Apple: Inconsistent Heart Rate Tracking A Feature, Not A Bug
Apple has updated its Support page with the following, indicating that the broken heart rate tracking experienced by users ever since Apple Watch’s first update is, in fact, totally intentional:
You can check your heart rate any time using the Heart Rate Glance. And when you’re using the Workout app, Apple Watch measures your heart rate continuously during the workout. This information, as well as other data it collects, helps Apple Watch estimate how many calories you’ve burned. In addition, Apple Watch attempts to measure your heart rate every 10 minutes, but won’t record it when you’re in motion or your arm is moving. Apple Watch stores all your heart rate measurements in the Health app.
On purpose or not, it’s bunk, and Apple’s not being forthright. If this were a benefit to customers, it’d be easy enough to sell it by saying that resting heart rate is a better, more accurate sign of user health and wellness (it is). If it’s to save battery life (which is silly, as Apple Watch doesn’t really need any drastic battery conservation measures at this point), they could’ve led with that. If getting an accurate daily calorie count is what Apple’s after, then the move undermines that metric entirely. And if the heart rate sensor really isn’t capable of operating efficiently during motion, Apple would have left the thing out altogether. Yet Apple Watch still takes accurate readings during intensive exercise. So what gives?
I’m not sure. All I do know is that when Apple says this is a feature and not a bug, you’d do well to interpret it a bit differently: It’s either absolutely a bug, and one that they’re not going to bother to fix until the next scheduled update a few weeks from now, or it’s a field test for a different data-collection algorithm designed to give the company more guidance for said update and beyond.
I’m guessing the latter is probably the case, and Apple will be comparing the new method against the old to see if, in large numbers, one is better than the other. Should all things remain generally equal, expect to see the protocol that’s easier on system resources stay put for the long haul.