Does Apple Watch work with Elite HRV?

We have had many recent inquiries about using the Apple Watch with the Elite HRV app, as Apple now advertises that the watch is capable of measuring HRV. In order to calculate the research-backed HRV values such as RMSSD, LnRMSSD, HF, LF, etc. our software needs access to accurate R-R interval data. ( More info on R-R intervals here).

Since accuracy is our priority, we need to do in-house testing of the validity of these R-R intervals before making the developmental changes needed to connect the Apple Watch to Elite HRV. Please know that we've been hyper-focused on other growth projects and unable to devote the bandwidth to do the testing. Once we are able to do so, we'll be sure to announce it to our community.  We appreciate your understanding.

Regarding the HRV function provided directly by the Apple watch: the Apple Health app pulls HRV data at random times throughout the day. This offers little to no context for the HRV score, and therefore can be very misleading when trying to make a judgement from that score. The point of our Morning Readiness readings is to establish a baseline, so to take readings throughout the day without this baseline will not tell you much. If you would like to test out the Apple Watch HRV function, we recommend triggering manual HRV reading and sitting as still as possible. This data will not be pulled into Elite HRV, so you'll need to view it on your Apple Health app. 

To be sure, if you are moving your hand, wrist or arm at all, then there is a very low degree of confidence in the accuracy of the HRV calculations that could be produced from the Apple Watch at this time. Even if perfectly still, there are many circumstantial variables to address such as sensor positioning, skin contact, skin thickness/color, emitter spectrum, etc. We will need to verify the accuracy of the raw R-R intervals before updating our app and Compatible Devices list. 

There are many heart rate monitors that are compatible with Elite HRV and fulfill the above requirements. For a full list, see: Compatible Devices (link)

We will update this article and our Compatible Devices page accordingly when the time comes.