Back at the end of November, I discovered a competition being run by Google to help promote Google Fit. At the time I was looking for a side project, and had just discovered the Fit app on my phone, so it looked like a good opportunity to play around with something.

Until I lost it, I used a Fitbit One to track my steps. I found that I’d easily hit seven or eight thousand steps but getting to ten thousand was tricky. I also realised that often I would sit at my desk at work for hours at a time and not move at all.

Knowing that I typically bite off more than I can chew with my “just for fun projects” I decided to keep it simple. An app that prompted me to go for a walk when I’d been sitting still too long would be helpful in fixing both those problems. Move It! was born.

I submitted my app on February 11th, a few days before the closing date, then promptly forgot about it. After all, it’s too simple an app to win anything…

Well, turns out I was wrong. I got an email with some feedback (I’d messed up the sign-up process) in early March and notification that I was at least a runner-up at the end of the month. Then, on the 15th, I got a surprise email in my inbox. I was a grand prize winner!

The announcement was made on the Google Developers Blog on Wednesday, and Move It! has gone from 26 installs (my friends and family) to 539 installs in just 5 days. I’ve no idea how many people will install it when Google promote it on the Play Store. I only hope some of them find it useful.

Now all I have to do is dispose of these fitness trackers they sent me.