How all-day heart rate works on Apple Watch
Apple Watch measures heart rate in the background throughout the day, typically every few minutes when you are still, and continuously during workouts. It sends the readings to Apple Health on your iPhone. Garmin and Oura devices can sync all-day heart rate to Apple Health too; some other bands only sync workouts. See which smartwatches work with Apple Health.
What to look for in an all day heart rate app
- A readable day chart: zoom and scrub without squinting.
- Zones: low, normal and high at a glance.
- Context: what you were doing at each point.
- Privacy: ideally, no upload.
70 BPM: all day, with your calendar
70 BPM draws every heart-rate sample in Apple Health for the day, and lays your calendar events behind them. Scroll the day, zoom into a meeting, switch between bars and a line, and see zones at a glance. For important events, Focused Tracking starts an iPhone workout session so samples are denser during them.
Reading a whole day
| Time | Typical pattern |
|---|---|
| Waking | Low, rising as you get up |
| Commute | Up with walking, rushing or traffic |
| Meetings | Rises with speaking and pressure |
| Focus work | Usually steady and lower |
| Evening | Settles; may rise with exercise or late work |
Not medical advice. 70 BPM shows heart-rate data your watch has already written to Apple Health. It is not a medical device and cannot diagnose anything. If your heart rate is often high at rest, or you have chest pain, dizziness or breathlessness, talk to a doctor.