Ionic 7 + Cordova step counter / pedometer (Ionic Health?)

[AdemDemirFE]

Hi Guys,
I want to implement a pedometer (step counter) in an Ionic 7 + Cordova project.
I found these plugins:

• cordova-plugin-pedometer

• cordova-plugin-stepcounter

Are they still working?
Is anyone using them in production?
Is there a stable and up-to-date solution for both Android and iOS?

Also, is using Ionic Health / HealthKit / Google Fit integration a better approach for step counting in Ionic?

Any guidance is appreciated. Thanks.

[twestrick]

Just for clarification, this forum is for Ionic and Capacitor and I think there are very few people using Cordova still here.

Those are 3rd party plugins so your best bet would be to look at the repos.

• GitHub - leecrossley/cordova-plugin-pedometer: Cordova / PhoneGap Core Motion Pedometer Plugin for Apache Cordova >= 3.0.0 - last commit was 11 years ago so I doubt it is going to work
• GitHub - rn0x/cordova-plugin-stepcounter: The Cordova StepCounter Plugin allows you to track steps using the device's step counter sensor. It's designed for Android and can be easily integrated into your Cordova applications. - last commit was 2 years ago

If you switch to Capacitor, there is this plugin Pedometer Plugin for Capacitor - Capawesome

If you search here for “Google fit” there are some other posts about it.

[AdemDemirFE]

@AdemDemirFE

Migrating a plugin-heavy Cordova project to Capacitor would be extremely exhausting and risky for me. It’s basically a rebuild, not just a migration. If there’s no stable alternative, I’m leaning toward not using pedometer / health / healthkit features at all.

I’m already getting errors like:

[StepCounter] Error stack: Error: Health plugin is not installed or not available on this platform

If there’s no well-maintained, production-ready Cordova solution, then this turns into a migration + plugin rewrite effort, which isn’t sustainable for me right now. Dropping the feature seems like the most realistic option.

Migrating a plugin-heavy Cordova project to Capacitor would be extremely exhausting and risky for me. It’s basically a rebuild, not just a migration. If there’s no stable alternative, I’m leaning toward not using pedometer / health / healthkit features at all.

I’m already getting errors like:

[StepCounter] Error stack: Error: Health plugin is not installed or not available on this platform

If there’s no well-maintained, production-ready Cordova solution, then this turns into a migration + plugin rewrite effort, which isn’t sustainable for me right now. Dropping the feature seems like the most realistic option.

[AdemDemirFE]

I’m using an Ionic 7 + Cordova project with cordova-plugin-health.

What I found:

• cordova-plugin-pedometer → outdated, not usable

• cordova-plugin-stepcounter → Android-only, not reliable

What worked (partially):

I used Health plugin (Google Fit / HealthKit).

Needed Android config:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACTIVITY_RECOGNITION" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.health.READ_STEPS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.health.WRITE_STEPS" />

Also:

<queries>
    <package android:name="com.google.android.apps.healthdata" />
</queries>

Issues:

• Works only on real device

• Depends on Health Connect / HealthKit

• Some devices return no step data

• Got errors like:

Health plugin is not installed or not available

Conclusion:

No stable Cordova pedometer solution
Health plugin is the only option but not fully reliable