By Orion Voss

Updated 2026-09-11

Garmin + Apple Health: See Your Garmin Heart Rate Against Your Calendar

70 BPM does not measure heart rate; it reads what Garmin Connect has already written into Apple Health and lines it up with your calendar. So the useful question for Garmin owners is not “is it compatible” but “what exactly does Garmin Connect send, and how much of the day does it cover?” Everything below comes from Garmin’s own support documentation, linked where quoted.

What Garmin Connect writes to Apple Health

The heart-rate line on Garmin’s official page reads, verbatim: “Garmin syncs all-day heart rate to Apple Health, but only sends high/low HR values for timed activities.” (Garmin Support: Sharing Your Garmin Connect Data With Apple Health).

The full export list on that page:

• Heart Rate (all-day; timed activities send only high/low values)
• Resting Energy
• Active Energy
• Steps
• Sleep Analysis
• Workouts (activities uploaded to Garmin Connect, without GPS track)
• Walking + Running Distance
• Flights Climbed
• Weight, Body Fat Percentage, BMI
• Water

The question that decides everything: does it cover the whole day?

Full-day heart rate: yes. Because Garmin writes all-day samples, 70 BPM’s day chart fills across the whole day — commute, meetings, evening — not just your workouts. This is the best case for a calendar overlay.

How to connect Garmin Connect to Apple Health

From the Garmin Connect app (the route Garmin documents if you declined sharing at first):

1. Open the Garmin Connect app.
2. Select More, then Settings.
3. Select Connect Apps.
4. Select Apple Health under “Available Apps”.
5. Select Connect with Apple Health.
6. Select the items Garmin Connect can access, then Allow.

You can also toggle categories from the Apple Health app: Summary › your profile picture › Apps and Services › Connect.

Once connected, open 70 BPM, grant it Apple Health read access for heart rate, and the samples Garmin Connect has written appear on the day chart against your calendar events. 70 BPM shows every heart-rate sample in Apple Health, whichever device wrote it — it never filters by brand.

If Garmin data is not showing up

The first day looks sparse

Garmin’s page states the Health app imports past data going back up to two weeks after you enable sharing. Everything before that stays in Garmin Connect only.

Garmin Connect has to be open

Verbatim from Garmin: “Garmin Connect must be open in the foreground to send data to Apple Health. If closed, the transfer pauses and completes only on the next sync performed while the app is open.” If your 70 BPM chart stops at yesterday, open Garmin Connect and let it sync.

Another source may be outranking it

Apple Health only shows data from the highest-priority source for each type. If Garmin data is not appearing, Garmin says to raise Garmin Connect in Data Sources & Access for Heart Rate.

Workout graphs look thin in Apple’s Fitness app

That is by design — timed activities send only high/low values. It does not affect the all-day samples 70 BPM reads.

How to check what you are actually getting

Open Apple Health › Browse › Heart › Heart Rate and switch to the day view. Readings scattered across an ordinary day mean all-day samples are arriving; readings clustered only into workout blocks mean you are getting session data only. Under the same screen, Data Sources & Access shows which app is writing. This check reflects your actual device, firmware and settings, and beats any compatibility page — including this one.

For how Garmin compares with other watches and rings, see Which smartwatches work with Apple Health.

This article reflects Garmin’s published documentation as read in September 2026. Sync behaviour changes; check the linked support page before relying on it. 70 BPM is not a medical device and does not diagnose anything.

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