ECHO: Watch Heart Rate Monitor Reviews

by AlphaGram

Tried this app today. While it does transmit my heart rate to my Concept2 PM5 monitor, it also takes control of my Apple Watch, closes the rower complication, and mirrors the HR shown on the monitor. This is redundant and useless as I want to see my time rowing on the rower workout, not a replica of what I can see on the monitor. Just glad that I found this glitch when I checked after rowing for ten minutes. Shut down this app then deleted it after my workout. Another rower who purchased ECHO has reported that it initially tracked his heart rate for longer than 20 minutes but now has an update requiring another payment or it will stop tracking at 20 minutes. He has withhdrawn his recommendation posted at the Concept2 erg forum, and rightfully so.

by CharlieH66

I installed this on Wednesday so that I could get my heart rate up onto my new Echelon X5s stationary bike from my iwatch. I used it two days but didn’t work great and kept dropping my heart rate from the bike screen, so I uninstalled the next day on Thursday. A few minutes later I saw that all my red circle from Wednesday & Thursday were gone!!!! I had enough time to still close it on Thursday by doing more exercises but Wednesday was gone and it ended my 1295 day streak (3 1/2 years) even thought it still shows my two exercises on Wednesday which add up to more than enough to close the red ring and it still shows the longest streak badge I earned that day, but the red is gone and on Thursday it said my streak is 1 day and today after I closed my red circle it says my streak is 2 day, so don’t use ECHO if you have a long streak and that matters to you because I used that 3 1/2 year many many time to keep exercising every day to keep the steak going and now this company has stolen that from me!!! Yes I have talked with apple technology, got a ticket and they called me and I told them what happened and they could only say sorry nothing we can do.

by J.Mariano

I recently learned about ECHO through google research on how I can get to connect my Apple Watch as a heart rate monitor on my peloton. I tried the free 20 min and decided to purchase but I noticed that my heart rate is just straight stuck at BPM the whole entire time which is not true since I’ll exit ECHO during my workout and check my HR On the regular Apple Watch heart rate monitor and obviously I’m in a cardio zone . I like the whole concept of this but is this a glitch in the system? I hate to say I wasted 15 bucks on a app that doesn’t work properly. On a positive note, if someone actually records an Acurate peloton strive score. this app please fix this problem or let me know what I’m doing wrong! Thanks !

by Chizz111

App worked great with Peloton bike for the first few weeks. Has not connected for the past week. Multiple updates have been released since it stopped connecting stating that they’ve fixed connection issues, but I’m still unable to connect. I’ve spent hours over the past week trying to get it to connect with all their recommended troubleshooting and fixes, none of them work.

I’ve sent an email to support but have not received a reply as of yet.

This is all potentially due to the recent Peloton update and the rumors of peloton releasing it’s own fitness watch and is attempting to shutdown work arounds to get an Apple Watch to work with a non bike plus. Just my 2 cents. Good luck, was awesome when it worked.

by JaxnT

When it works, it’s great. My problem is that ECHO doesn’t consistently work lately. I recently tried out the free version and decided to buy purchase ECHO . Unfortunately, I’m regretting my purchase. I’m consistently having issues connecting this app to my peloton equipment (tread and bike). It continues to connect, then disconnect. My watch app never starts. I downloaded the update before my workout this morning but still no luck. I probably need to reboot my bike again. Super frustrating. I don’t have time to troubleshoot before every workout. Hopefully the developers gets these issues resolved soon.

by Sahm3

I was so excited to try ECHO and for the first 2 weeks (before I upgraded ECHO ) it worked great. I paid the $15 and for the next 6 weeks or so, it worked great. Then one day, it just wouldn’t connect. I tried troubleshooting everything and still no luck. It’s super frustrating because it shows that it’s connected on the bike screen, but my watch and phone show a “Waiting to Connect” message. I get the Heart Rate box on my screen, but it shows no number because the watch and phone aren’t connected. I don’t think it’s a Bluetooth issue on my bike because my AirPods connect just fine.
I can’t figure out why it suddenly stopped and now I’m back to looking for another Bluetooth enabled heart monitor. I loved this one because there weren’t any extra devices I needed.

by CraftyVeggie

I upgraded to the full version due to the reviews since I typically run longer than 20 minutes and wanted to get the full experience on the get go.

