Mobile Applications

Today the market is flooded with cheap fitness trackers, smart watches and other gadgets that offer many functions for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Pedometer, calorie counting, and so on. But the option of heart rate monitoring stands out, because the heart is one of the most important organs in our body. How to measure your heart rate and heart rate with an Android smartphone? And is it necessary to buy a special bracelet? Let’s find out.

On the one hand, you can do without additional devices. On the other hand, the accuracy in such a case will leave much to be desired. To do this, it is worth understanding how the technology for measuring heart rate on mobile devices works in general.

How do heart rate sensors measure heart rate?

Heart rate sensors installed in smart devices and fitness trackers use light. If you shine a flashlight on your arm, you’ll see light passing through your skin. Heart rate sensors also emit light that goes under the skin and is reflected by the blood vessels. Vascular fluctuations are picked up by the sensor and this signal is converted into a pulse rate.

In most cases, the pulse rate is equal to the heart rate, but there can be discrepancies in these readings for a number of conditions, which can indicate a health problem. So you should not rely on this technology completely.

Heart rate measurement on Android

There are many apps in the Google Play Store that will give you pretty good results in measuring your heart rate. For example, the Accurate Heart Rate Monitor app. It allows you to measure your heart rate using your smartphone’s camera and flash. The app supports Google Fit and can keep statistics. The app is not as fast as a fitness tracker, but it is very accurate.

To measure your heart rate using the app, install it on your phone and open it. The app will ask you for access to the camera so it can turn on the flashlight and record the data. Once you give permission, as soon as you put your finger on the camera sensor, the program will begin its work.

On the other hand, specialized fitness trackers, though they work on the same principle, stay on your wrist much longer than you keep your finger on the smartphone camera. This means that the amount of data you receive is more complete. In addition, many trackers and watches are equipped with a warning function, if suddenly your heart rate drops or rises above a certain point. Achieving the same effect in monitoring with a smartphone camera is not so easy. So if accuracy is important to you, a highly specialized device is your choice. Otherwise, you can get by with an ordinary camera with flash.