Keeping track of your health is important no matter your age and fitness level. Prevention is always better than cure.
And since modern technology allows us to do so, why not take advantage of the best blood pressure apps for monitoring and tracking our blood pressure?
Contents
- 1 Why monitoring your blood pressure matters
- 2 1: Withings Health Mate (Android and iOS): Best Overall
- 3 2: Omron Connect (Android and iOS): Best Alternative
- 4 3: Qardio (Android and iOS): Activity Tracker and BP Tracker in One
- 5 4: Blood Pressure Diary (Android): Best Blood Pressure App Diary on Android
- 6 5: Blood Pressure Companion (iOS): Best Basic Blood Pressure App for iPhones
- 7 Notable Mentions
- 8 Blood Pressure Management via One Drop
- 9 High Blood Pressure management via Inspiratory Muscle Strength training
- 10 Wrapping Up
Related reading
- Continuous Blood Pressure monitoring via Smart Glasses could become a reality
- 3 Best Blood Pressure Monitors to Use With Apple’s Health App
- Is Apple’s approach to Blood Pressure monitoring via Apple Watch different than that of Samsung’s
- 4 best Google Fit-compatible blood pressure monitors
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Why monitoring your blood pressure matters
In 2018, the American Heart Association updated its Blood Pressure guidelines. These updated guidelines mean more people are now diagnosed with high blood pressure (also called HBP or hypertension) than before, especially among the elderly population.
This might sound like bad news, but the latest guidelines highlight some important lessons cardiologists and heart health researchers have learned from the latest blood pressure studies.
The key finding is that the damage from high blood pressure starts at much lower blood pressures than previously thought.
So it’s more important than ever to start paying attention to your blood pressure before it starts causing problems.
The American Heart Association recommends an automatic, cuff-style, bicep (upper-arm) monitor.
- Wrist and finger monitors are not recommended because they yield less reliable readings
- Choose a monitor that has been validated. If you are unsure, ask your doctor or pharmacist for advice
- When selecting a blood pressure monitor for a senior, pregnant woman, or child, make sure it is validated for these conditions
- Make sure the cuff fits — measure around your upper arm and choose a monitor that comes with the correct size cuff
That is why we decided to highlight some of the industry-leading BP monitors.
We picked 5 of the best apps that you can use to monitor your blood pressure, keep track of other health facets, and get insights and recommendations.
So, without any further ado, let us get right into it!
1: Withings Health Mate (Android and iOS): Best Overall
Withings’ offering isn’t just good for basic blood pressure tracking
It’s also compatible with both Android and iOS while offering compatibility with tons of health-tracking devices.
One of the best things you can do to take full advantage of Withings Health Mate is to buy the Withings smart pressure monitoring device.
It’s precisely made to work in harmony with this app, so it’s hard to go wrong with it.
Sure, it’s a bit expensive.
But if you are looking for a combo that monitors and tracks your blood pressure automatically while also including tons of other data from other health-monitoring smart devices, that’s more or less a one-way road.
Alternatively, you also can use a traditional blood pressure monitor and then manually track everything through the app.
As we mentioned above, Withings is compatible with tons of other devices as well, including scales, smartwatches, fitness trackers, sleep sensors, thermos, and more.
Plus, it’s very easy to link Withings Health Mate with a ton (over 100) of third-party apps and services like Apple Health or Google Fit so you can keep track of all your health and fitness data.
So, Withings also makes a great solution for people who want to have information from multiple trackers in one package.
Pros:
- Compatible with multiple kinds of health-monitoring devices
- Works very well with Withings’ smart blood pressure monitor device
- Pretty accurate when paired with its own blood pressure monitor
- Compatible with both iOS and Android
- Compatible with Apple Health, Google Fit, Google Health Connect, and over 100 third-party apps like MyFitnessPal and more!
