Heart rate
Your heart rate, from the chest strap or watch you trust
Gears coaches with heart rate from most Bluetooth chest straps, Apple Watch or a Garmin's Broadcast Heart Rate, and uses it to guard your gears as you run. Garmin runs saved to Apple Health count toward your plan and training load too, never twice.
Where can Gears get my heart rate from?
Three places: Apple Watch, a Bluetooth chest strap or a Garmin watch.
| Source | Works with | How |
|---|---|---|
| Apple Watch | Watch alone, or watch with iPhone | The watch's own heart-rate sensor, or a strap paired to the watch. |
| Bluetooth chest strap | iPhone alone | Any strap on the standard Bluetooth heart-rate profile. |
| Garmin watch | iPhone alone | Garmin's Broadcast Heart Rate, turned on on the Garmin. |
Heart rate guards your personalized running zones: you steer by pace, and the coach eases the pace when an easy or steady stretch costs too much. Indoors, heart rate leads.
With Apple Watch, leave the phone home: the watch reads your heart rate, coaches and speaks into Bluetooth headphones, no phone or cellular needed. If something drops for a moment, haptics carry on. See the Apple Watch running app.
Which chest straps work with Gears?
Most Bluetooth ones. Gears speaks the standard Bluetooth heart-rate profile, as do straps such as the Polar H10, the Garmin HRM range, Wahoo TICKR, COROS and Suunto. Connect one to your iPhone for a fully coached run with heart rate, no watch needed.
- ANT+ only? It can't talk to an iPhone. Many straps speak both; check yours.
- Never another runner's strap. Gears joins the nearest. Wrong one at a busy start? Tap “Not yours? Look again”.
- Setup tips, built in: wearing the strap, wetting the pads, one app at a time.
Can I use a chest strap with Apple Watch?
Yes. Pair the strap in the watch's Bluetooth settings and the watch uses it. The case for it: “It reads your heart rate more steadily than a wrist.” That counts most as hard intervals start, when a wrist sensor can trail a rising heart rate. When it's worth it: Apple Watch heart rate vs a chest strap.
Can I use Garmin heart rate on iPhone?
Yes, if you run with an iPhone and no Apple Watch. Turn on Broadcast Heart Rate on your Garmin and the iPhone coaches with its wrist heart rate. Set it up in the first launch's Garmin or heart-rate strap row, or in Settings › Run. Setup is live: “Looking for your heart rate…”, the watch it finds, then “Gears will use this on your runs.”
Broadcast Heart Rate is Garmin's own feature; your Garmin's manual says which models have it and where.
Do my Garmin runs count in Gears?
Yes. Runs Garmin Connect writes into Apple Health appear in Runs under From your other apps, stand in for that day's planned run and add to your training load. A run recorded by both Gears and your Garmin counts once.
Runs other apps keep in Apple Health, like a Garmin's through Garmin Connect, count toward your plan. Routes and grades come from runs Gears coaches.
What happens if my heart rate drops out?
The run carries on. The screen says “No heart rate”, and the coach tells you how it will guide you until the signal returns. A heart rate slow to rise at the start of an effort gets patience, not a push.
- Heart rate still rising into a new effort
Heart rate's still catching up. Hold the effort, it'll come.
- The signal drops out
I've lost your heart rate. Run by feel, I'll guide on time.
- The signal returns
Heart rate's back. I've got you.
What Gears doesn't do
- No ANT+-only straps. An iPhone can't receive them.
- No direct Garmin account link. Garmin runs come in through Apple Health.
- No grades or maps for other apps' runs.
- No heart rate from headphones, yet.
- No made-up heart rate. With no source, it coaches by pace and says nothing about your heart.
Questions runners ask
Does Gears work with a chest strap?
Yes. Most Bluetooth chest straps work with the iPhone alone, or pair one to your Apple Watch in its Bluetooth settings.
Can I use Garmin heart rate with Gears on iPhone?
Yes. Turn on Broadcast Heart Rate on the Garmin, and Gears on an iPhone without an Apple Watch coaches with it.
Do my Garmin runs count toward my plan?
Yes. Runs Garmin Connect saves to Apple Health count toward your plan and training load, never twice.
Do I need heart rate to use Gears?
No. Without it, the iPhone coaches by pace alone and never pretends to know your heart. Heart rate adds the guard that eases your pace when the effort costs more than usual.
Does Gears work with ANT+ straps?
Only if the strap also speaks Bluetooth. An iPhone can't receive ANT+.
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