How reliable are features like heart rate sensors, step counters, or sleep tracking in smartwatches? What technology do these systems use—do they operate at a medical device level or are they just estimates? What are your general thoughts on the topic?
Do smartwatches really measure health data accurately?
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I've been using a smartwatch for a long time too, and I've experienced significant discrepancies, especially with heart rate. For example, my watch shows 70 bpm, but a medical-grade device I have gives 62 bpm—that might be acceptable. However, when my smartwatch shows 85 bpm after exercise and then suddenly drops to 55 bpm, that’s just not believable.
I think the issue is that these systems rely on optical sensors (PPG), which are heavily dependent on skin tone, placement, and even arm movement. As for sleep tracking, getting the same data every night is impossible because even one misdetected movement can ruin the entire dataset. They’re not medical-grade devices; they work on estimates, using large trend data to make individual predictions.