If your arm is moving, Watch OS 1.0.1 won't record your heart rate every 10 minutes
The Apple Watch aims to take a measure of its wearer’s heart rate once every 10 minutes, according to Apple. However, in a recently updated support document, the company adds that the smartwatch will skip an attempted heart rate check if its owner’s arm is moving.
Over at the support document (via 9to5mac) Apple explains:
Apple Watch attempts to measure your heart rate every ten minutes, but won’t record it when you are in motion or your arm is moving.
Before now, folks who had updated their Apple Watch to Watch OS 1.0.1, which came out on May 19, believed that a bug in the software prevented the smartwatch from taking its regular heart rate check. In version 1.0 of the Apple Watch OS, the smartwatch recorded regular readings for its owner’s heart rate every 10 minutes, and synced these to the built-in iOS Health app.
Of course, owners of the Apple Watch can still use the heart rate glance in order to manually check on their current heart rate. Plus, the Workout app will still measure users’ heart rates when an individual workout has been launched (though this feature can be disabled using the iOS Apple Watch application). As 9to5mac adds, there has been some speculation as to whether this latest move has been made in an attempt to improve Apple Watch battery life, though I’ve personally noticed no difference between Watch OS 1.0 and 1.0.1.
Instead, Apple is more likely attempting to rule out heart rate misreadings through this change. If an Apple Watch owner’s arm is moving around, the smartwatch may be less able to take an accurate, reliable reading (though this doesn’t say much for the reliability of readings during workouts). Either way, Apple has confirmed that this lack of regular heart rate readings isn’t caused by a bug in Watch OS 1.0.1, but rather a purposeful software tweak on Cupertino’s part.
See also: Beautiful music puzzler Har•mo•ny 3 is launching on the App Store this June, Stay on top of your daily tasks with the help of these iPad apps, and Everybody is kung-fu fighting in Kung Fury Game, available now on iOS.
