Apple Watch

Betterness on Apple Watch needs an Apple Watch running watchOS 10 or later, paired with an iPhone that has the Betterness iPhone app installed and signed in.

The watch app records your sessions: heart rate, wrist motion, your route and place if you choose, the songs playing around you and any voice notes you add. It then hands the recording to your iPhone, which uploads it to Betterness.

The watch asks for access the first time you start a session, and only for what that session uses.

• Health. Read your heart rate and save each session to Apple Health. Asked on your first session.
• Motion & Fitness. Read how your wrist moves so your coaching can read how you trained. Asked on your first session.
• Location. Record your place or your route. Asked only if you choose Check in or Track my route on the pre-start page.
• Microphone. Recognize the music playing nearby, or record a voice note. Asked only if you turn on Recognize music or record a note.

If you declined something, or a toggle is missing, turn it back on here.

• Motion & Fitness: on your iPhone, open Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Motion & Fitness, and turn on Fitness Tracking.
• Health: on your iPhone, open Health, then Sharing, then Apps, then Betterness.
• Location and Microphone: on your watch, open Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Location Services or Microphone.

The home screen shows the Betterness wordmark at the top and a mic button in the top-left corner. Under them come RECENT, which holds your last sport, then SETTINGS, with Settings and Sensors, then the full sport catalog.

The catalog is grouped so you can scroll to the right area quickly.

• Court & Racket: Tennis, Padel, Pickleball, Racquetball, Squash, Handball, Basketball, Volleyball (indoor and beach) and Soccer.
• Cardio & Training: Running, Walking, HIIT, Hyrox, Strength, Cycling, Indoor Cycling, Mountain Biking and more.
• Water.
• Mind & Recovery: Breathwork, Sauna, Cold plunge and more.
• Therapy & Journeys.
• Music & Culture: Karaoke, Museum Walk and more.
• Other.

The pre-start page carries these options.

• Location: No location, Check in or Track my route. Choosing Check in or Track my route asks for Location access the first time.
• Recognize music: on or off. Turning it on asks for Microphone access the first time.
• Touch Lock, or Water Lock for water sports.
• Sensors: All on, or your own picks if you use Pro mode.
• Wrist: Left or Right.

After Start, a GET READY screen shows a readiness ring and a 3, 2, 1 countdown. When the data is available it also shows PRIMED, WEATHER and HYDRATE cards.

If Location is set to Check in or Track my route and Betterness knows a venue near you, it asks whether you are playing there before the session begins. See Places, routes and check-in for how that question works.

Your first session also asks for Health and Motion & Fitness access. If you declined, turn them on in your iPhone Settings under Privacy & Security, then Motion & Fitness, then Fitness Tracking, and in the Health app under Sharing, then Apps, then Betterness.

While a session runs, swipe left and right to move between pages. Which pages appear depends on the sport and the options you chose before Start.

• Controls: the HOLD TO END pill, plus PAUSE or RESUME, LOCK and LAP.
• Metrics: elapsed moving time, your heart rate in bpm, and your current effort with its name, such as Easy, Steady, Aerobic, Threshold or Peak.
• Sport data: for court and gym sports, your heart rate, session time and active calories. For running, walking, cycling and water sports, pace or speed, distance and elevation.
• Heart rate trend: a live chart of your heart rate through the session.
• Map: shown when Track my route is on.
• Music: the songs recognized around you, when Recognize music is on.

On the Metrics page, swipe up and down to move between the metric faces.

Heart rate comes from the watch sensor through Apple Health, so it needs the Health access you allowed on your first session. Keep the watch snug on your wrist and give it a moment after Start while it shows Finding pulse.

Your wrist motion is part of what your coaching reads after the session. It needs Motion & Fitness access. If that toggle is off, turn it on in your iPhone Settings under Privacy & Security, then Motion & Fitness, then Fitness Tracking.

Touch Lock ignores touches until you turn the Digital Crown. Water Lock, offered for water sports, does the same and also ejects water from the speaker when you unlock.

Location is set per session, on the pre-start page, and it defaults to off. The watch asks for Location access only the first time you choose Check in or Track my route.

• No location: the session records no place and no route.
• Check in: Betterness records where the session happened and can suggest a venue.
• Track my route: Betterness records your route as well, shows the Map page during the session, and gives you pace or speed, distance and elevation for outdoor sports.

If access is missing, turn it on from your watch: open Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Location Services.

With Check in or Track my route on, and a venue Betterness knows nearby, the GET READY screen asks whether you are playing there. The question names the venue and offers Yes I'm here, Skip and Change.

GPS can take a little while to lock, and it needs a clear view of the sky. If the Map page does not show your position yet, give it a moment outdoors. The Map page only appears when Track my route is on.

Both features use the microphone, so the watch asks for Microphone access the first time you turn on Recognize music or record a voice note. If you declined, open Settings on your watch, then Privacy & Security, then Microphone.

Recognize music is a toggle on the pre-start page. When it is on, the watch listens briefly every so often during the session and names the song playing nearby, with its title, artist and artwork, alongside your heart rate at that moment. The Music page collects these.

If Recognize music was off when you started, the Music page offers Turn on for this session. Tap to listen now on that page makes the watch listen straight away instead of waiting for the next check.

To record a voice note, tap the mic button in the top-left corner during a session and speak. A voice note is recorded audio. It is saved with the session, transferred to your phone with the rest of the recording, then transcribed and attached to the session in Betterness.

If the session has under a minute of activity, the sheet reads Under a minute, false start? and offers Discard, Keep session or Keep going.

Save session writes the session to Apple Health and sends the raw recording to your iPhone: motion, heart rate, route, recognized songs and voice notes. Your iPhone then uploads it to Betterness.

Back on the home screen, a Last session card shows the transfer progress as N of M files received by phone. You can close it with the × button, and it closes by itself once your phone has everything.

Sessions still held on the watch are listed under Settings, then Transfers, each with a Send again now button.

Your phone uploads recordings over cellular by default. To wait for Wi-Fi instead, sign in to Betterness on the web, open Settings, then Connected Devices, and turn on Upload watch recordings on Wi-Fi only.

Once uploaded, the session appears in your Activities in Betterness, and the entry saved by the watch sits in Apple Health.

If your watch restarts, or the Betterness app is closed while a session is running, the session is not lost.

When you reopen the app it shows a recovery screen that says it is resuming, with the line Restoring your session. Please wait. Leave the app open until it clears.

The session then either continues where it was, or is saved for you if it could not carry on.