Streaks Guides

How to drink more water with Apple Watch and iPhone

By the Streaks team ·

The easiest way to drink more water is to make it visible: set a daily amount, log each glass as you drink it, and get a reminder when you're behind. Your iPhone and Apple Watch can do all three, and if you log to Apple Health, every app that reads Health sees the same number.

How much water should you drink?

There's no single right amount. It depends on your size, how active you are, the weather, and how much water you get from food. A widely used reference comes from the US National Academies, which suggests about 3.7 litres a day for men and 2.7 litres for women. That's total water, from all drinks and food, and food usually provides about a fifth of it. So the amount you need to drink is less than the headline number.

For most people, a practical goal is somewhere around 6 to 8 glasses a day, more on hot days or when you exercise. If you have a medical condition that affects fluid, such as heart or kidney disease, ask your doctor what's right for you. Drinking far more than you need isn't better.

Pick a goal you'll actually reach. If you drink three glasses today, aim for five, not ten.

Why logging helps

Most people overestimate how much they drink. Logging each glass turns a vague intention into a count you can see, and it shows the pattern: many people drink well at work and hardly at all in the evening, or the other way round. Once you know where the gap is, you can fill it.

Where water data lives on iPhone

The Health app has a Water category under Nutrition. Health doesn't come with its own way to log a glass quickly; instead, apps save water there. Once it's in Health, any app you allow can read it, so you can log water in one app and see it in another. Open Health > Browse > Nutrition > Water to see your daily totals.

Tips that make it stick

  • Attach it to something you already do. A glass when you wake up, one with each meal, one when you get home. Linking water to a fixed moment works better than "drink more".
  • Keep water in sight. A bottle on your desk or in your bag gets drunk. One in the kitchen doesn't.
  • Use the same glass or bottle. Logging is easier when every glass is the same size.
  • Front-load the day. Aim to drink most of it before late afternoon, so you're not catching up at bedtime.
  • Count what counts. Tea, coffee, milk and other drinks contribute to hydration too, though caffeinated drinks are best kept moderate.

Tracking water with Streaks

Streaks' Drink Water task is a daily water goal that saves to Apple Health as you go.

  1. Tap Add a Task, choose the cutlery icon, then Drink Water.
  2. Set your daily goal in cups, millilitres, litres or fluid ounces.
  3. Allow Streaks to save water to Health when asked.

The goal is split into glasses, about one per cup or 250 ml. Each time you tap the task, a glass is added to your total and saved to the Health app, and the ring around the task fills up. When you reach the goal, the task is complete and your streak grows.

If you also log water in another app, Streaks counts that too: anything in Health's Water category goes towards the goal. To count only what you log in Streaks, change the task's Data Source to This Task Only.

On Apple Watch

Logging from your wrist is the quickest way to keep up. In the Streaks app on Apple Watch, select the Drink Water task and tap it to log a glass. Add a Streaks complication to your watch face, or use the Smart Stack, to see what's left for today at a glance.

Reminders

By default, Streaks learns when you usually complete a task and reminds you around then if it isn't done. You can choose specific times instead, such as mid-morning and mid-afternoon. See Automatic Times. Reminders only arrive if you still have water to drink.

Widgets

A Streaks widget on your Home Screen shows your progress, and you can tap it to log a glass without opening the app.

If you're not reaching your goal

  • Lower it for a couple of weeks, then raise it again once it's easy.
  • Look at when you're missing. If evenings are empty, add a reminder for 6pm.
  • Check the glass size. If you drink from a 500 ml bottle, log it as two glasses.
  • Make water the default with meals, instead of something else.

Related help

More guides

Streaks is a habit tracker for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac and Apple Vision Pro. A one-time purchase, with no subscription.

Download on the App Store