It takes awhile to kick in and the fact that they recommend to cancel the formal paring process is weird. Even when it does work, there are times when it drops and I have to re-pair during my workout. I ended up just getting a hr monitor and will use this as a backup. It’s a shame as this was a good idea but wished it was more consistent and reliable. I’ll continue to use and will update if my experience improves.

by Spiraldestiny

It’s a dependable app! I am writing this review after 2 weeks of first trying ECHO . I first tried the free version and had to upgrade because I wanted to use ECHO for longer than 20 minutes and it is well worth the price. I tried another app before trying this one and my experience with the other app was that it would not always sync to the peloton bike which was aggravating when you are trying to monitor your heart rate. I had no issues connecting to the bike with ECHO.

by Jsampsell

We purchased a treadmill in January of 2021 that has BLE heart rate monitor capabilities. After doing some research, I ran across a number of positive reviews for the this app app. When I first got ECHO , the brand of treadmill that we bought wasn’t listed in the available manufacturer list but I tried each one just to see if any may end up working. Sure enough, one of them worked and I emailed the this app team to share what I found to work. Figured it would benefit other users. Within a week, ECHO was updated and the brand of my treadmill was listed and worked perfectly. I’m not naïve enough to think that my email was what added my brand to the list but it just showed that they had already been working on updating ECHO . They even reached out to me a while after just to see if things were still working right. They certainly have. I have a series 6 watch, non-cellular, and an iPhone 11 Pro Max. Everything has worked flawlessly for about three months now. I definitely recommend the this app app if you have a BLE capable treadmill.

by Lenoragordon

So far I’ve used it twice on the free version and I’m loving it!! It’s the best I’ve found so far. All the others either don’t connect or the connection drops frequently. I have the OG peloton so I understand it’s more difficult but so far it’s connecting. I only have to on the initial connect go to Bluetooth but then the HR shows. If it continues for a week I will definitely be upgrading!! It’s more than worth the cost if it Constantly works and I’m not wasting valuable workout time to try and connect. Thank you thank you!!!!!!

by Shared Gamer

I took a chance and paid for ECHO after the other “free” app didn’t work as expected and I had to wait for a “commercial” to play. ECHO worked the first time as expected. However, ECHO didn’t show exactly what I had hoped for with regards to my workout rings. I contacted the developer with my question. I was contacted the same day. After sending a screen shot and one more email. The developer updated ECHO that very next day. Incredible service!! I use it every day on my rides and am very pleased. Well worth it!

by GeekyDragonfly

I’ve been using ECHO for a couple of weeks now and really love the convenience of not having to wear a chest strap to track my heart rate. The ease of just pressing a button to connect and start syncing my heart rate from my Apple Watch to my Nordictrack treadmill is a dream come true!! Thank you for developing it!!

I love that it keeps my workout data if my watch dies during a workout. My watch will sync it to my phone once it recharges.

My only issue is that I lose my workout data if I forget to stop it before I start another workout in another app that uses my watch. For instance, I usually do a mindful cooldown in Apple Fitness+ after my workout. If I don’t stop my this app app before starting the mindful cooldown, the this app is “interrupted” and will stop (to allow the Apple Fitness+ to take over), which is fine, but it should stop at that point and post my workout data, not lose it altogether. This has happened multiple times, so I am certain it’s not a fluke. You’d think, after so many times of losing my workout data, I’d remember to stop the this app app before starting another workout, but I guess I’m just too tired to think through that many steps. I hope the developers see this and fix it so I will stop losing my this app workout data. Surely others have noticed the same issue?

by X-skibum

Love ECHO that allows me to use my I watch with Nordictrack 22i bike for heart rate. I also love the exercise colored ring that matches to your heart rate zones. Unfortunately you only can see it when ECHO is active. When you finish the ride the colored heart rate zone exercise ring disappears. It would be great if you could view that when you are done with your exercise interval not just when you were actively exercising.A great app. The trial version limit you to 20 minute exercise intervals it’s well worth the upgrade to have unlimited access to it.

by Greg220

Good morning,

Was looking around to find a way to get my heart rate incorporated into my workouts from the peloton. I have the normal bike which does not natively connect to the watch. So, I had been using the iPhone peloton app and the Apple Watch peloton app, which allowed for workouts from the peloton to be logged to my activity. Great! However one missing element was the heart rate, those logged workouts only included calories and distance (if heart rate was included it was not accurate since the Watch was not consistently tracking)

This is where this app comes in. Found it as a recommendation on Reddit for my exact situation. Set up was super easy, and was able to get my heart rate incorporated into my workouts the next time I jumped on the bike.

End result: My heart rate is now tracked throughout the ride, which now means it is incorporated into my logged workouts. Amazing solution, ended up paying for ECHO since I needed more than the 20 minute allotment.

No gripes. Good work

by A Smith 2407

Found ECHO in my desperate attempt to connect my Apple Watch to my iFIT enabled treadmill. I didn’t want yet another heart rate device that may or may not work when I already had a fitness watch. ECHO is easy to use, the integration with the devices are seamless and it enables me to use all of the features my treadmill has to offer for less than a tenth of the cost of a new heart rate monitor. It also allows me to see my workout and close those rings on my watch which is a big bonus motivator for this post pandemic working mom who could use a little fitness boost. Worth every penny!

by Agf213

I switched from HeartCast to this app based on some reviews I read online from other Peloton Bike (not +) users. I was frustrated with connection issues and I’m glad I made the switch!