- Can track multiple kinds of activities and health data (BMI, workouts, heart rate, etc)
Cons:
- Withings’ blood pressure monitor is a bit pricey (But optional since you can use a traditional alternative)
2: Omron Connect (Android and iOS): Best Alternative
One of the best alternatives to the Withings Health app is Omron Connect.
It’s both better and worse in many ways, so it’s all going to come down to what you need. at the end of the day
First things first, Omron Connect requires a compatible Omron device to work.
Otherwise, you can’t even get into the main menu.
This means that if you already have a blood pressure monitor and are not interested in getting a smart alternative, Omron Connect is useless for you.
Then again, the advantage that this has over Withings’ offering and most blood pressure apps is that you’ve got plenty of compatible smart blood pressure monitors to choose from.
Omron also offers plenty of other health-monitoring devices.
If you are willing to invest in the Omron ecosystem, you can use Omron Connect to track things like:
- Weight
- Body fat
- Blood pressure
- Heart rate
- And more
Plus, you can share your health report with someone – such as your doctor/health professional.
Overall, if you are willing to spend money on smart health-tracking hardware, Omron Connect is a great app.
Pros:
- More pricing options to choose from
- Provides plenty of automated information in one place (Weight, heart rate, blood pressure, etc)
- Compatible with both Android and iOS
- Shares data with Apple Health and Google Fit
Cons:
- Only works if you have a compatible Omron Smart device
3: Qardio (Android and iOS): Activity Tracker and BP Tracker in One
Qardio is another very popular blood pressure app.
Just like our other two top picks, you use it with Qardio health-monitoring devices to automatically monitor weight and blood pressure.
The good thing is that, unlike Omron, Qardio allows you to manually insert data for pretty much everything except steps and activity, as those are being automatically monitored through Google Fit, a wearable, or both.
So, if you don’t want to use a Qardio monitoring device, you don’t really have to.
Anything will do as long as you are willing to insert information manually.
While performing a manual measurement, a small table mentions which pressure levels are considered normal and which ones are not.
Qardio is compatible with Android and iOS, Google Fit, and Apple Health. The only downside is that it keeps syncing data online every time you select a different category, which is annoying.
Pros:
- Works with both manual data entry and smart health devices
- Compatible with Android and iOS
- Works with both Google Fit and Apple Health
- Tracks activities (Probably by relying on Google Fit and/or other trackers)
Cons:
- Keeps on syncing every time you switch to a different category
- Doesn’t offer as many options and devices as our last two picks
4: Blood Pressure Diary (Android): Best Blood Pressure App Diary on Android
The aforementioned apps are great if you are planning on getting a compatible smart pressure monitor.
However, if you already have some traditional blood pressure monitor and need an app to track what’s going on a simple blood pressure diary is probably a better pick.
You can manually add systolic pressure, diastolic pressure, pulse, time, date, tags, and other notes about the time of measurement.
Then there is also the option of tracking your stats over long periods of time.
And that’s as straightforward as an app can get.
It’s just a diary for blood pressure that’s simple to use as long as you enter the data.
Pros:
- Very easy and straightforward to use
- The stats are very-well made
- Doesn’t require you to buy any specific blood pressure monitors
Cons:
- Not compatible with any smart BP monitors
- Doesn’t sync with Google Fit
- Not compatible with iOS
5: Blood Pressure Companion (iOS): Best Basic Blood Pressure App for iPhones
Blood Pressure Companion is very straightforward and easy to use.
It allows you to keep track of your blood pressure data in a tidy manner.
You can also use it to track weight, share your data with other people, back it up to the cloud, create reminders, save snapshots, export the data to CSV, HTML, or PDF, and more.
And if you are interested, there is also an Apple Watch version.
The only downside is that the UI and the reports can be a bit overwhelming at first.
And since this is nothing more than an app to manually track BP stats, it’s not compatible with Apple Health or smart BP monitors.
