Validity of Freely Available Mobile Applications for Recording Resting Heart Rate

This study examined the accuracy of mobile applications that measure heart rate by comparing results to a Polar heart rate monitor. Volunteers had their heart rate measured via four different methods whilst being simultaneously recorded with the Polar monitor; 1) manual (MAN), 2) Tap the Pulse (TAP), 3) Cardiio (CAR), 4) What’s my Heart Rate (WMHR). There were no significant differences between any of the methods and Polar monitor (p ≥ 0.159), with WMHR having the strongest relationship (r2 = 0.918) followed by MAN (r2 = 0.851), CAR (r2 = 0.646) andTAP (r2 = 0.636) respectively.