Polar starts shipping their previously announced Ignite 2 today, which was announced last month alongside the Vantage M2. Stashed away on the Ignite 2 is the beginnings of Polar’s new heart rate broadcasting feature, which enables it to broadcast your heart rate from the optical HR sensor built into the watch, to apps like Zwift, Peloton, and more – even bike computers. It does this using Bluetooth Smart. More importantly though, this feature will be lit up on the Polar Vantage M2, Vantage V2, and Grit X watches later this year in a firmware update.
While heart rate sharing (or rebroadcasting) may sound like a basic function, it’s actually still somewhat rare in the sports tech world. Further, it might sound like something you thought was already on your Polar watch, that’s not exactly true either. Up till now, only a handful of companies supported broadcasting of your watch’s optical HR signal to 3rd party apps.
For example, Garmin has supported it on all their watches for years, via ANT+ primarily, and then more recently also via Bluetooth Smart on a handful of devices. Wahoo launched it with their RIVAL GPS watch last fall, and then expanded the broadcasted metrics slightly with more treadmill running pace type data too (similar to what Garmin does). Whoop also supports broadcasting from the wearable Whoop 3.0 band. COROS also has some ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart broadcasting support, though, it does have a slew of limitations. But companies like Fitbit and Apple don’t enable this on their devices natively using standard protocols, though there are some creative Apple-focused workarounds with 3rd party apps.
Even Polar, which you may have thought did it. Didn’t really do it. Back when they launched the A360X they added a Bluetooth broadcasting feature in a later update, but in reality, it rarely worked correctly – seemingly due to a quirky implementation. So much so we never saw it added to other watches in Polar’s lineup. Polar did have some sharing features tied in with the rest of their gym tools ecosystem, and those have largely worked within that platform – but there’s an approximately 99.27% chance you’ve never used that system.
Thus, why this new feature is finally what people have been looking for. With that overly long backstory, let’s do a quick look at how it works. Also, much of this post was buried in my Ignite 2 hands-on preview. But since this is coming to other watches down the road, I figure it might be interesting to dive into the weeds a bit here as a standalone post.
How it works:
First up, we’ll need the right watch, and with that – the right firmware. The Ignite 2 starts shipping this week, thus things there are basically set for now. Whereas for the other watches, it’s totally plausible (and likely) that things will differ by the time those get firmware updates. Polar says later this year they’ll add it to the Polar Vantage M2, Vantage V2, and Grit X via a firmware update. Unfortunately, “later this year” is sorta a long timeframe.
To broadcast your heart rate to 3rd party apps you’ll go to start a workout like normal, and then tap the little settings icon:
From there you’ll see ‘Share HR with other devices’ in the list, tap that:
Now, you can choose to ‘Add a new device’, which…is your only option.
At this point it’ll start broadcasting, and is your cue to search for sensors on your app/other device. You’ve got about 60 seconds to get this part done. For today’s example, we’ll just use Zwift:
Once you see it in Zwift, tap that, and that’ll confirm it over on the Ignite. There isn’t anything you need to do there (in theory) – it’ll just connect up. On the Ignite 2 you’ll see the device source name listed (above ‘With iPhone’). For phone apps, it’ll just say the name of your phone (rather than the app). Whereas for something like a bike computer, it’ll say the name of that (such as ‘Edge 530’). I’ve used both.
In some devices though, like the Garmin Edge 530, it doesn’t show the name of the device, but just the GUID. You can see that below. Whereas in Zwift, it shows the proper name of the device (seen above). I don’t know if that’s Garmin’s fault or Polar’s fault, or both their faults. I see the name properly shown on the Edge 530 for other Bluetooth sensors, but not this one. But again, the devil is in the Bluetooth details there.
Now, interestingly, the Ignite 2 user interface doesn’t seemingly support saving multiple pairings, or broadcasting to more than one device at once. However, if you say you’re going to ‘Stop Sharing’ with one device, but then go straight into adding another device, it seems to hold the connection. Below, you can see I’ve got it paired (and live) to both my Edge 530 and my iPhone running Zwift, concurrently:
Of course, it’s entirely possible that’s a “neat bug” that’ll disappear. In any case, once paired up, you’ll see your heart rate shown on the watch and on the device that you’re pairing to (Zwift, as seen below) – in the case below, 61bpm for both.
