Developer Zach Simone has today unveiled a new iPhone and Apple Watch app that tracks heart rate without activating a traditional Workout. The app, called HeartMonitor, allows you to continuously track your heart rate during so-called “sessions” of activity, while the accompanying iPhone app makes that heart rate data easy to monitor…

Simone explains in his announcement blog post that many people were starting a dedicated watchOS Workout before a big event, such as public speaking, though he notes of two big problems with this strategy:

I had seen that people were starting a dedicate workout on their watch before an event where they wanted to measure heart rate, and then analyzing that data later. There are two problems with this: It will very likely add unwanted activity data to your activity rings. There is no decent way to view the data afterwards.

HeartMonitor, however, solves these problems by ensuring that sessions are almost never counted towards your Exercise ring and giving you a place to view the detailed heart rate data.

HeartMonitor is pretty simple to use. Once you download the app from the App Store, simply open it on your Apple Watch and choose the “Start” option to begin a session. From there, you are taken to an interface that resembles Apple’s Workout app, showing the time of the session, the current beats per minute, and the average beats per minute.

Then, via the accompanying iPhone app, you can see detailed data such as the range of your BPM, the length of the session, when your heart rate was at its highest and lowest, and more. Furthermore, you can name each session to easily track what events are the most intense.

HeartMonitor does a great job at making it easier to track your heart rate using Apple Watch and iPhone. furthermore, it’s nice to see a well thought out and functional Apple Watch application when so many others are biting the dust.

HeartMonitor is completely free in the App Store.

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