CycleBridgePhone GPS and a heart rate strap · Android
Android GPS and a heart rate strap
The same phone-only ride as on an iPhone — the phone locates itself, a standard Bluetooth strap supplies heart rate — written to Health Connect rather than Apple Health when you stop.
What you need
- An Android phone in a handlebar mount or a pocket
- Optionally, any Bluetooth heart rate sensor that speaks the standard Heart Rate service
- Location access while riding, and Health Connect installed with CycleBridge allowed to write workouts to it
Setting it up
Choose the phone as the data source
In Settings, set Data source to This Phone.
Allow location
CycleBridge asks for location the first time it needs it, and records at the best accuracy the phone offers, only when a fix has moved at least five metres.
Put the strap on
The app scans for the standard Bluetooth Heart Rate service and connects to the first sensor it finds; the heart rate field shows a green dot once it has.
On the ride
- Start, pause and stop on the phone
- The Start capsule begins the ride; pause and resume are local, and ride time is the phone’s own pause-aware clock.
- Keeping the ride alive with the screen locked
- Android has no automatic counterpart to iOS’s background location and Bluetooth modes, so CycleBridge keeps its process alive itself while a ride is recording rather than relying on the system to.
Where the ride ends up
- A cycling workout in Health Connect, with heart rate samples and a route, written by the phone when you stop
- A line in CycleBridge’s own ride log, and the route as a GPX file you can export
Battery, in this setup
The rank of each way of riding this setup among the 7 the app’s battery model compares, longest-lasting first. It is an order, not hours: the model adds up component draws, and nothing has been measured yet, so no figure is printed.
- 2Phone mode, phone in a pocketLight drain
Still locating you once a second, but with nothing to light up.
- 4Phone mode, screen onHeavy drain
The phone’s own GNSS running continuously, with a Bluetooth heart rate strap.
- 5Phone mode, screen on, map openHeaviest drain
The most expensive way to ride: GNSS, plus map tiles fetching and redrawing.
Questions
Does it need Health Connect?
Only to save the workout. The ride itself, the readout and CycleBridge’s own log work without it; Health Connect is where the finished ride goes so other apps can see it.
Which heart rate straps work?
Any sensor advertising the standard Bluetooth Low Energy Heart Rate service: chest straps, most armbands, and a Garmin watch in Broadcast Heart Rate mode.
When can I install it?
The Play submission has not been made yet, so there is no Android beta to join today. The changelog is the honest build log: it says which changes are in a build a rider can install, and the Android beta will appear there first.