You can now go about your business and record the workout while also transmitting your heart rate.
Still, the pairing process seems overly complicated compared to how Garmin/Whoop do it (but really more the Whoop broadcasting mode is best here). I just wish it was a simple toggle that I enabled to broadcast my HR anytime I’m in a sport mode, and then I can pair to it as I see fit. The whole pairing screen thing just seems like a lot of work. I’d rather it just operate like a typical heart rate strap/band than try and get fancy. Just my two cents.
Wrap-Up:
In some ways, it’s kinda interesting that Polar chose to launch the HR sharing on what is effectively a low-end device (relative to the rest of their offerings). Even more interesting given that if there’s any company out there that has something to gain by trying to sell you an added heart rate strap or sensor, it’s probably Polar.
But this seems to show their awareness that consumers in this category don’t want to deal with that. They just want to use what’s already on their wrist, which in most cases is ‘good enough’ for the purpose at hand. Be it paired up to an app at the gym, connecting to an indoor bike like a Peloton Bike, or using it with 3rd party apps like Zwift at home. In most of those indoor-focused use cases, accuracy tends to be quite good. Of course, the technology doesn’t care whether you’re indoors or outdoors, so all these same scenarios apply outside too. Though, in general, most watches tend to struggle a bit more with outdoor cycling (and thus, using this to pair to a dedicated bike computer instead of a chest strap or upper-arm sensor).
Still, I do appreciate Polar bringing Bluetooth Smart broadcasting to this price point, while Garmin has been rolling it out on higher-end watches, they decided against rolling out Bluetooth broadcasting to their Vivoactive 4 and Venu lineups, which only feature ANT+ broadcasting. And even the Venu 2/2S that just released last week, didn’t launch with Bluetooth broadcast, though, Garmin says they’ll add it at some point.
And if there’s one thing that Polar has proven time and time again, they’re able to disrupt the lower to mid-range parts of the market by offering features not normally seen there, causing their larger competitors to react. Maybe by the end of the year Bluetooth Smart heart rate broadcasting will become the norm on all $200+ watches. Cause frankly, it sure as heck should be.
With that – thanks for reading!
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Great article. I’m curious about the Apple Watch workarounds mentioned in here – is that a topic you have covered before, it would be great to be able to use the watch heart rate data with fitness apps on an iPhone.
Thanks!
So, things are roughly divided into two camps for Apple Watch broadcasting:
A) Hardware solutions like HeartBeatz from NPE that don’t depend on your phone.
B) Software apps dependent on your phone that route out the HR back from the phone broadcasted out
It’s on my to-do list to tackle both in a post.
Yes! It’s so frustrating that Apple Watch doesn’t broadcast heart rate nor read other BT sensors (natively).
Apple clearly picked the watch to be a fitness device, so how about they actually make it work like one?!?
Great post but I m confused as I do HR broadcasting to my Wahoo Roam and my iPad for Zwift, even straight to Strava on iOS using a Polar A370….
Am I using something buggy for all my recordings?
Thanks!
Good to hear. I never had any luck stability-wise with it (and often even connectivity-wise), and I know many were in the same boat.
I am currently using this app this app QZ (qdomyos-zwift) which has iOS and android apps available along with my Apple Watch to broadcast HR to various services (Zwift, Peloton etc). It will also work with a variety of spin bikes and HRMs.
For my setup, it requires the watch and phone (and iPad/tablet if that’s what you are watching the service on).
He (Robert) keeps adding features like auto-control/adjust for resistence settings on spin bikes that accept this and on and on. Very responsive developer as well, based in Italy.
The UI could use some fine tuning, but once you get past that the choices of customization are endless (plus it’s like a $3 or $4 app).
link to robertoviola.cloud
Not associated with him, just AMAZINGLY impressed!
Do the polar watches transmit pace and cadence like the Garmin virtual running? How do you like the Garmin virtual running? Is it a good solution for zwift for someone that uses a gym treadmill.
You missed Coros watches which broadcast both Ant+ and bluetooth.
With the Coros Pace 2 at $199 probably the cheapest watch to broadcast at all and in fact in both protocols. Another win for the Pace 2.
Good point on COROS, but, it’s unfortunately a bit messier (primarily on the BT side), with a slew of limitations.
