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Heart rate complication fail

Benz63amg

Benz63amg

macrumors 601
Original poster
Oct 17, 2010
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So the official heart rate complication in watchOS 3 from Apple does not show any numbers next to the heart icon and I wonder why they decided not to include an actual number reading into the complication that shows your last heart rate reading at a glance, I mean the heart rate complication is sort of useless in its current form
 
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I use cardiogram myself. Not sure if you're looking for something better but I thought I'd mention it. In not really sure the data really matters there either. It's just a reading every ten minutes, I believe. Unsure if that does me any good lol.
 
Benz63amg said:
So the official heart rate complication in watchOS 3 from Apple does not show any numbers next to the heart icon and I wonder why they decided not to include an actual number reading into the complication that shows your last heart rate reading at a glance, I mean the heart rate complication is sort of useless in its current form
Click to expand...

You're right, it's acts more like a quick launch icon
 
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S
exxxviii said:
Yep, totally useless. Garmin's HR complication shows HR. Fitbit shows HR. What was Apple thinking???
Click to expand...

Seriously. Doesn't make any sense. The third party HeartWatch app actually shows a nice icon in their complication with a number of the last recorded heartrate recorded next to the icon but it requires having background app refresh enabled which I don't like for battery saving purposes, the stock Apple heart complication on the other hand would not require background app refresh just like the stock weather complication works beautifully and updates information on the Watch face even when I have background app refresh entirely disabled on my iPhone.

I'm still using the HeartWatch complication on my Apple Watch SS 42mm Series 2 instead of the stock apple heart rate complication because at least it displays the last heart rate reading in the complication and even though it doesn't update automatically because I have background app refresh , a simple tap on the complication to open the HearWatch App and then existing out by clicking the Digital Crown manually updates the number on the complication to the latest heartrate reading
 
Benz63amg said:
S


Seriously. Doesn't make any sense. The third party HeartWatch app actually shows a nice icon in their complication with a number of the last recorded heartrate recorded next to the icon but it requires having background app refresh enabled which I don't like for battery saving purposes, the stock Apple heart complication on the other hand would not require background app refresh just like the stock weather complication works beautifully and updates information on the Watch face even when I have background app refresh entirely disabled on my iPhone.

I'm still using the HeartWatch complication on my Apple Watch SS 42mm Series 2 instead of the stock apple heart rate complication because at least it displays the last heart rate reading in the complication and even though it doesn't update automatically because I have background app refresh , a simple tap on the complication to open the HearWatch App and then existing out by clicking the Digital Crown manually updates the number on the complication to the latest heartrate reading
Click to expand...

Frustratingly, even with background app refresh turned on, the complications for both heartwatch and cardiogram are very inconsistent about when they refresh. They certainly do not refresh every 15 minutes as their documentation suggests. I hope this gets resolved.
 
protobiont said:
Frustratingly, even with background app refresh turned on, the complications for both heartwatch and cardiogram are very inconsistent about when they refresh. They certainly do not refresh every 15 minutes as their documentation suggests. I hope this gets resolved.
Click to expand...

Absolutely agree
 
It's like Apple built this really awesome fitness and activity technology platform, but stopped the software work just before they got it done. Everything seems to fall a little bit short compared to the market.
 
exxxviii said:
It's like Apple built this really awesome fitness and activity technology platform, but stopped the software work just before they got it done. Everything seems to fall a little bit short compared to the market.
Click to expand...
They really need to step it up softwar wise because hardware wise the Apple Watch series 2 is definitely capable of much more than it currently offfers
 
Hard to under stand when devices as cheap as a FitBit Charge 2 maintains your HR the whole time you wear it. Wondering if battery capacity is that bad they can not have the green lights stay on all the time.
 
Newtons Apple said:
Hard to under stand when devices as cheap as a FitBit Charge 2 maintains your HR the whole time you wear it. Wondering if battery capacity is that bad they can not have the green lights stay on all the time.
Click to expand...

Thats great that the fitbit constantly measures heart rate at all times but it doesn't have the beautiful high res OLED display of the apple watch that takes a great amount of battery to run so thats not a fair comparison, speaking of battery life, the apple watch series 2 has lasted me 2 and a half days so far on a single charge until i had to connect it back to the charger which is just incredible, on the Gen 0 apple watch i had i would get a day and a half till i had to charge the watch tops. So battery life is greatly improved in the series 2.
 
Benz63amg said:
Thats great that the fitbit constantly measures heart rate at all times but it doesn't have the beautiful high res OLED display of the apple watch that takes a great amount of battery to run so thats not a fair comparison, speaking of battery life, the apple watch series 2 has lasted me 2 and a half days so far on a single charge until i had to connect it back to the charger which is just incredible, on the Gen 0 apple watch i had i would get a day and a half till i had to charge the watch tops. So battery life is greatly improved in the series 2.
Click to expand...

If battery life is so good, and I have a series 2, why did Apple choose to only do the BP intermittently?

I understand the difference in the FitBit/Garmin and the Apple watch all too well. The Apple watch is a "casual" fitnerss device while the FitBit/Garmins are dedicated devices. Apple sounds like they will step up in the future and push the fitness/health stuff but at the same time so will it's competitors.
 
Badrottie said:
All Apple thinking is about making good money
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Agree to disagree. Apple makes some of the best products in the world as far as quality is concerned, Its just that WatchOS has potential for much more than it currently offers.
 
Benz63amg said:
S


Seriously. Doesn't make any sense. The third party HeartWatch app actually shows a nice icon in their complication with a number of the last recorded heartrate recorded next to the icon but it requires having background app refresh enabled which I don't like for battery saving purposes, the stock Apple heart complication on the other hand would not require background app refresh just like the stock weather complication works beautifully and updates information on the Watch face even when I have background app refresh entirely disabled on my iPhone.

I'm still using the HeartWatch complication on my Apple Watch SS 42mm Series 2 instead of the stock apple heart rate complication because at least it displays the last heart rate reading in the complication and even though it doesn't update automatically because I have background app refresh , a simple tap on the complication to open the HearWatch App and then existing out by clicking the Digital Crown manually updates the number on the complication to the latest heartrate reading
Click to expand...

just to clear this up..

read in documentation somewhere that even if background refresh is turned off - when using a complication, that app will refresh in the background regardless of the state of your settings.

it cannot just get that information using 'magic'.
 
RWil85 said:
just to clear this up..

read in documentation somewhere that even if background refresh is turned off - when using a complication, that app will refresh in the background regardless of the state of your settings.

it cannot just get that information using 'magic'.
Click to expand...

Not true, the heartwatch complication doesn't refresh data for me automatically on the Watch face and I'm pretty sure it's because I have background app refresh disabled
 
It seems that more than a year later Apple's Heart Rate complication STILL serves merely as a shortcut to launch the Heart Rate app on those watch faces where there are 4 possible complications to add.

Apparently it will only display the heart rate in those watch faces where you have 3 complications and you can select Heart Rate to be displayed at the bottom (e.g. Utility, Motion, Timelapse, Nike+ Digital/Analog). I really don't understand why they won't display the heart rate on other watch faces, as Cardiogram, for example, does.

However, I noticed Cardiogram complication's readings still seem to lag behind Apple's own heart rate complications even in the latest version. (I think someone mentioned this issue above.)

Is HeartWatch any better now in terms of providing the latest heart rate readings on the watch face?
 
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