Want to highlight a helpful answer? Upvote!

Did someone help you, or did an answer or User Tip resolve your issue? Upvote by selecting the upvote arrow. Your feedback helps others! Learn more about when to upvote >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

How do I change how often my 2023 apple ultra watch checks my heart rate?

How do I change how often my 2023 Apple Ultra Watch (just purchased this month) checks my heart rate? I upgraded from a Garmin Instinct watch that checks it every few seconds and continously displays it on the watch face. I assumed an Apple Ultra Watch would be able to do at least that much, but instead it only tells me it checked it several minutes ago, which is not good enough.


I'm starting to regret buying it. Given the price tag it should certainly be able to do something a much less expensive watch from two years ago can do. If there is a significant battery drain issue, fine, I'm used to recharging my watch every evening.

Apple Watch Ultra

Posted on Aug 3, 2023 12:08 PM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Aug 3, 2023 6:45 PM

When you use the Workout app, Apple Watch measures your heart rate continuously during the workout and for 3 minutes after the workout ends to determine a workout recovery rate. If you don't see your heart rate, check your settings. In addition, Apple Watch measures your heart rate throughout the day when you’re still, and periodically when you’re walking. Since Apple Watch takes these background readings based on your activity, the time between these measurements will vary. For more info, see the 'When Apple Watch measures your heart rate' section in:

Monitor your heart rate with Apple Watch - Apple Support


You might also want to see:

Heart health notifications on your Apple Watch - Apple Support


8 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Aug 3, 2023 6:45 PM in response to dvwlmn

When you use the Workout app, Apple Watch measures your heart rate continuously during the workout and for 3 minutes after the workout ends to determine a workout recovery rate. If you don't see your heart rate, check your settings. In addition, Apple Watch measures your heart rate throughout the day when you’re still, and periodically when you’re walking. Since Apple Watch takes these background readings based on your activity, the time between these measurements will vary. For more info, see the 'When Apple Watch measures your heart rate' section in:

Monitor your heart rate with Apple Watch - Apple Support


You might also want to see:

Heart health notifications on your Apple Watch - Apple Support


Aug 3, 2023 3:06 PM in response to LD150

Let me give you a use case so you understand this better: while cycling I come to a short steep slope and want to monitor how much strain it puts on my heart as I ascend it, which my doctor has asked me to monitor, since I'm 60 and working on my cardiovascular conditioning. It doesn't do me any good to know what my heart rate was 5 minutes ago when I was still at the bottom of the slope or after I'm already on level ground again. It regularly shows me my heat rate 5 minutes ago or even 9 minutes ago, rarely 2 minutes ago. Does it even record what the heart rate was between 2 minute checks, or even 5 minute ones so I can access them later? And again, if other sport watches from years ago, which also have dozens of features, can give continuous readings (obviously many think that's useful since they do that), then the much more expensive Ultra should be able to as well. So assuming you are correct about this, it's time to return it.

Aug 3, 2023 4:16 PM in response to dvwlmn

One additional thing to consider: even a healthy heart beats 60 times a minute (resting) to 120 times a minute (heavy exertion). So if the watch is only measuring the heartbeat every two minutes at best, or even producing an average every two minutes, that misses or obscures so many data points that no one who thought about it would think that was useful data.

I've used Apple products since the days of Mac SE's in the mid-80's, and generally liked them, but I know that their biggest failing is not delivering on basic functionality everyone else has, then stubbornly insisting they are getting it right, even when told for years by everyone that they aren't (think blu-ray).

How do I change how often my 2023 apple ultra watch checks my heart rate?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.