The 3 top competing smartwatch apps I have identified within the health and fitness category are Apple Health, Strava and Google Fit. Google Fit seems to be more focused on coaching users to be more active, where as Strava focuses more on the social side of exercise, and Apple Health is more of a general overview of everything health related. These slight variables can make their features differ from each other greatly.
Apple Health, Google Fit and Strava have heart rate monitoring in their smartwatch apps.
The Strava app syncs with the wearable devices built-in heart rate monitor to display the users BPM while doing their workout. Due to the public nature of the Strava app, the users heart rate is shared in their activity uploads, where other users can see it. If a user does not want their heartrate to be seen by other members they can hide this in settings. Overall the Strava heartrate monitor is simple, only recording heartrates during workouts and storing that data- which for the average user is probably all they need.
The Apple Health heartrate monitoring boasts highly sophisticated features, such as an irregular heartrate notification which monitors unusually high or low heartrates in the background constantly while the user is wearing their smartwatch. This has the benefit of being able to detect if a user has an underlying heart issue. Apple health also has an ECG app which can be used by people who experience rapid or skipped heartbeats. The Apple Health app is the better choice for users who would prefer to have more data on their heart health.
Google Fit takes heart rate monitoring and makes it into a motivational system to get users active. The app rewards users with one “heart point” for every minute of moderately intense activity. This has been developed in line with the WHO’s recommended levels of activity to improve heart health and well being. This is a more casual approach to heart rate monitoring, whereas Strava has focus on more intense workouts.
Both these interfaces have a simple design style as to not overwhelm the small screen size of the smartwatch device. The Strava heartrate monitor on the left includes their logo and their signature orange brand colour, the only other colours used being black for the background and white for the text. The BPM is prioritised, in bold and at the top of the screen. The timer is seemingly for recording the users workout. The actual “bpm” part of the screen looks a little bit small but this is hard to determine from looking at a picture.
On the apple watch we have a different approach to the design. Yet still being simple, it features a heart animation in the centre of the screen, helping the user visualise their heart rate. The current heartrate number is in a large size and a bright white colour, making it stand out. It also includes a previous heartrate so users are able to identify a spike in their heartrate. The Apple Health UI also includes the time in the top right of each of their screens, providing utility and uniformity.
