HeartWatch: Monitor Heart Rate 4+

I have myalgic encephalitis (ME/CFS) and finally decided to get an Apple Watch to manage my crashes and hopefully avoid them. At first I was disappointed by the limited functionality of the default Apple health app that showed my stats and couldn’t set a notifications for high heart rate when I was moving around (Apple default setup only allows this if you’ve been inactive for 10 mins - so it’s of almost no use for people like me who have to monitor a high heart rate at all times, including when I’m moving around). Anyway I googled for help (surely apple couldn’t have been so short sighted, right?!) and even an Apple expert recommended this app. I tried it and it’s the single best thing that makes my Apple Watch extraordinary useful. For those who aren’t sick, this app is still incredible, maybe even more so because you can take advantage of all the other stats it offers for physical activity and wellness. The amount of data you can see, track and download is truly extraordinary.

Kudos to the developer for a thoughtful, big data app that can change your life. I can’t thank you enough for what you produced.

And shame on Apple for not offering more functionality in their default apps.

Amazing! Thank you so much for a fantastic review, we are extremely happy to hear that HeartWatch is helping so much with your heart monitoring. Wishing you all the best.

I contracted COVID in March when there was no medical support. This app is great for long haulers like me who have to treat themselves and even for ones who are getting some medical support. One of my biggest problems was/is my heart so I bought an Apple Watch in July to help monitor my heart rate. This app has been key to helping me manage my POTS symptoms. It helps me monitor trends and has allowed me to create my own physical therapy. One thing I love is the ability to write notes so I can go back to see what I was or wasn’t doing when I notice an improvement or decline in my health.
It has definitely helped me manage my POTS. The only thing I wish it did, which would be key to helping people with POTS, is to have an alarm when heart rate gets too high while “exercising”. My heart rate can easily jump over a hundred opening a door or washing a dish. In order to help my heart, I need to lay down immediately when this happens but I don’t always notice it. I have to set my watch to ‘other exercise’ in order to monitor my heart rate while doing everyday things. It would be super helpful to have an alarm when it gets over a specified rate so I know to immediately lay down. Currently, i have to constantly be staring at my watch. With COVID cases on the rise there will be more and more people diagnosed with POTS who could benefit from that feature.

Hi, thanks for sharing an amazing review. You can set workout haptic alerts for your heart rate while exercising directly from your Watch when in the workouts. So we can assist more and provide you with some instructions, please send an email to [email protected] or via the support link in the app. Look forward to hearing from you.

As someone with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, this app is hugely helpful in monitoring my heart rate. The analytics monitor daily activity, provide alerts for when my BPM jumps a significant amount (for example, I recently received an alert when the app noticed my heart rate rose 30 BPM while stationary), and provide 21day trends.
In addition to benefits in monitoring health concerns, this app is also great in providing insight to exercise trends. I especially like the Workout Summary which, in many ways is more helpful than Apple Health, GoogleFit, or Apple Watch Activity apps because it provides information about your common workout types (for example, in the last 6 weeks, 18% of my workouts have been yoga, 24% have been outdoor walks, etc) and specifies exactly what’s happening in your body through each workout (for example, based on my heart rate and existing health data, HeartWatch was able to tell me that during my last 15 min workout, 2 min were warmup + 7 min were building fitness, 5 minutes were building fat, and the rest was high intensity).
Overall, great information if you’re someone who wants to monitor trends in your health or is conscious/curious about your overall fitness. Well worth the purchase!

Thanks for the great review, fantastic to hear that you are enjoying HeartWatch.