How to use the ECG app, set up irregular rhythm notifications on the Apple Watch

Setting Up the ECG App on Your Apple Watch: A Step-by-Step Guide

To start using the ECG app on your Apple watch, you'll need to open it first. You can do this by tapping the crown and looking for the ECG app, which is typically located in a different section than other apps. The ECG app will ask you to confirm that you're wearing the correct wrist, as you had set up during initial configuration. Tap "OK" and rest your arm on a table with your finger on the digital crown. The watch will take an electrocardiogram reading for 29 seconds, asking you not to move or rely too heavily on this feature.

Once the reading is complete, the watch will display your heart rate and any findings. In our case, the ECG did not show signs of atrial fibrillation, but instead reported a sinus rhythm of 95 BPM. The watch will also remind you that it's not designed to detect heart attacks, and encourages you to consult with your doctor if you experience unusual symptoms. Additionally, the watch allows you to add symptoms to your report, which can be sent to your doctor for review.

After completing the ECG setup process, you'll see a notification in the Health app on your iPhone that the data has been stored. You can view and export this data to share with your doctor or other healthcare providers. The watch will also allow you to create a PDF version of your recording, which can be easily shared or printed.

In addition to the ECG app, you'll also want to set up irregular heart rate notifications on your Apple watch. This feature allows the watch to detect abnormal rhythms and send you notifications if it detects atrial fibrillation. To set this up, open the Apple watch app, go to the "Heart" section, and tap "Irregular rhythm notifications." Follow the prompts to learn more about how this feature works and why it's useful for tracking your heart health.

Important Notes on Using the ECG App

It's essential to keep in mind that the ECG app is not a substitute for medical evaluation or diagnosis. Apple watch cannot take heart attacks, and people with atrial fibrillation may not receive notifications if they're not diagnosed by a doctor. You should always consult with your healthcare provider if you experience unusual symptoms, such as rapid pounding or fluttering heartbeat, dizziness, or fainting.

Another important note is that you should not change your medication regimen without consulting your doctor. The ECG app can provide valuable insights into your heart health, but it's not a reliable source of medical advice.

The Apple watch will send you notifications if it detects an irregular heart rhythm, which may be atrial fibrillation. If you receive this notification and have been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation by a physician, you should discuss this with your doctor. However, if you haven't been diagnosed, don't rely on the notification as a substitute for medical evaluation.

Once you've turned on irregular heart rate notifications, you'll see a screen that explains how the feature works and why it's useful for tracking your heart health. You can add this to your favorites and view your data directly in the Apple watch app. If you want to turn off notifications, simply go back to the Apple watch app and tap on "Regular rhythm" or "Turn off notifications."

