HeartBreath HRV 4+

Time for slow breathing

Erwin Gabler

    • 4.7 • 49 Ratings
    • $8.99
    • Offers In-App Purchases

iPhone Screenshots

Description

More than resting heart rate! 6-8 breaths to determine heart rate AND the variability of heartbeats (measure of stress, biological age) - hard facts right from the iPhone

Did you know that your heart beats faster during inhalation and slower during exhalation AND did you know that this is good for you?

The technical term is RSA (respiratory sinus arrhythmia) - a good arrhythmia controlled by your autonomic nervous system.

High variability of the heart rate stands for a good autonomic balance and activity of the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and relaxation nerve).

HeartBreath is a biofeedback tool, that addresses exactly this relationship between breathing and heart rate.

The app guides you through a simple slow-breathing exercise (with pictures and sounds), while detecting and displaying the intervals between your heartbeats. You can measure, train and evaluate your personal status. No additional hardware devices are needed. HeartBreath is able to detect heartbeats by positioning your finger on the lens of the phone’s camera.

KEY FEATURES:
Integrated VaYou Sound Flows, which provide an exceptional sound experience on acoustic pacing.

High quality and customizable control of the bio-feedback exercise with pictures (you can work with pictures from your photo library) and sounds.

Live display of the current heart rate and variability values while recording.

In just a few breaths, HeartBreath is able to compute your resting heart rate.

No additional hardware is needed. The calculation works with a finger on the lens of the iPhone’s (or iPod’s) camera (for iPad only device models with flash). Optionally, an external heart rate monitor can be used. For compatible devices (Polar H10) display/recording/evaluation of true ECG data is supported. As a special extra, the app allows the comparison of data between the finger on the camera and the heart rate monitor.

Unlike many other HRV apps, HeartBreath offers a precise visualization for every single heartbeat and, if necessary, tools for interactive correction of the beats. This is very important for the high reliability of HRV parameters, since single ectopic heartbeats or data artifacts can result in strange adulteration of HRV values.

Integrated tools to determine your optimal breathing speed. Various studies show that each person has an individual optimal RSA breathing rate in the range between 4 and 7 breaths per minute.

Trend evaluations over longer periods of time.

HeartBreath integrates with the Apple Health app.

Privacy is important to us! The app does not require registration and you have full control over the data of your sessions, which is only stored on your phone.

What’s New

Version 3.4.1

Thanks for using HeartBreath!
We have revised the trend display in the Data section. If you take regular measurements, the 7- and 30-day baselines will help you recognise short- and long-term trends.
This version supports iOS 18 and iPhone 16 models.
For any issues, please contact: info@heartbreath.app.

Ratings and Reviews

4.7 out of 5
49 Ratings

49 Ratings

screamedatbykids ,

Thumbs up

After watching some podcasts on respiratory sinus arrhythmia by Richard Gevertz (sp?) I’ve been trying to figure out how to measure it. This works. You can see a huge difference in the readings and graph when you breathe the timed breathing versus breathing normally.

I wish there was more explanation of how to tell if you have the best breathing pace, I guess it’s just experimentation, but there is no clear cut guide I could find on the best way to use this app so I’m sort of figuring it out myself.

Developer Response ,

Thanks for your positive feedback.

The current version of the app has no direct support for guiding you to your optimal breathing rate but we have a lot of (good) ideas for extending HeartBreath in this direction (e.g. a pacing mode that slowly walks through different breathing speeds).

The RSA-value of course is the most important parameter.
The Heartrate vs. Breathing comparison chart might provide additional insights – go to details for a recording and then to the Heartrate+Breathing page -> help button.
Please keep in mind, that our app has no sensors for detecting your actual breathing pattern and that heartrate monitors (chest straps) transfer data with a delay that is outside of our control.

Videos and studies from Dr. Gevirtz, Dr. Shaffer or Dr. Paul Lehrer are a good starting point anyway.

Highly irritated person ,

Waste of money

This is the worst app I’ve ever spent money on. It consistently tells me I have a poor connection for both the finger on the camera and my Polar H10.

Levyostate ,

1 star

This app is terrible. Save your $5

Developer Response ,

Dear user Levyostate, we would like to know what is so terrible for you? Perhaps it is an individual technical problem that could be solved. We receive mostly positive feedback and work hard to make the user experience as positive as possible.

App Privacy

The developer, Erwin Gabler, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.

Data Not Collected

The developer does not collect any data from this app.

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

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