App-ing away to an active, healthier life

Last year, I activated the fitness tracking function in China's most popular instant messaging app WeChat in a bid to stay fit. By opting for an account that pulls motion data from my smartphone and auto-counts my steps, I was ranked against my account peers based on the number of steps I took everyday.

I was motivated to intensify my exercise regime after seeing people I knew taking far more steps than me, and to catch up, I began using a treadmill while holding my phone in hand. For some time, I rose quite high in the rankings - into the top 10-and received a lot of "likes" from my WeChat friends, which encouraged me to exercise even more.

The advantage of using the WeChat sports function is that it taps into the psychology of people who have the tendency to perform better on a task when they compete with others engaged in the same task, particularly if they know each other.