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey everyone the long-awaited electrocardiogram app or ECG app is it finally available for the Apple watch series for we're taking a look right now how to set it up and how to use it the first thing you'll want to do is check if your Apple watch is up-to-date you might get a prompt for that first on the watch if not you can always go to the watch app head over to general and tap software update you need to be on watch iOS 5.1.1 soar up to date just go to the heart app and you'll see that you can set up ECG app and the health app or set up a regular rhythm notifications and the help app as well so when you tap on that now it'll get you the health app and will say you can take the ECG on the Apple watch the ECG app records your heartbeat using the digital crown of your Apple watch which is this rotating crown button right here basically it's checking your heartbeat for 8 year old fibrillation which is a form of irregular rhythm so the first thing you need to do is set up the ECG app you'll need to add your date of birth so I'm going to go ahead and just add mine and there's a brief rundown of how it works basically it says that the ECG records an electrocardiogram which represents the electrical pulses that make your heart beats the app checks these pulses to get your heart rate and see if the upper and lower chambers of your heart are in rhythm if they're out of rhythm that's atrial fibrillation then it gives you a breakdown of some results you may see for example there's sinus rhythm and there's little explanations that you can click on to learn more atrial fibrillation lower high heart rates and then there's inconclusive results but we really want to highlight this little note here it says these results are not a diagnosis do not change any medications or treatment without talking to your doctor that's on the Griff distress again these are not conclusive diagnosis to by a physician this is just an app giving you your ECG you really need to consult your doctor if you want to show them something that the Apple watch told you after using this feature so there's another you should know this ECG app can check your heart rhythm for afib and show your heart rate there are some things to remember it cannot detect a heart attack so don't solely rely on it to check for that it cannot detect blood clots or a stroke it cannot detect other heart related conditions if you are not feeling well you should always talk to a doctor so then you need to for first ECG and you should see this note right here to take an accurate ECG your Apple launch needs to be snug on the wrist you selected in settings so it has to be snug but also when you setup the Apple watch for the first time it lasts you know whether you want to have your Apple watch on your left or right wrist so just make sure it's on the wrist that you configured that first time so first you'll need to open the ECG app on the Apple watch you can do that by tapping the crown and looking for the ECG app which is right here for us might be in a different location for you just look for the heartbeat button and it says the same thing that's it actually tells you what wrist you had configured earlier so just make sure it's on that list right there and you can tap ok and rest your arms on the table hold your finger on the digital crown you can see it goes for 29 seconds try not to move your arms and it tries to reiterate that it's not looking for heart attacks so it's trying to make sure that you're not relying on this feature too much and you should definitely always consult your doctor if there's something out of the ordinary and there we go it says 95 BPM average this ECG does not show signs of atrial fibrillation and for more it says Apple watch cannot check for signs of a heart attack as again another reiteration and there's a nice little feature that lets you add symptoms so that you can send that all to your doctor in a report you can press done and that again lets you go ahead and check it as many times as you want so now let's exit out of that and you can see on the app it says setup complete this ECG does not show signs of atrial fibrillation does give me the sinus rhythm all of these CDs you take are stored in the health app of your iPhone and health you can also make a PDF of your recordings for your doctor and that's about it so this is how you export that data to your physician basically go to the health app go to health data tap on an electrocardiogram and can see the all data or sinus rhythm which is what we just got when you tap on that you'll see the sinus rhythm you can tap on that again and then it says export a PDF for your doctor and after that it's basically shown to you in PDF form and this is you know typically what doctors can see when they do an electrocardiogram in the hospital as well and you can export that data right over using your email or whatever app you have and that's about it now that you've set up the ECG app you can also set up irregular heart rate notifications basically you go back to the watch app tap on heart and you can see that the ECG has been set up and now it says set up irregular rhythm notifications and health this helps identify atrial fibrillation as well and you can tap learn more to read more about how this works and why it's useful to track this data so you can tap on set up and basically this takes you back into the help app you can tap on set up notifications tap on continue you can add date of birth again and if you have ever been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation by a doctor I have not-so-good know another just description of how it works four things you should know Apple watch cannot to take heart attacks we've heard that before Apple watch is not constantly looking for afib so it's not always looking for all instances of afib and people with afib may not get a notification so again it's important to know that this is just something to help you supplement your use cases of checking if you have afib but it does not by far the best or only way you should be using if you're not feeling well you should talk to your doctor even if you don't get a notification symptoms such as rapid pounding or fluttering heartbeat dizziness or fainting can indicate a serious condition and number four do not change your medication without talking to your doctor see me notification it's just explaining how the Apple watch sends you the notification essentially it says that Apple watch identified an irregular heart rhythm if you get a notification and that may be a fib and if it confirms it with multiple readings but if you have not been diagnosed with afib by a physician you shouldn't discuss this notification with your doctor and that's it once you've turned on that button you'll get this screen and it's basically some of those steps that you already saw you can add it to your favorites and see the data here once it's reported and if you want to turn it off you can go back to the Apple watch app tap on heart and you'll see this little button here a regular rhythm and the button to turn off notifications so that's an easy way you can turn it off and there's nothing else you really need to do something that the Apple watch works just sort of detect over time and again definitely consult your doctor if you see anything out of the ordinary or receive a notification from that feature so that's how to set up irregular notifications as well as the dcg app in