After having a few weeks of pretty good connections, I recently started having similar issues with this app. I reached out to the support team and worked with them on how to fix it and eventually they assured me that they had identified a bug with the new Peloton software and that a fix was on the way. Sure enough, with the update that night, everything worked flawlessly the next ride!

Thanks for having an awesome support team who is willing to help!

by Joclyn Gordon

... if you have a Peloton bike and want to use your Apple Watch as a heart rate monitor! It is very much worth paying for. The other Bluetooth heart rate apps in ECHO Store all attempt to provide the same bridge for this missing Peloton feature, but don’t work very reliably or very well.

(For some bizarre reason, the original Peloton bike and the higher end treadmill will not natively incorporate the heart rate from your Apple Watch into your workouts.)

Since the latest update, ECHO has worked every time I’ve needed to use it, and once connected my HR appears on screen in under ten seconds. Once it connects it stays connected. Perfect. Glad I don’t have to spend money on aNOTHER device like a Scosche.

by Mrjoro

If you're thinking of using ECHO to use your Apple Watch as a heart rate monitor for your Peloton, just do it... it's simple to setup, works intuitively and it's free for 20 minute sessions.

I upgraded ECHO to Pro just because I was so happy to find an app that actually works well and wanted to support the developer, but the free version was working fine for tracking my HR during 10 minutes bike weights classes and cool-down stretches. This is particularly great now that Peloton has a Strive Score using time in different HR zones; it's nice being able to track the Strive Score everywhere instead of just the bike rides.

I never noticed a nag message in ECHO to upgrade, there's just a skinny button on the screen that says "upgrade to Pro." (In fact I didn't notice it said that until I tried to figure out how to give the developer my money and couldn't figure out how to do it for a while. 😂)

I don't know why using your Apple Watch as an HR monitor on the Peloton isn't supported natively (other than the great GymKit integration for bike rides) but ECHO solves the issue.

ECHO looks great too, showing your HR in big numbers on your phone and watch, though I just use the HR display on the Peloton screen.

by Great Calculator!

After going through at least 5 Peloton Heart Rate Monitors, I was in search of an app that would allow me to use my watch as my heart rate monitor while seamlessly integrating and communicating with my peloton machine. ECHO does exactly that!! Anyone that owns a Peloton know their HRMs are garbage and expensive to replace. Even when they are working, they don’t report data correct and can swing vastly from a very low BPM to very high for no reason at all. With ECHO, you can ditch the Peloton HRM and instead use your watch (I have Apple Watch 4) and it works perfectly!! The FAQ section was critical foe installation as it required me to clear the cache and do a couple other things which then allowed foe seamless connectivity and data reporting. Those additional steps took all of 2 minutes... be sure to follow both of the steps if you have connection issues.

by 111111111111222222333344

I received an Apple Watch for Christmas and I have the old peloton bike. It’s frustrating that peloton has not just upgraded so that my watch will connect. Nonetheless I was searching for an app that would allow me to cast my heart rate onto the screen during workout and I came across this. I used the free version for a 5 to 10 minute ride just to check to see how it would work and I was so pleased I went ahead and purchased the $15 upgrade. Well worth it in my opinion. I can respond to messages on my phone with ECHO running in the background which is nice. Great purchase.

by Ahdhrdnxb

Doesn’t sync. Set up the first time and did and hasn’t since

by Dabro007

It connects but hangs up on waiting??

Hydrow Row Machine

by Bred323

I bought it for my bike. Doesn’t display heart rate on bike. Waste of money

by Joshua Vaughan

Works really well compared to previous version.

That said, I’ve noticed that as soon as I drop my wrist and my watch face turns off, the update rate drops considerably. I can tell by raising my wrist and a message displays “move watch closer to phone” with a heart rate different than my phone (and peloton). It will usually then update within a few seconds as long as I keep my watch face on. Not sure how long it goes between updates, but appears inconsistent.

by Bobv190

Seems to work fine to provide HR to my Garmin Edge 130.

Annoyingly though writes a workout to the activity app which isn’t necessary since Garmin does the same. Wish that could be toggled off.

by Buickwilson

The this app app was super easy. Load the watch, load the phone, start ECHO , then spent about 20 secs trying to get the Peloton to connect, but I think my prior app had messed up the Peloton SW, so I rebooted the bike and this app connected right away, and now shows my Apple Watch 6 OS 7.1 working with IOS 14.2.1 iPhone 12 Pro Max, with the original Peloton Bike (not the new Bike+).

I had spent a couple of hours with other apps via YouTube recommendations that I gave up on, and found this app. Thanks Bred Ventures...

by Maryconyard

I think ECHO has been updated since other people have reviewed. This works much easier with the Peloton app than other heart rate apps do.

by KazalNire

Works great with my bike. Easy connection and really like the design!

by Tealshift

The previous version had some bugs but now it has no problem connecting my heart rate to my equipment. :)

by Rathereattacos

I use ECHO with my peloton treadmill to record heart rate with my workouts. Works great!