Pros:
- Straightforward
- Plenty of basic features (Export to various formats, back-up to cloud, and more)
- Provides plenty of charts
Cons:
- Not compatible with Android
- Doesn’t pair with smart BP monitors
- Not compatible with Apple Health
Notable Mentions
The Welltory app is available on both iOS and Android and provides users with the ability to measure heart rate, stress management, and blood pressure information.
The Welltory app is also available on the Apple Watch. The App also works with other popular fitness trackers such as Fitbit, Garmin, MiFit, Polar, Oura, and Withings.
Think of Welltory as a comprehensive health dashboard that provides actionable insights in an easy-to-read format.
Blood Pressure Management via One Drop
Digital management of blood pressure is showing significant progress. The apps listed above are a great tool to help you track and monitor your blood pressure, but what if you wanted to proactively manage it along with some forecasting abilities?
That’s where the digital service from One Drop comes in really handy.
One Drop has received the CE Mark for its blood pressure insights platform.
Using the new service from One Drop, you can receive timely pop-up messages in the One Drop app that tell you how your blood pressure is trending, alert you if you’ve logged a very high blood pressure reading, and congratulate you for tracking regularly.
One Drop’s BP insights feature enables people to proactively reduce their risk of complications by helping them understand how their blood pressure is trending and offering tactical recommendations and support in real time.
This service is offered as a part of One Drop’s digital membership plan, which includes proactive monitoring for Diabetes, pre-diabetes, and Cholesterol apart from the Blood pressure functionality.
High Blood Pressure management via Inspiratory Muscle Strength training
Recently a new study has brought to focus the importance of breathing training and its impact on lowering blood pressure.
High‐resistance IMST is a safe, highly adherable lifestyle intervention for improving blood pressure and endothelial function in midlife/older adults with above‐normal initial systolic blood pressure.
We explored this research topic by asking several people involved in hypertension management and followed up by publishing a list of apps and gadgets that can assist people who want to lower systolic blood pressure through IMST training.
You may find this guide useful.
Wrapping Up
OWeneed to mention before finishing this article that the cost of the app is not always the price you pay upfront.
Many apps require you to pay an additional cost or require a monthly or yearly subscription to access advanced features and reports.
If you are trying to manage diabetes along with blood pressure, please feel free to check out the list of great apps that assist users in managing their blood sugar.
So, keep an eye out for that.
It’s also a good idea to periodically check out the latest thinking and research coming out of the American Heart Association and Harvard Medical for managing chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.
The quality of your blood pressure readings depends a lot on how you monitor and take the readings.
The four important points, as pointed out by researchers, are:
- Keep still
- Sit correctly with the proper arm position
- Measure at the same time every day
- Take multiple readings throughout the day
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And if there’s anything you want to add, you can do so by using the comments section.
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I noticd that you gave a high recommendation to the Omron app, even though the reviews of the app (android) are very low. In my own experience, I have yet to be able to make a bluetooth connection between my Omron BP7450 and any of my Android cell phones or tablets. It literally refuses to connect, so the app is useless. What do you know that I don’t know?
Rick, You are right. The developers missed the mark with the May update. Since the May 3rd week update, the app has gone wild. Bluetooth connection is spotty and it requires re-sync. Prior to that, it did a pretty good job connecting and syncing but now can require you to resync periodically. We hope that they fix the Omron Connect issues. Thanks for your input. ~ Niel
Omron connect is totally useless if you use an android phone and you live outside of the USA. On android it ignores the localisation of the phone and only uses the language part, so EN-AU, EN-NZ, EN-ZA, EN-UK are all treated as “EN” and the date format is then rendered as MM/dd instead of dd/MM, which can be very misleading, even dangerous. Omron knows about it but refuse to address it.
I have used the “Blood Pressure Diary (Android): Best Blood Pressure App Diary on Android” and agree with your assessment.
Samsung Health is another free android alternative, which is a good alternative to the other items on this list as well. This is specific to Samsung devices and you need to create a Samsung account, but manual entries like the app above are possible as well.