Best Walking App - Readers' Choice Awards 2013

Give your walking a purpose (and your running and biking, too). Open up this free app (iOS or Google Play) and choose a charity. Then go, and your miles equate to money (25 cents per walking or running mile, 10 cents for bike miles) for your chosen charity. Along the way, you can view your exercise time and miles. When done, you must post to Facebook or Twitter in order to accept sponsorship and earn money for your charity. You also get an email with your route so you can view it on Google Earth. As one nominator said, "With every step you take, you're making the world a better place! And it's at no cost to you!"

Endomondo works with a big variety of phone and device operating systems, including iOS and Android. It tracks your outdoor exercise duration, speed and distance via GPS. You can view your route map, set goals, and connect with Endomondo friends. There are also upgrades available to include a step counter, graphs, interval training, and competing with yourself. It is also often integrated into the apps for computer-linked and app-linked pedometers such as Fitbit.

This iPhone app uses GPS to measure the distance of your walks and hikes. It includes a voice so you can hear replies from Facebook and Twitter to your workout posts while you walk, which can be very motivating. It maps your walk and you can view time, speed, distance and pace as you walk. Nominators say: "Wide range of effective functions, accuracy, tracking progress and ability to publish to social media, email etc."
"The app does far more than track walks it includes full training plans so you can move from walking to running your first 5K, 10K, half or full marathon. It's more accurate than other apps and is very easy to use."

MapMyFitness has apps for many activities, including walking. They are available for iOS, Android and Blackberry, in both free and paid versions. All of them allow you to map and measure your route, see your speed and calories burned, and save and share your routes. By paying for the "+" version, you can geotag photos to add to your routes. You can also integrate a heart-rate monitor with an ANT+ dongle. One nominator said, "Amazing way to keep motivated by tracking during work out, distance, speed, etc. Also great way to track routes with computer backup."

Come see more categories for walking shoes, pedometers, treadmills, poles, marathon, half-marathon and walking tours.