Display Heart-Rate in Large Text

[farmerabc]

When I am working out, what I want to see on my watch is my current heart-rate, in large text, taking up the whole screen, and nothing else.

I can do this with my current Garmin. Is there a way to achieve it with Apple Watch?

Thanks

(P.S. it doesn't have to be always-on screen. I don't mind flicking my wrist to see it.)

 

[Monkswhiskers]

This is my BIG issue with the sports display, come on Apple you’ve had years now to sort this out!

 

[telefono]

I’m happy with everything about the ULTRA except the fact we can’t customize the text size during workouts.

Why can’t we select as little as 1 row of text ?

Hopefully an update soon

 

[Jackbequickly]

I still find the flat screen on the Ultra to be much better than my Series 7. I wear glasses but not when working out and always had trouble reading things like heart rate and distance but not on the Ultra. I can read everything in the workout data screen on the Ultra.

 

[farmerabc]

To give more detail about my situation, I have never had an Apple Watch before and just bought a new SE 40mm (i.e. the smallest screen you can get). Apart from this I'm quite happy so far, but it's such an important thing to me that if I can't find a satisfactory way to do it, I will definitely be returning the watch.

What about third party apps? Can any of those give me what I'm asking for?

 

[Jackbequickly]

To give more detail about my situation, I have never had an Apple Watch before and just bought a new SE 40mm (i.e. the smallest screen you can get). Apart from this I'm quite happy so far, but it's such an important thing to me that if I can't find a satisfactory way to do it, I will definitely be returning the watch.

What about third party apps? Can any of those give me what I'm asking for?

I doubt it.

Good Luck, the Apple Watch is not for everyone.

 

[Howard2k]

Have you thought about a 44mm watch? It won’t give you full screen heart rate while working out but at least the heart rate will be larger.

 

[farmerabc]

Have you thought about a 44mm watch? It won’t give you full screen heart rate while working out but at least the heart rate will be larger.

Not really. The thing is, I'm totally happy with the 40mm size, and I prefer the look and feel on my wrist to that of my Garmin.

From what I've read, the Workout app has become significantly better in WatchOS 9, so maybe in future they'll add better customisation of stuff like this, and I can re-purchase then.

 

[Howard2k]

I wouldn't get my hopes up 😁
There is the "heart zone" feature. Did you try that? That won't display your heart rate the way you want, but it will alert you about where you are in term of intensity. Not what you're asking for but might solve your issue in a different way.

 

[farmerabc]

I wouldn't get my hopes up 😁
There is the "heart zone" feature. Did you try that? That won't display your heart rate the way you want, but it will alert you about where you are in term of intensity. Not what you're asking for but might solve your issue in a different way.

I'll have a look into that, thanks.

 

[Night Spring]

You'd think that the X-large watch face would display the heart rate in big letters. But no, it doesn't, at least in watchOS 8. (It does for sound level, so why it doesn't for heart rate? Grrrr.) Can't update to 9 yet until I get a new phone. I doubt they changed that, but just check on the off chance they did.

Most of the X-large complications just display a static icon, but the dynamic ones can be useful, so check them out.

 

[schlupps]

The App "Zones for Training" might be worth a look. klick

hope it fits your use case

(i dont use the app, so i have no idea, if the free version already is doing, what needed; or if the pro version is needed?!

 

[jwehman1]

Workoutdoors might also be helpful. You can customize just about everything...I seems like with 4 data fields, the top row being HR, this field is significantly larger than the other 3 fields.

And yes - OS 9 is frustrating in the "customize-ability" of the workout views. You can remove fields down to 1 on a screen, but it's SO STUPID that the fields all stay the same size. In other words, with 1 field only (say, HR)...the field is small-ish txt and is still hard to read. I agree...scaling to larger font to take up the screen size would make so much more sense.

 

[Night Spring]

And yes - OS 9 is frustrating in the "customize-ability" of the workout views. You can remove fields down to 1 on a screen, but it's SO STUPID that the fields all stay the same size. In other words, with 1 field only (say, HR)...the field is small-ish txt and is still hard to read. I agree...scaling to larger font to take up the screen size would make so much more sense.

Yes, it would make more sense, but it would mean more work for the design and coding teams. This is the kind of thing where I think Steve Jobs might have yelled at people and made them do the extra work. Apple does have a feedback form, so maybe if enough people suggested this feature, we might get this in a future update.

Feedback - Watch

Apple wants to hear from you. Send us your comments and feedback about Apple Watch.

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[farmerabc]

Just a final update to this thread. Thanks to everybody for the suggestions. The third-party apps recommended did actually meet my original requirement, but I ended up returning the watch anyway. Here are my reasons:

1. The need to flick my wrist and wait half a second to see my heart-rate annoyed me way more than I thought it would. I'm not sure if the always-on-display models would solve this problem or not.
2. I found the Apple Watch very unintuitive as a running watch. Perhaps it's just because I am used to the Garmin way, but to give an example: one day I somehow (still not sure how) managed to accidentally end my workout in the middle of it. In all the years I've been using Garmins I don't think I've done this once, yet in less than a week with the Apple Watch, I did it.
3. While I found the smartwatch features to be really cool, I ultimately didn't think they would improve my life in a meaningful way to justify paying money for an inferior running watch.

I'm pretty sure I'll take another look at Apple Watch at some point in the future, but the 2022 SE is definitely not for me.