Pulse from your camera
Your resting heart rate, read through your fingertip by your phone's camera.
How to do it
- Sit and rest quietly for five minutes first.
- Tap Measure my pulse and allow the camera.
- Cover the camera on the back, and the light beside it, with the pad of a fingertip. Rest it lightly: pressing hard squeezes the blood out.
- Keep still for about 30 seconds while the line traces your pulse.
Your result
Nothing you enter leaves this page unless you save your result.
What the research found
Each heartbeat pushes a little more blood into your fingertip. That changes how much light reaches the camera, and the page reads the change about 30 times a second, on your phone. A review of 14 studies found phone-camera readings were off from medical devices by a third of a beat a minute on average, and in adults the two always agreed closely. As for what the number means: across 46 studies of over 1.2 million people, each 10 beats a minute higher went with a 9% higher risk of death from any cause.
Studied in: 14 studies checking phone cameras against medical devices; over 1.2 million people in 46 studies (heart rate and death rates).