Are the heart rate APPS reliable?

December 12, 2020, by Santiago Comment

The pulse, heart rate, or heartbeat per minute is one of the parameters that I personally check to determine if I am okay or something is irregular. For example, the pulse often increases when the internal body temperature (not the external one, which can be easily measured with a thermometer) has risen, something that can happen due to a disease or infection.

The “manual” way to measure your pulse is to feel the blood pumping on the wrist or on the side of the neck. You have to measure how many beats per minute in one of these areas, using a stopwatch. However, if you cannot find the area where you should feel your heart rate, you can use a heart rate monitor, which you can find in any pharmacy. The other option is to use a mobile app. The first question you will surely ask yourself will be if those mobile apps are exact.

Images above: Unique Heart Rate Monitor, Heart Rate Monitor Plus and Instant Heart Rate give me the same pulse value as my CONTEC pulse oximeter.

As you can see in the images above, the cell phone applications to measure the pulse or heart rate are as precise or exact as any heart rate monitor that you can buy in a drugstore. It is not surprising, since these apps, like heart rate meters, measure the color change in the finger to determine the heartbeat. The pulse meter uses a red or infrared light to illuminate the finger, while the apps use the camera flash and in both cases the result is practically the same.

The instructions for all apps to measure heart rate are similar.

There are many applications to measure the pulse on Android. If you have no idea which one to download, you can install the ones I used in my tests: Single heart rate monitor is the one that apparently best score has in Play Store, like Heart Rate Monitor (Link), followed by Pulseometer Plus (Link) e Instant Heart Rate (Link). If you have a high-end cell phone with sensor SPO2, there are more advanced apps like Pulsioxímetro (Link), which even have oximeter function (in order to measure oxygen saturation), a factor that appears to be important to suspect COVID 19.

The difference between the heart rate monitor, the mobile apps and the “manual” measurement that I indicated above is practically none. At least in the multiple tests that you carry out, if you measure your pulse under the same conditions with any of the three methods, you will get a practically the same result. So you do not need to buy a pharmacy heart rate monitor, (although it is more practical, comfortable and easy to use). You can use your cell phone to measure your pulse, which will give you exactly the same. In any case, you should learn to take the pulse on your wrist or neck with the help of a stopwatch, because it is likely that in some case you will not have a cell phone at hand.

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