the Apple watch series forhey everyone the long-awaited electrocardiogram app or ECG app is it finally available for the Apple watch series for we're taking a look right now how to set it up and how to use it the first thing you'll want to do is check if your Apple watch is up-to-date you might get a prompt for that first on the watch if not you can always go to the watch app head over to general and tap software update you need to be on watch iOS 5.1.1 soar up to date just go to the heart app and you'll see that you can set up ECG app and the health app or set up a regular rhythm notifications and the help app as well so when you tap on that now it'll get you the health app and will say you can take the ECG on the Apple watch the ECG app records your heartbeat using the digital crown of your Apple watch which is this rotating crown button right here basically it's checking your heartbeat for 8 year old fibrillation which is a form of irregular rhythm so the first thing you need to do is set up the ECG app you'll need to add your date of birth so I'm going to go ahead and just add mine and there's a brief rundown of how it works basically it says that the ECG records an electrocardiogram which represents the electrical pulses that make your heart beats the app checks these pulses to get your heart rate and see if the upper and lower chambers of your heart are in rhythm if they're out of rhythm that's atrial fibrillation then it gives you a breakdown of some results you may see for example there's sinus rhythm and there's little explanations that you can click on to learn more atrial fibrillation lower high heart rates and then there's inconclusive results but we really want to highlight this little note here it says these results are not a diagnosis do not change any medications or treatment without talking to your doctor that's on the Griff distress again these are not conclusive diagnosis to by a physician this is just an app giving you your ECG you really need to consult your doctor if you want to show them something that the Apple watch told you after using this feature so there's another you should know this ECG app can check your heart rhythm for afib and show your heart rate there are some things to remember it cannot detect a heart attack so don't solely rely on it to check for that it cannot detect blood clots or a stroke it cannot detect other heart related conditions if you are not feeling well you should always talk to a doctor so then you need to for first ECG and you should see this note right here to take an accurate ECG your Apple launch needs to be snug on the wrist you selected in settings so it has to be snug but also when you setup the Apple watch for the first time it lasts you know whether you want to have your Apple watch on your left or right wrist so just make sure it's on the wrist that you configured that first time so first you'll need to open the ECG app on the Apple watch you can do that by tapping the crown and looking for the ECG app which is right here for us might be in a different location for you just look for the heartbeat button and it says the same thing that's it actually tells you what wrist you had configured earlier so just make sure it's on that list right there and you can tap ok and rest your arms on the table hold your finger on the digital crown you can see it goes for 29 seconds try not to move your arms and it tries to reiterate that it's not looking for heart attacks so it's trying to make sure that you're not relying on this feature too much and you should definitely always consult your doctor if there's something out of the ordinary and there we go it says 95 BPM average this ECG does not show signs of atrial fibrillation and for more it says Apple watch cannot check for signs of a heart attack as again another reiteration and there's a nice little feature that lets you add symptoms so that you can send that all to your doctor in a report you can press done and that again lets you go ahead and check it as many times as you want so now let's exit out of that and you can see on the app it says setup complete this ECG does not show signs of atrial fibrillation does give me the sinus rhythm all of these CDs you take are stored in the health app of your iPhone and health you can also make a PDF of your recordings for your doctor and that's about it so this is how you export that data to your physician basically go to the health app go to health data tap on an electrocardiogram and can see the all data or sinus rhythm which is what we just got when you tap on that you'll see the sinus rhythm you can tap on that again and then it says export a PDF for your doctor and after that it's basically shown to you in PDF form and this is you know typically what doctors can see when they do an electrocardiogram in the hospital as well and you can export that data right over using your email or whatever app you have and that's about it now that you've set up the ECG app you can also set up irregular heart rate notifications basically you go back to the watch app tap on heart and you can see that the ECG has been set up and now it says set up irregular rhythm notifications and health this helps identify atrial fibrillation as well and you can tap learn more to read more about how this works and why it's useful to track this data so you can tap on set up and basically this takes you back into the help app you can tap on set up notifications tap on continue you can add date of birth again and if you have ever been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation by a doctor I have not-so-good know another just description of how it works four things you should know Apple watch cannot to take heart attacks we've heard that before Apple watch is not constantly looking for afib so it's not always looking for all instances of afib and people with afib may not get a notification so again it's important to know that this is just something to help you supplement your use cases of checking if you have afib but it does not by far the best or only way you should be using if you're not feeling well you should talk to your doctor even if you don't get a notification symptoms such as rapid pounding or fluttering heartbeat dizziness or fainting can indicate a serious condition and number four do not change your medication without talking to your doctor see me notification it's just explaining how the Apple watch sends you the notification essentially it says that Apple watch identified an irregular heart rhythm if you get a notification and that may be a fib and if it confirms it with multiple readings but if you have not been diagnosed with afib by a physician you shouldn't discuss this notification with your doctor and that's it once you've turned on that button you'll get this screen and it's basically some of those steps that you already saw you can add it to your favorites and see the data here once it's reported and if you want to turn it off you can go back to the Apple watch app tap on heart and you'll see this little button here a regular rhythm and the button to turn off notifications so that's an easy way you can turn it off and there's nothing else you really need to do something that the Apple watch works just sort of detect over time and again definitely consult your doctor if you see anything out of the ordinary or receive a notification from that feature so that's how to set up irregular notifications as well as the dcg app in the Apple watch series for\n"