So my friends family member who has a heart condition has been told by the doctor to monitor their resting heart rate at night. The doctor advised them to use any smartwatch as it will be very light to wear. The patient doesn’t want to wear any watch except this one time. For android phones, apart from samsung, is there any value for money smartwatch which gives close to accurate readings?
Now the most important part, atleast samsung watch only works when one installs their app and then login to the samsung account and all the data keeps on getting synced in the background. We want a watch which needs any internet connection to transfer the data to the phone, maybe connect using a bluetooth and then transfer, and neither it should use an account login to sync everything. Are there any such watches? Or any way to disable the data to be auto synced?
I would say the best option would be a smartwatch supported by Gadgetbridge, which is completely FOSS.
Some smartwatches need their original first-party app to synchronize for the first time, after which you can uninstall that app and use Gadgetbridge from then on. Others work entirely with Gadgetbridge alone, no account needed.
Note that the heart rate measurement might be more or less accurate depending on the model. Whatever the accuracy is normally should be exactly the same with Gadgetbridge though, as Gadgetbridge uses the same data as any proprietary app would.
There are even ‘smart rings’ with heart rate measurement, but I don’t think any of these would make for good value for money at the moment! My sister has a Huami (sub-brand of Xiaomi) and it works really well with Gadgetbridge, but needed an online account to set up initially.
Thanks. As per that link most watches will work with gadgetbridge, but the intial set needs to be done with the oem’s app + the mandatory account required shit. Any way out of that?
From what I have heard, smartwatches track better than those rings. Is that correct?
As per that link most watches will work with gadgetbridge, but the intial set needs to be done with the oem’s app + the mandatory account required shit. Any way out of that?
Yes, you’re right. There are a few models that don’t need the original app at all, and that’s listed on their Gadgetbridge website entries, but I don’t have personal experience with any of them. The Bangle.js 2 is specifically designed by the manufacturer to work with Gadgetbridge - no account needed - so that might be the best bet.
From what I have heard, smartwatches track better than those rings. Is that correct?
Probably, but I’m not an expert on this. Smartwatches usually use an electronic light meter and a bright LED that’s on the side facing the wearer’s wrist. The light meter can detect the amount of reflectance of the wrist, which changes depending on the blood oxygen (and thus pulse). I struggle to see how that could fit inside a ring, but then again these rings do have a battery and everything squeezed in them!
As far as I am aware all of the Garmins can run on their own without the Connect app.
I have read that Garmin’s heart rate accuracy is better than Samsung, but there are many Garmin models, so some may be better than others. There are many reviews out there to help advise on accuracy.