Applications That Allow You to Monitor Your Heart Rate
You don't need a heart rate monitor or smartwatch to measure your pulse. Here are the apps that can do this with your phone.
Several apps can use a smartphone's camera to measure your heart pressure without needing to use a heart rate monitor or other accessory. Here's how it works, as well as three apps we recommend.
How do apps that measure heart rate work?
Like the heart pressure monitors built into most fitness accessories, mobile apps can measure heart pressure by detecting changes in blood volume below the surface of the skin.
A practice called photoplethysmography.
Each time the heart beats, the amount of blood reaching the capillaries in the fingers and face increases and then decreases.
Because blood absorbs light, apps are able to capture this ebb and flow by using your phone's camera flash to illuminate the skin and create a reflection.
How accurate are heart rate apps?
While photoplethysmography is a proven practice, not all heart rate tracking apps are created equal.
When the researchers compared four of them to clinical reference measurements (ECG and fingertip pulse oximetry), they found that the heart rate readings generated by the apps were off by more than 20 beats per minute in more than 20% of the measurements.
On the other hand, the fact that heart pressure apps don't always work as well as clinical-grade equipment isn't too surprising.
In fact, most, if not all, warn against medical use. But even among the apps, there are some good ones and some not so good ones.
According to the study, apps that ask you to put your finger on your phone's camera tend to be more accurate than those that just ask you to hold the camera to your face.
Conclusion: reading heart rate using a mobile application must be done with due caution.
But if you're just looking for an overview of your heart rate over time, it's hard to beat the convenience of smartphone apps.
So here's our pick of the three-finger swipe heart rate apps we picked.
Cardio (iOS) – Heart Rate Monitor
Based on technology licensed from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cardio measures your heart rate in less than 15 seconds.
However, if you need a reminder to take your pulse, turn on the built-in alert and set it to daily, weekly, or monthly.
Finally, the basic version of Cardio is completely free. Paid options are offered by the piece or with a monthly subscription for the pro version. The app is available for iOS and syncs with Apple Health.
Heart rate monitor (Android and iOS)
This app is a favorite of researchers (it was even used in the study mentioned above).
Like Cardio, this heart rate monitor is free, but has a series of paid options that offer goal-based health programs, a food diary, healthy recipes, challenges to complete, manual sleep monitoring...
Heart Rate Monitor is available for Android and iOS and syncs with Apple Health and Google Fit.
Cardiograph Classic (Android & IOS)
With Cardiograph Classic, you can measure your pulse while resting or moving and report it to the app.
However, the app syncs with Apple Health and Android Wear. There is even a native version for the Apple Watch.
Then the heart rate monitoring app is available on Android and iOS devices.
You will be able to choose your current activity such as extreme training, rest or cardio so that you can get the most accurate detection of your heart rate when using this app.
Finally, the auto stop feature automatically detects your pulse as soon as it gets a reading. The Cardiograph Classic app works great when doing cardio at home.
Instant Heart Rate
The Instant Heart Rate app has clear instructions on how to use the app so you can track your heart rate. By placing your finger on the camera lens, you can start detecting your heart rate.
However, the statistics will be shown immediately after finishing the process of detecting your heart rate.
Then, with the gender and age details, they can better calibrate their beats from minute to minute.
Finally, whether you want to manage your stress or live a healthier lifestyle, this app will show you how your heart is evolving so you can achieve your goals.
Finally, you can get access to a lot of other things in its paid version: goal-based health programs like “Lose Weight” and “Get Active,” a food log, healthy recipes, step challenges, manual sleep tracking, and a lot more. Syncs with Apple Health and Google Fit.
English (UK) 
Portuguese (Brazil) 
English (United States) 
Arabic 
German 
Spanish (Mexico) 
French 
Italian 
Chinese 
Japanese 
Panjabi 
Korean 
Hindi 
Turkish 
Romanian 
Bengali 
Indonesian 
Portuguese (Angola) 
Hungarian 
Spanish (Spain) 
Norwegian 
Norwegian 
English (New Zealand) 
English (Australia) 
Portuguese (Portugal) 
Dutch (Belgium) 
Greek 
Finnish 
Spanish (Colombia) 
Bulgarian 
Dutch
0 Comments