Best Heart Rate Monitor App for iPhone and Apple Watch

An iPhone has nothing in it that can feel a pulse, so every heart rate app on the App Store borrows a sensor from somewhere. Own no wearable, and that sensor is the camera: install Cardiio, because its listing promises unlimited readings in the free version. An Apple Watch already has a Heart Rate app of its own, and AirPods Pro 3 report to Apple’s Fitness app with nothing else installed.

Apple’s spec pages for the iPhone 17 and the iPhone 18 Pro list Face ID, a barometer, a gyro, an accelerometer, a proximity sensor and ambient light sensors, with a LiDAR scanner added on the Pro. A heart rate sensor is not among them.

A phone app is not a medical device, and it is no substitute for a doctor or a proper monitor. Most of the listings say so themselves, and Apple says the same about the iPhone and the Apple Watch.

Phone only: a fingertip on the camera

These apps have you hold a fingertip against the camera with the flash on, and count the small colour changes as blood moves through it. Prices here and below are from the US App Store and differ by country.

Cardiio’s listing is the clearest about what you get for nothing: unlimited heart rate readings, with daily, weekly and monthly trends, an export, and sync with Apple Health. You place a finger on the camera and wait a few seconds. Cardiio Pro adds extras such as pulse waveform analysis and a calorie-burn estimator, by the week at $6.99 or by the year at $39.99. Fifty-two weeks at the weekly price comes to $363.48, so if you want Pro at all, take the yearly one.

The Pro list also mentions blood pressure estimates and oxygen tracking. We would not pay for those. Apple lists no sensor in the iPhone for either, and Welltory’s listing says outright that it cannot measure blood pressure or other vital signs through a phone camera.

Instant Heart Rate, from Bodymatter, works the same way, detecting the colour change in the tip of your index finger each time the heart beats. It is free to download, with a Premium subscription at $9.99 a month or $59.99 a year, and the listing does not spell out which features stay free. Its advice for a clean reading is worth copying whichever app you use: cover the lens completely, press gently, and warm your hands first.

Cardiograph, from MacroPinch, is for people who would sooner pay once. It costs $1.99, with a single $0.99 in-app purchase and no subscription. It keeps a history of every measurement, exports one as a PDF and syncs with Apple Health. The older Cardiograph Classic is still sold at $0.99.

Runtastic Heart Rate, Qardio and MotionX 24/7 no longer turn up when you search the App Store.

With an Apple Watch on your wrist

The watch has its own Heart Rate app, and Apple says that once a watch is paired, periodic measurements are sent to Health automatically. Apple’s support page explains that its sensor flashes green LEDs against the wrist hundreds of times a second and reads how much light the blood absorbs. Extra apps are for charting those numbers or sending them somewhere else.

Heart Analyzer, from Helix Apps, puts charts on the phone: heart rate, resting heart rate and HRV from the Apple Watch data in Health. Its listing says no data leaves your device. You need an iPhone with a paired Apple Watch. It is free, with a Premium tier at $3.99 a month, $19.99 a year or $49.99 once.

BlueHeart, from Ubiquitly, works the other way round. It makes the Apple Watch and iPhone appear as a standard Bluetooth heart rate monitor, so a Peloton or a gym treadmill shows the watch’s reading as it would a chest strap’s. It is free with ads, and $9.99 removes them.

AirPods Pro 3 during a workout

These have in-ear heart rate sensors. Apple’s page on them says they measure heart rate continuously during a workout, with at least one AirPod in your ear, and that you can see it in the Fitness app, in Health and in supported third-party workout apps on the iPhone.

Chest straps and other sensors

Polar Beat goes with a Polar strap. It is Polar’s free training app, with nothing to buy. Live heart rate needs a Polar heart rate sensor. Without one it is a GPS workout log with voice guidance.

FITIV Pulse, from MotiFIT Fitness, suits any other strap. It is a workout tracker built around heart rate zones, free to download. It takes readings from the Apple Watch, AirPods Pro 3, Powerbeats Pro 2 and Bluetooth heart rate monitors from brands such as Polar, Scosche and COOSPO, and can broadcast your heart rate to Peloton and Zwift. FITIV Pro is $9.99 a month or $59.99 a year.

Kardia, from AliveCor, is a different thing again. It is the companion to the company’s KardiaMobile and KardiaBand devices, which its listing describes as FDA-cleared, and the app requires that hardware to record an EKG. Sleeptracker is on the App Store too, but its listing says it will not function without a Beautyrest or Tomorrow Sleeptracker monitor fitted to the bed.

Apps for heart rate variability

Apple’s support page describes heart rate variability, or HRV, as how the time between heartbeats varies, and says it can be an indicator of stress and recovery.

HRV4Training, from A.S.M.A. B.V., is the pick for training. One payment of $9.99 with nothing further to buy is less than a single month of Welltory Premium. It takes the reading with the camera and can also use an Apple Watch, an Oura ring or a Bluetooth chest strap. The listing names the iPhones its camera method supports, and that list stops at the iPhone 16 range, so owners of newer phones should check before paying. iPads need a strap, and you have to register with an email address.

Welltory reads HRV from the camera or an Apple Watch. It is free to download and sells a Premium upgrade, which the US listing shows at $12.99 a month, with yearly plans from $79.99 to $119.99 and a lifetime option at $299.99.

Elite HRV is free for personal use, according to its listing, with in-app purchases, but it measures nothing with the phone alone. A sensor that can report HRV is required, and the listing recommends a Bluetooth one.

Finding your readings in the Health app

The Health app only stores readings. Left alone, it records what the phone can sense, and Apple’s guide names steps, flights of stairs climbed, walking data and headphone audio levels. Heart rate shows up once a watch, a pair of earbuds or an app supplies it. Apps from the App Store can write to Health if you allow it, and Bluetooth devices can too, once they are paired with the iPhone.

To see what has been saved, open Health, tap Search at the bottom right, then Heart, then Heart Rate.

On an Android phone the choices are different, and Google has a camera reading built into its own app. We cover that in heart rate monitor apps for Android.