The “smartphone” term was coined to better define the advantage of the functionality of modern cell phones compared to old-school button devices. Indeed, due to the continuous improvement in both the design and microprocessors, the cell phone ceased to be a simple medium of communication, instead of becoming an apparatus that could help an individual in almost any task – provided he knows what and how exactly he wants.
And should the individual want a phone to help him with his health – give precise metrics regarding body status, provide accurate recommendations and conclusive advice – it can be done, as well. For example, to evaluate your cardiovascular system – definitely, the most vital system in your body – a simple heart rate app can be pretty useful. Such a heart rate monitor app will not, of course, be a complete replacement for your qualified physicians, but can provide great insight into your body nonetheless.
To assess and measure heart rate, the app calculates the novel metric called “Heart rate variability”. Heart rate variability indicates the variance between each heart beat-to-beat interval, which is caused by the battling influences of parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems.
However, for an app to check heart rate, it needs a heart rate variability measurement device – a heart rate variability monitor, that is. Furthermore, sophisticated algorithms are required to provide the best results – and the user-friendly interface is a necessity in its own right, as well. So, how to find the best heart rate variability app and gather the most perfect results? Find out below.
How to measure heart rate variability?
Heart rate variability is not a modern concept, per se – it was developed back in the middle of the previous century to estimate the bodily limits of professional athletes, army jet pilots, and astronauts. Back then, however, it was only possible to derive hrv data manually, extracting heart variability from the analog electrocardiographs – and then completing all the statistical calculations manually, as well! This can still be done today but is irrational due to ridiculous resource-intensiveness.
The contemporary rational approach is to use specific on-body monitoring devices to gather cardiovascular data in conjunction with the fitness app that is able to decipher it and provide guidance with the help of corresponding algorithms.
Therefore, to start using heart rate variability to improve your lifestyle, you firstly need to get some kind of heart tracker that will record your heart rate in real time. There are several choices on how to do so:
Smartphone camera
It is safe to assume that everyone reading these lines owns a smartphone and a modern one at that. Its camera, though not always ideal, can be used to record your heartbeats in a very clever way: with the help of corresponding software from the HRV biofeedback app, the camera can catch small differences in the finger’s skin shades during every heart cycle (momentarily after a heartbeat, the skin saturates with fresh arterial blood and becomes slightly redder) and consequently convert this information into heart rate data.
Considering that this method is de facto free, it serves as a great proof-of-concept and the door into the technology, so that everyone can try incorporating heart rate variability into their daily lives for free. The disadvantage lies in the inherent inaccuracy and unreliability of this method – after all, the quality of the data depends on many factors like camera resolution and ambient light.
Fitness watch
Fitness- and smartwatches that are casually able to record a user’s heart rate are not so uncommon nowadays. All of them operate with the same technology in order to determine the heart contraction: they send rays of green light (tens of times a second) and collect their reflections back. Quantifying how much light exactly got absorbed – and how much got reflected – the software evaluates the saturation of the skin with blood and, naturally, the phase of the heart cycle.
The fitness-watches are great all-rounders: they provide decent accuracy, are budget-friendly, and convenient. As is known though, the jacks-of-all-trades come with the glaring downside – while they are able to do anything, they have nowhere to excel.
Electrical heart trackers
These advanced devices process the heart data by registering the changes in the electrical potential of heart muscles. In this sense, they operate on the same basis as the conventional electrocardiographs – while excelling on the practicality, since they do not require the test subject to lie still for a good several minutes and can be used during exercise or any other activity without the loss of functionality.
Since they use the objective heart-related metric, they are the most accurate and can only be fooled by the strong electromagnetic disturbances, which certainly doesn’t occur in the routine. They can not in any way be considered inconvenient, but still lose in this regard to fitness watches. Their main disadvantage is a price point – they are even more expensive than fitness watches while being a specialized device with narrow functions. Still, electrical heart trackers are apex predators for those wanting to take their health seriously, even though they require a small investment.
Features of the Welltory app
After selecting the heart rate monitor device to gather HRV recordings, you will still need to decide on the health-tracking app to process HRV data and conduct HRV analysis. There is a myriad of them on the market, but the differences are not so severe, with a lot of apps just being a design restyling of each other with no functional diversity (after all, the mathematical-statistical algorithms to solve HRV are often freely available).
There is, however, one app with both the unique features aplenty and the perfect user-friendly design cues – it is called Welltory. Welltory’s basic features include, but are not limited to:
- Full availability and compatibility with Android and iOS operating systems, both modern and legacy versions;
- Support for and compatibility with Bluetooth sensors that support R-R(myocard to myocard) intervals, like Polar H10;
- A special readiness measurement mode for those who want to assess their fitness status changes in daily readiness (like pro athletes).
- Custom measurement mode (which allows to collect and assess results from various algorithms and sensors like ECG, PPG, or RR/IBI) for scientists in sports medicine, professional athletes, and other researchers;
- Detailed HRV analysis, including the breakdown of the influences and statuses of both the parasympathetic and sympathetic branches of the autonomic nervous system;
- Auto accurate beat correction;
- Additional functionality for a team and team manager/coach;
Welltory’s basic conclusions are presented in the form of the submenus of Performance, Energy, and Stress. The Performance shows your overall HRV stats, Energy denotes the status of the parasympathetic nervous system, Stress – the status of the sympathetic nervous system. These submenus are cleanly organized and are pretty easy to get used to, not even mentioning their perfect usability. Additionally, Welltory provides the built-in functionality of using smartphone cameras to collect heart rate data. Coupling this with the fact that Welltory is free-to-use for most of its basic features nets you with a perfect first-try app that requires no money to be spent yet allows you to undergo a complete proof-of-concept of how the technology operates.
Advantages and disadvantages of the HRV app
With that in mind, let’s break down the overall advantages and disadvantages of the Welltory HRV app.
Pros of the Welltory HRV app
Free to use & no apps
It seems the developers of the Welltory are truly certain of how good their app actually is – they hadn’t even integrated the app monetization into free Welltory, believing that every user will be so enamored that he will gladly pay for the Premium version. Whatever the truth is, it is a net positive for consumers and makes Welltory incredibly convenient.
Designed by experts
Welltory’s devs had some experience in the field before venturing out on their own and creating Welltory, which partially explains the success of their product.
More than 33 stats
That much information is available on-demand – just at your fingertips, anytime a day. Not a lot of competitors can challenge that, either.
Amazing navigation
Welltory’s user interface shines in this one since it allows the user to freely and conveniently navigate between all the menus, statistics, conclusions, and settings while being trouble-free.
AI-enhanced accuracy
Sophisticated neural networks and self-improving AI work constantly in order to detect the glaring outlier flaws in gathered data and auto-correct it – just like your smartphone’s keyboard!
Suitable both for physical and mental health
Following Welltory’s advice, especially regarding sleep and stress management, you will inevitably notice improvement not only in physical health but also in mental status. You will be able to cope with stress more efficiently and determine which routines and actions are most stressful in order to avoid or rethink them.
Large userbase
Welltory is trusted by more than 3 million active, concurrent viewers. Naturally, they produce a ton of support, forum activity, and welltory-related advice that will ease your experience even further.
Cons of the Welltory HRV app
There truly is only one major disadvantage – Welltory includes features locked behind a hefty premium fee. However, considering the overall quality of the app and consumer-friendly business model, this can only be unacceptable to hardline open-sourcers.