ready to go for a quick run or get in my cardio, without missing a single day or needing extra motivation to keep going.

Okay, well, that's a blatant lie. I spend my mornings battling my instinct to hit snooze for 5 more minutes.

Does it count if I say I wish I did wake up early to work out? I really do want to wake up in the morning, full of energy, and go for a run. It would help me build a better, healthier, more productive life. But I know what's holding me back – sticking to a new habit is a challenge without someone to keep me accountable.

By now, there's plenty of evidence on why getting accountability is a great way to do something you really don't want to do. So people who want to take on more good habits and say goodbye to bad ones often try to go about it in one of two ways – they either track them on an accountability app or ask their friends to track their progress and try the new habit with them. If you want to take it up a notch, why not try both by sharing your habits on an accountability app with friends?

Why you need friends to help with habit tracking

Now you may have heard (from us!) that family members and friends shouldn't generally be your accountability partners, because mixing different relationship dynamics can become tricky and overwhelming. And we do stand by that. But I have to admit, when it comes to habit-building, having a friend watch over you can help in some ways.

Social pressure

Sometimes even signing up to accountability apps falls short of the push you need to actually do the work you have to. The app can be ignored, deleted, or for the really creative and witty users, manipulated. But when you know that whatever you do and see on the app is being checked by someone like a friend, you're more likely to resist gaming the system. At the very least, you'll do the bare minimum most days so your friend sees some progress. And sometimes that's enough!

The right kind of support and motivation

No one knows what drives you better than your loved ones! Your friends will know that if positive reinforcement and rewards aren't enough to make you stick to your habit, the risk of negative consequences definitely will. Not saying they should scare you with it, but they definitely will know how to keep you on track!

On the other hand, having a friend who understands what your habit is and why it's important to you will ensure that you have the support you need to see it through.

Consistency

If your friend is keeping you accountable by trying your new habit with you, then it'll definitely help you stick to it longer than if you try it solo. Not only does it help to know someone is counting on you to do the work with them, but you can also share notes, and exchange feedback to help you both go about it better.

Helpful reminders

When you start a habit for a specific reason – better health, greater career prospects, or leading a well-rounded lifestyle – you may find the motivation fading with time as other parts of life get in the way. Your friend/accountability partner can help remind you of your initial ambitions at these points in a way that'll help you focus and get back on track.

Flexible accountability levels

Not all habit tracker apps have the exact features you need or want. But a friend providing the extra accountability can help fill small gaps in the tool of your choice.

11 best habit tracker apps to try with friends

Habitshare

HabitShare is one of the most popular social social habit tracking apps that lets your friends and you share your goals and track each other's progress. A cool feature is flexiblity – you can create a daily, weekly, or one-time habit schedule and choose what to make visible to your friends. allows you to chat with your friends and send and receive invites to track each other’s progress. Like Snap Habit, it provides flexibility in creating your habit schedule by giving you the freedom to set it daily, weekly, or only on specific days.

The free app works on both iOS and Android.

stickK

stickK makes you stick to your habits through commitment contracts – you enter a binding agreement to finish your goal or pay actual money as a penalty. How do you add friends to it? Simply name them as referees to your goal--they have to approve any data you enter so you don't get penalized.

You can also create group goals to keep each other accountable as a single unit, or manage projects with special workplace productivity features!

Loop

Loop is one of the most popular free habit-tracking apps for Android. The tool is open source, which means anyone can download and customize it how they like to build a whole habits database. All the data in the app is owned by you.

The app has an extremely simple habit-tracking interface where you can track recent progress, build habits, and analyze your pass/fail trends. A cool feature is the calendar view, which shows you exactly which days of the month you met or missed your habit.

Habitify

Habitify is all-encompassing – use it on iOS, macOS, Android and the Web – but it does come with a somewhat steep ongoing subscription fee. If you don't want to pay too much, you're better off using one of the other apps.

But the app has a lot of tools, like sorting your habits into specific areas that you can custom-make. You can also group related habits for ease of access. One of its most premium features, though, is its Challenges tool--create a specific goal for your friends (or even strangers) to help the group get motivation through friendly competition.

Habitica

Habitica (formerly HabitRPG) gamifies habit building. You can add tasks and habits to a list—and complete them to level up on the app's role player. You can also invite friends to complete quests (and your tasks) or face consequences as a group. But be careful, don't get too caught up in the game to forget your other activities!

Strides

Strides, made for iOS, has more than 150 trackers to help you check progress on all your goals and habits--be it breaking a bad habit or developing a new one to get better in life. The good thing is that it helps you create SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic/Relevant, Timebound) goals, so there's a clear objective to track. The one-stop app makes it so that your friends do not miss any updates!

Squad

Squad is a group accountability app on both iOS and Android. The app works as an atomic habit tracker--helping you make small changes to stop bad behavior and develop good habits. You can join a Squad with new and old friends to build on new habits over two to six weeks.

TickTick

TickTick is a great task management app for your work habits – which you may want to share with work friends! The app looks great visually as it organizes your tasks, meetings and deadlines, and also has collaboration features so others can chime in to help.

Habitat

Habitat is also a group accountability app for iOS, where you work on your own goals with a group of friends motivating you as they work on theirs. Daily reminders, group messaging features, and visualized data help keep you motivated!

Streaks

Streaks enables you to track daily, weekly, and monthly habits that need to achieve milestones after a certain period. The app is extremely easy to use--with most commands just requiring one tap, where you can see how much progress you make each day on your habits.

How to choose from habit-tracking apps to try with friends

Now there are a lot of habit-tracking apps to choose from each with its own unique set of accountability tools. Here's what you should keep in mind as you go through to make sure you're choosing the right one for you and your friend:

Compatible software

Your accountability app should be accessible for both yourself and your friend. If you choose an iOS app but your friend is an Android person, or if you want features suited for tablet tracking but your friend only has a PC, the accountability attempt is not going to work. So make sure you're both able to get comfortably going on the app.

Flexibility in use and tracking data

Your friends and you may have different ideas about how to use the accountability app and the data that it collects. Maybe you just want to track your diet, but they also want to monitor your gym visits. Both goals are related to health and fitness, and if you want to find a middle ground, your app should support that by letting you customize your routine.

Shareability features

You can't have a friend keep you accountable if you can't share the progress, right? Sometimes habit trackers have limited sharing features that keep your friend behind certain walls. Break these down if you really want this process to work.

Provision for group goals

If your friends and you want to try a habit together, make sure you look at accountability apps that support group goals. This will streamline accountability and make sure the work is easy and hassle-free.

Pricing

Finally, unless you have a specific arrangement, it's almost certain that your friends are helping keep you accountable for free. So don't make it a costly venture for them by choosing an app with lots of in-app purchases or a high subscription fee.

How BaaS helps you track habits – as a friend!

The bosses at Boss as a Service play many roles. As bosses, they check in with you every day to make sure you're sticking to your habits, ask for proof upon completion, and are not afraid to call you out when you slack too much. At the same time, as friends, they want to motivate and support you in all your experiments, provide a sounding board for new ideas, and a shoulder to cry on when the going gets too tough.

Plus, like all good friends, BaaS has great advice – on being productive – and tons of hacks to keep you on track all the time!

Final thoughts

When it's too hard to develop new and useful habits, try the double dose of accountability apps and friends as partners. It's likely to see more success than failure!

Want more on accountability – and getting better along with friends? Check out these articles!

• Make Your Fitness Habit Stick With the 'Workout With Friends App' Approach
• Accountability Coaching - Everything You Need to Know (And where Boss as a Service fits in)
• How to Find an Accountability Partner
• Achieve your health goals through weight loss accountability