Sharing Plans & Templates

If a friend uses Datum too, you can send them one or more of your Plans or Templates directly — no file wrangling, no accounts. This is different from Exporting & Importing Your Data, which backs up everything, including your workout history, as a .json file for your own use. Sharing sends only the Plan/Template structure itself, to someone else.

Datum sends this two ways, and picks automatically: as a link, if nothing in the share needs a custom exercise photo, or as a .datum file, if it does (there's no practical way to fit image data into a tappable link). A link opens straight into Datum's preview when tapped — no extra steps. A file opens through your Messages/Mail/Files app's own preview first, with an "Open in Datum" (or "Copy to Datum") option from there — an unavoidable extra tap for a file attachment, whichever app sent it.

Sending a whole Plan#

On the Train tab, tap ••• in the top-right corner, then Share a Plan. Pick the one you want from the list — Datum immediately opens the standard iOS share sheet with that Plan, including every Template inside it, ready to AirDrop, send in Messages or Mail, or save to Files.

Sending one or more Templates#

Open a Plan, then tap ••• in that screen's toolbar and choose Share Templates. Check off whichever of that Plan's Templates you want to send — one or several — then tap Share (n). Templates shared this way travel on their own, not bundled with the Plan they came from.

Receiving one#

A link (blue, tappable, shown with Datum's name and icon) opens straight into a preview when tapped: the incoming Plan/Template name(s) and their exercises, so you can see exactly what you're about to get before anything is actually added. A .datum file (AirDrop, a Messages or Mail attachment, or a file saved in Files) opens the same preview, but through an extra "Open in Datum" step first, since that's how file attachments work everywhere, not just in Datum. Either way, nothing changes in your library until you tap Import.

You can also reach this preview manually: in Settings, tap Import shared plan/template and pick a .datum file (this manual picker only works for the file-based kind).

Name conflicts#

If a Plan or Template's name matches something you already have, Datum suggests a numbered name — "Push Day" becomes "Push Day (2)" — right there in the preview, and you can edit it to whatever you'd rather call it before importing. Nothing is skipped or merged: two people's same-named Plan or Template are usually different things, not duplicates, so both are kept.

Missing exercises#

If the Plan or Template uses a custom exercise you don't already have, Datum recreates it for you — including its instructions and photo, and whether it's a time-based exercise, if the sender's copy had them, not just its name.

If one of those missing exercises looks like a likely duplicate of something you already have (a typo, different punctuation, or a plural — the same check used when you create a custom exercise by hand, see Exercise Library), the preview flags it under "Possible duplicate exercises" and lets you choose to use your existing one instead of recreating it — editable right there, never applied silently.

What's not included#

Sharing sends structure only: the Plan/Template and its target sets, reps, weight, and rest. It never includes workout history, body metrics, or nutrition data — nothing you've actually logged travels with it. For a full backup of everything in your account, see Exporting & Importing Your Data instead.