I’m curious about HR monitor advice from this group. I have been wearing a whoop for about 4 years, my favorite aspect of it is actually the fact I have a broadcasting HR all the time so I don’t have to worry about a chest strap but I’m kinda over the whoop.
Anyone have any good Apple Watch apps or another solutions for convenience? I almost always have an Apple Watch on but worry about battery life.
Thanks!!
Optical/wrist HR I find is pretty unreliable data. Pretty sure they are no good for HRV either. Why do you want 24/7 HR?
I have played around with a Whoop in the past for about a year, and I found that the HR data was typically very close to my chest strap. The one difference that I found is that it could be slower to respond to drastic changes. For instance, during harder intervals, it might take the Whoop 5+ seconds to read what the chest strap was reading, but then the numbers were really close (within 1-2 BPM).
Like you, @Mikeferguson1980, I also liked the ease of always having an HRM on for spontaneous activities. If I wanted to go for a run, ride, etc., the data was always there, and the battery was always charged.
How accurate any of these HRMs are is debatable, and using them 24/7 for things such as HRV might not always be the most accurate, but the trends are still likely to show, which is what you have to watch when using these (always with a grain of salt).
The price of Whoop was a bit annoying, which is ultimately why I left. I also started to get annoyed with wearing it all the time. For the cost, I imagine I could pick up a decent running watch to wear when I’d like, that would provide a lot more functionality.
To answer your question though, no Apple watch here so I’m not sure of any apps – sorry! 
I find my Garmin 245 pretty accurate v chest strap, except for hard efforts on the bike (whatever way I move my wrist when under effort on the hoods!). I don’t really bother with the chest strap for anything other than the bike now.
I just want one less thing to forget or think of jumping on the trainer or going for a ride
Thanks! I am annoyed with the Whoop price too, and I would switch to back to a garmin watch but the Apple Watch is so useful for everything else.
I appreciate the thoughts!
Thanks and agree, I’m not that worried about precision, I’d rather have 90% right data all the time rather than no perfect data because I forgot my strap again
I’ve been very happy with my Garmin fenix 7x wrist based heart rate monitor. Most of the time on rides outside my watch is damn near identical to what my chest strap is reading on my head unit.
It’s not perfect but it’s accurate enough for everyday use IMO.
What are you looking to do? I’ve got an Apple Watch and a short list of apps, for some specific reasons. Wanted to understand what you are looking to accomplish with Watch and potentially some apps.
Do you just worry about battery life or is battery life an actual issue? The advantage of the Apple Watch is that there is a plethora of apps that probe into that sort of thing, in addition to what Apple offers itself. @dcrainmaker gives it great marks on HR accuracy since at least version 4 overall. I don’t think you want to wear a chest strap 24/7 anyways, so I don’t think you have much choice.
Before we can give you more recommendations, what do you want to do with the data? Apple Health will periodically collect HR data, for example. If you want HR variability, there are apps for that, too.
I used to have a fénix (3HR I think) and I loved it! But the Apple Watch just does so well for all of the other features, if they made a fénix with ATT connectivity I would probably go that route!
Thanks! I’m trying to connect to things like TrainerRoad, Zwift, treadmill, bike computers……I tried an app called HeartCast this morning but I think it needs the phone running and I’m not sure about battery life.
If I could find a watch only broadcast app that didn’t kill the battery that would be awesome!
I’m not sure if there is a battery life issue, so it’s just a worry for now. If there is a good hr broadcast app, the Apple Watch ultra might also be a way to address battery life.
I’m really just looking for the HR data to be broadcast to bike computers, TrainerRoad, etc
Thanks!
Haven’t tried any HR broadcasting apps, can’t help with that. Not what you want… however I’ll mention the next big AW update will allow recording power/cadence/etc from Bluetooth devices.
That’s an interesting point, and I knew that was coming but I guess that would give me the option to record on the watch and ignore the data recorded on say a bike computer during a ride.
I wish they would add ANT to the Apple Watch but that’s unlikely.
Do you just wear a HR strap on the bike then?
Grocery store bike I just use Apple Watch and no sensors.
Road bike I’ve got a Garmin 840, power meter, chest strap, etc. This is the same setup indoor or outdoor.