Alerts & Notifications

(Select your language using the flags below if required)

How it Works & How to Get the Best Performance

Because the Watch is capable of running lots of apps, Apple uses various strategies to decide whether an app is granted background time. HeartWatch is one of these apps we want to ensure that your Watch is granting processing time to so that we receive prompt notifications. Hereโ€™s an explanation.


Short Answer:

1. Always go into the app and back out when you put your Watch on your wrist. This tells the Watch that you want to use it.

2. Make sure you have the HeartWatch complication on your Watch face. These are the little widgets on your Watch face that you can edit (called complications), any HeartWatch complication is fine, the important thing is having one.

ALSO NOTE: If you put the Watch on the charger for even a single minute, then put it back on, this resets the processing budget for all complications and makes them much faster. This is useful to do in the morning if you have worn the Watch overnight.


Longer Explanation:

Firstly, in order to get the background processing time in the Watch to be able to do alert monitoring, you need to have the HeartWatch complication on your watch face.

It is also best practice to go into the app when you first put your Watch on. This tells the Watch that you use the app and that it is important to you and ensures that any background services are started.

To add a complication to your Watch, press the clock screen firmly until you feel it push back, then press customise. Swipe and you will be able to set up the complication.

The complication should be updating every 10 minutes. This same process also does the alert processing natively on the watch. It will only alert for things that it knows you haven't seen though. The Apple Watch takes background readings every 2-10 minutes so this timing ties in well.

For information on setting up Complications, go to Watch Use Complications for more instructions.


Complication on Watch But Not Updating Data Automatically

This could be due to a couple reasons:

  1. If you are not seeing any data on the Complication at all, refer to this page for steps on 'Not Seeing Any Data'. This is also due to some health permissions that have not been granted.

  2. If you have data showing it may just be that you need to make sure you have the correct Complication setup, as HeartWatch has multiple options to select from for Pulse, Daily Avg, Sedentary Avg and so on. That is, you may want to see your Pulse but it is showing Sedentary Average. Go to Watch Use Complications for more instructions.


If you are still having a problem, then:

1. Go into the Apple "Watch" app on your iPhone.

2. Scroll down until you find HeartWatch in the app list.

3. Select this and uninstall the app.

4. Reboot your watch by pressing the crown and side button until you see the ๏ฃฟ

5. Once it is back to life, after about 5 minutes, go into the Apple "Watch" app on your iPhone again, scroll down to the HeartWatch app again, select and install.

Once the app has been added, then go into HeartWatch select pulse face and then press crown back to clock. The complication should now start updating automatically. For information on setting up Complications, go to Watch Use Complications for more instructions.

The issue should now be resolved. If however you are still having issues, please reply to the original support email so we can assist if you have already logged an issue. If you need to raise a new issue, please contact us via the Support page or directly from within the HeartWatch app (recommended). There is a very good chance we can help you with your Watch problems and get everything working.

If you are new to HeartWatch or just beginning, we recommend reviewing the Quick Start Guide, as it contains all the essential setup and workings of HeartWatch to make sure you have the app setup correctly and perform some basic functions.

The FAQ page contains all the common questions and answers in one place, including the 'Top 10 Most Popular Asked Questions' by all our users.