Originally my pulse and blood pressure readings were extremely high and not accurate. But I realized that my finger was pressing too hard on my iPhone camera. A light touch is all that is required for more accurate readings. I informed BP Mate of this information and they said that they would incorporate my suggestion on their app.

So to “calibrate” you have to enter real BP readings 4 different times of the day, every week, per their recommendation. Once you do that, they just build a model of how your BP varies over time and then “predict” the BP based on time of day, and just vary it a bit +- 3 or 4. That’s it! The “finger measurements” are just a bit of theater and window dressing, maybe it actually measures pulse rate. How do I know? I measured my BP one morning on my OMRON, and found it was quite high. That’s why I went looking for an app to measure it, so I can keep track daily. I dutifully entered that actual high reading to calibrate this app. Well guess what, the app keeps saying that’s my BP every morning +- a few! I thought I was really having an issue and getting ready to call my doctor when I decided to measure with the OMRON again at the same time to confirm. That showed that my BP had come back to my usual normal, so this app was just lying to me. So, just beware!

This seems like a decent app, however I’ve just been extorted into leaving a five star review in order to be allowed to continue using the app. I was literally given a popup that said “leave a 5 star review with at least 3 words for more uses.” The app wasn’t concerned with what my actual opinion and review or rating of this app may be; it literally strong-armed me into leaving a five star review in order to continue using it. My truthful and organic opinion of the app was that it’s actually a pretty decent app, and I’d have given it a very fair review (not 5 stars tho) while noting the couple shortcomings I’ve found it to have such as accuracy when compared directly to my BP inflation cuff (VERY close, but still always a few point lower than my actual BP when compared to my higher-end home BP monitoring device. Again, for an app I still feel it’s impressive how accurate it manages to be while simply using your pulse to determine your SYS/DIA). It also has some nice charting and tracking features, as well as the ability to manually enter in your BP’s take on a proper cuff and include that data in your charts. I’m not sure quite how well the calibration feature actually works so far, but I’m still tinkering so maybe it’ll dial itself in a bit better after more use.But I genuinely detest the fact that I was in plain English told by the app that if I wished to continue using the app I needed to go leave a 5 star rating with at least a three word review. I find this to be entirely unethical and a misleading way to produce falsified higher star ratings and reviews which other users will then base their decisions whether or not to download/setup and learn the app. The app should be confident enough to stand on its merits and allow the users to rate it based strictly upon their own user experience. Really disappointing. My HONEST star rating for this app would’ve been a 3.5. Deducting a star for extortion I put it at a 2.5. A shame bc with some basic improvements to UX and the basic integrity required to stand upon its own merits this could easily be a 4 to 5 star app.

I’d like to say that I love this app, but it has let me down somewhat. I follow the instructions and put my finger on the red and it does not consistently even though I’m holding down on the red circle give me the result. I continually have to hold down hold down hold down and no results. I have done it, but I’m having a hard time using it and may have to eliminate this app. I will try it for another week and I’ll come back to my review. Thank you.