1) You can broadcast ANT+ HR, but not if any sensors are connected. So, this breaks the likely indoor cycling scenario, since you’d probably want it paired to a power meter, cadence sensor, etc…
2) You can broadcast Bluetooth Smart HR, but only if you first disconnect *ANY* BT connections, including your phone and the COROS App. Honestly, that’s a mess – and in some cases downright impossible if the very device you’re trying to connect to is your phone running the app.
Don’t get me wrong – COROS nails so many other things, but there’s a handful of weird quirks you run into here and there in the platform at large, and this is one of them (sorta like how editing a structured workout on the watch requires you have the watch right next to you and not in an active session).
Maybe not deal-breakers, but messy.
You are right on that one Ray, I have a Coros Pace 2 and I can broadcast the HR perfectly to my Peloton bike. But I can NOT broadcast the HR to Zwift, that doesn’t work, Zwift can’t find the HR from the Coros.
Separately, I have also just purchased a Polar Vantage M2 for my son, and the HR still does NOT broadcast to Zwift, even if that added functionality was announced back in March (according to your full review of the M2 back then).
I never understood what the Polar “HR visible to other devices” meant, especially given that the M400 doesn’t have a HR sensor? OH1 makes sense. Was this to do with visibility to gym equipment?
Can someone help me with this – is it possible to ride Zwift at the same time having paired the trainer to my Polar Vantage so i get the power reading both on the watch (and in Polar Flow) and on Zwift?
Thanks in advance.
Yes although I guess it depends on the trainer. It needs to either support two bluetooth connections or bluetooth & ant+. I believe the first is kinda rare. In the second case, the Vantage will have to use the bluetooth connection, as it doesn’t support ant+. This means you need to find a way to get the ant+ signal into zwift. Afaik some android phones (and maybe tablets?) support ant+ natively, otherwise you can use an ant+ usb dongle. I previously used such an usb dongle with my android phone and that worked nicely.
I had the same problem and solved it with the 4iiii heart rate strap – it can confirm a Ant+ to BT like a bridge. My assioma can now send power to the GPS into via ant+, to the iPhone via BT and finally to the vantage m.
and most android phones now are ditching ant+, Samsung being a major one of them. Wahoo even ditched ant+ support on their app. Too many f’ing agendas trying to force users into buying not BLE products. It’s BS. Same camp as phone mfg’s ditching the headphone jack, card slot and so on.
It would be great if Garmin could extend this capability on their devices to Edge too – broadcast HR from an ANT+ strap.
Is it possible to rebroadcast from the watch if using an external HR monitor? For example, can I pair my Grit X with my OH1, and then rebroadcast that HR to my Peloton app on the iPhone or iPad?
It doesn’t look like broadcast to me. I believe it is a relay function / unicast.
Niclas
Do you think the HR broadcasting will be released as a firmware uodate on older models like the Vantage V (I say older it’s only 2yrs old)?
No, I wouldn’t expect that unfortunately.
Noticed a new issue. Bought the Polar V2 replacing my V1 as wanted the HR. Broadcasting feature specially for triathlon and duathlon as don’t like wearing a HR strap while racing. However it seems the blue tooth transmission needs to be connected each time. For example in a duathlon you connect the sensors and start ur bike computer (I’m using a Garmin 1030+) before the start. Then you do the run portion however it seems that when the watch is out of range of the bike computer when you come back to the bike it doesn’t automatically see it and reconnect but you have to reset everything to re connect. Invalidating the reason I bought the watch. It’s like the watch can’t store the sensor. Extremely frustrating!
Or the bike computer doesn’t remember the HR sensor? You may have more luck with a dual BT ANT+ HR sensor like the Polar OH1 or Verity in that 1 of the channels will eventually auto connect to the bike computer?
Hi mate I have a verity sense and a H10 and they works fine in keeping the connection this is why I can’t understand why the Polar V2 doesn’t work like them. I don’t want to have to wear multiple sensors just the watch. The V2 is the same for Zwift you have to connect it each time manually it doesn’t seem to be remembered in Zwift ether and manually has to be set up each time.
Now if only Polar would allow us to upload Zwift data to Polarflow …
So does this feature also work on the polar pacer or pacer pro. I googled it but could not find a clear yes or no.