Push-up counter app: how your iPhone counts every rep

Counting push-ups in your head works until about rep 14, when you lose track, round up, and start counting the half ones. A camera doesn’t get tired and doesn’t round up. Here’s how a push-up counter app on iPhone works, and how to get a count you can trust.

Two ways to count

Phone in front of you

Lean your iPhone on a bottle or against a wall, low and steady, about two steps (1.5 to 2 m) away. The camera follows your body’s position through each rep: shoulders dropping toward the floor, then arms straightening again. Keep your head, shoulders and hands in view the whole time. Head-on works; a slight angle from the side works well too. This works on any iPhone that runs iOS 26.1 or later.

Phone under your face

Lay your iPhone flat on the floor, screen up, under your chest or face, and plank over it. Here the TrueDepth camera, the one behind Face ID, measures how far away you are as you go down and up. It’s great in tight spaces and dim rooms. Don’t cover the top edge of the phone, where the sensor lives, and keep your head over the phone at the top of each rep.

What makes a rep count

A good counter is strict in the same way a good coach is:

• All the way down. A shallow dip isn’t a push-up.
• All the way up. Arms straight at the top before the next rep. Nobody locks out perfectly every time, so a steady, held top counts too.
• A real person. Bobbing the phone or your head doesn’t fool it.

When PushPact doesn’t count a rep, it says why, out loud and on screen: “Go lower”, “Push all the way up”, “Show me your hands”, “Slow down”. Fix that one thing and keep going.

Getting an accurate count

1. Use good, even light. Avoid a bright window right behind you.
2. Keep the phone steady. A wobbly prop looks like movement.
3. Wear something that isn’t the same colour as the floor.
4. Give yourself room: no table edge or sofa arm hiding your hands.
5. Go all the way down and back up to straight arms.

What about privacy?

A camera on the floor of your bedroom should make you ask questions. In PushPact the camera is only used to count reps, on the iPhone, and frames are never uploaded or stored. There’s no account. If you choose to film a set, the video is saved to your Photos library, and that’s the only place it goes.

If a count is ever wrong, the app asks “Did I count right?” and you can choose to send that set’s numbers (never images) so the counter gets better.

More than a counter

Counting is the start. PushPact turns the count into a daily pact, keeps the apps you pick locked until you’ve done it, and lets friends see who’s done today. The coach counts each rep out loud, so you can keep your eyes on the floor.

New to push-ups? Start with how many push-ups to do a day.