Apple Watch ECG apps? I have just bought an Apple Watch for the purpose of monitoring my heart and health. It comes with a heart rate monitor built in, but no ECG app.
Kardia discontinued their Apple Watch band due to Apple developing their own tech to monitor AF.
Those of you with Apple watches, which app do you use?
Hiya Japaholic,
I cannot help you with your question, just wanted to say good day.
Gosh your association on/with this forum goes back a bit now ... a great number of years I recall. Anyway, I hope you are well and that you have your AF well controlled and equally importantly I hope you are surviving this crazy CoVid world we are now living in.
John
Thank you John, yes been hovering around here since 2015. When I came here I was sure I was going to die, AF was new and scary.
Now, 6 years later, and an ablation under my belt I understand it more and am less freaked out.
Hi, the Apple Watch SE doesn’t have the ECG only the Apple Watch series 6 which is a bit more expensive has the ECG capability.
Not true, the series 4 and 5 watches also have the ECG function. The series 6 has the O2 monitoring.
Incidentally, you can now pick up a series 4 watch on ebay for about £60. It works with an iPhone 6, unlike the later ones. You can also get this phone on ebay for about £60 now.
He says he has the SE. Apple only make the 6 with the ECG+O2 sats and the SE these days.
Yes, I was responding to the bit about only series 6 having the ECG app.
Apple have discontinued the series 4 and 5 but you can now pick them up on ebay for very little money. I think it's because there are a lot young people going for the latest version and selling off their old ones. Maybe they are buying the new ones for the O2 sats. I've got an oximeter but I never use it these days.
I've only got a series 4 one. It cost me over £400, now I could buy one for £60. For me, it got me off a lifetime of medication so worth every penny.
I have the 2020 model SE which does abnormal rhythm alerts. I still have my old kardia which works with my iPhone 12. The watch was a natural upgrade.
Seems I boobed out on having the Apple ECG app onboard. Never mind, I might get a 6 and give this to my wife.
Thank you Bitcoin!
I’ve have the Kardia band on a APPLE watch 6. I also have the Kardia 6 Lead. You are right they don’t do the Kardia band anymore . I’ve found the the inbuilt Apple Ecg Will identify AFIB but does not monitor continuously. What I’ve experienced is the Kardia devices do sometimes have false positives.
The Apple watch does not record an ECG unless you choose to do so but it does do a very accurate reading every five or six minutes about 300 a day. It's interesting to flick through.
I had a Polar heart band first but it was pretty useless for what I needed.
Are you saying it does it automatically?
I've learnt that the ECG is done through electrodes effectively on the left and right wrists.
However, the 300 measurements each day are just between the watch and the blood vessels under the skin. For some reason I found they were virtually 100% accurate, unlike my wrist monitor that very rarely was. Every few minutes the green light comes on and measures the heart rate. Presumably that's how the SE works too.
I have the Samsung watch 2 which now has an ECG and BP function.
Hi - hope you are doing well?
I have the iWathch6 which has the ECG monitor + O2 Sats. I don’t think that the SE has an ECG monitor, just the HR monitor and high HR alert
It has arrhythmia alert function, not that I need telling I bloody feel it!
I have one of the first Apple watches to have an ECG function. I use it with the Health App on my iPhone. Bought it back in 2019.
Purely out of interest - does EBay operate in Japan?
There must be something there. One of my grandsons works for Rakuten, I've looked it up and it says "Rakuten is undoubtedly the most serious competitor of Yahoo Auctions in Japan. This Tokyo-based website is Japan's largest e-commerce and is one of the largest Internet companies in the world."
Do they have something like Alibaba? I've just seen an advert on there for 5 series 6 watches for $500. Maybe they only sell to wholesalers.
I have all three, the Apple Watch 4 with a Kardia wrist Band and the original Kardia. I find the Kardia the most accurate and is recommended by my consultant for getting traces to him if and when required.
The Apple watch is good but not as good as the Kardia as far as I can see even when the trace is downloaded to my iPhone. The data is downloaded automatically to the Health app on the iPhone.
The Kardia wristband was a bit hit and miss and then just stopped working but I still have it on my watch because it is a proper strap rather than the mickey mouse one that comes with the watch from Apple.
I suffer from PAF and the Apple Watch does monitor for AFIB and I have had a couple of warnings saying that I may have AFIB. While not full-blown, AFIB it was certainly close enough for me to note. It has helped me identify a couple of my AFIB triggers, principally stress and then excess alcohol on top of the stress. This can be seen on the screenshot below for Christmas day late on, not stress just too much food and alcohol!! My fault but I have learned my lesson and have not experienced an AFIB warning since. So the Watch has a place in my warning system which I then follow up with accurate readings from the Kardia.
My solution has been to give up the stress by stepping down from a very stressful role ( Cabinet member responsible for finance and planning matters for a UK local authority) caused by Covid and a controversial housing development during the last 12 months and being more sensible about my alcohol consumption - but I think that we get over 70 your time is limited and you might as well have some pleasure rather than not (Sorry Bob!) and if I get to 99 I will be very happy having enjoyed my social time with my friends in the meantime.
Oh dear, the mickey mouse strap! I love it but I've got the loop which is so comfortable. I'm glad I got that instead of the band.
Can you put up a couple of screenshots of the watch ECG and the Kardia ECG? I would be interested to see the difference.
I never got AF warnings but that was because I was always either in AFib, over 120, or in sinus rhythm of about 60.
How did you get your screenshot up?
Physalis, It is difficult to take an ECG and photograph at the same time but I have attached a screenshot from Apple. The Kardia is also attached below.
The Kardia button is there but you would have to be very quick to catch it before it is covered up by the apple health one. Can you send the Kardia again?
However, I think the one you have put up is the Kardia and the watch is supposed to be the apple one. You can get virtually the same ECG from the watch. I didn't think you could add pictures unless you were the original poster. I'll have to work out how to show it the right size. Oh, I see it has got a magnifying glass.
So you are reading the ECG data you get from the Kardia into your Apple Health app?!
I wonder what happens when you read the watch data into it!
Yes Kardia links to Apple health
The Kardi comes with its own app on the iPhone which needs to be open to run an ECG from the Kardia. The iWatch delivers the ECG directly to the iPhone Health app once the ECG has completed after 30 secs..
Kardia works with Android as well- not just apple iPhone and iPads.
Apple watch Af detection 
Pvcs and pacs following acute afib episode and Apple watch ecg/ekg
ECG Wristwatch Option
