Pulse monitor with haptic feedback

1. Automate Community
2. Health & Fitness

This flow will monitor your phone's pulse sensor and
a. vibrate the phone in time with your pulse †
b. show a toast & log your current pulse

You can use this to record your pulse whenever you feel like it, biofeedback for mediation, etc.

If you're not using the pulse sensor, it'll just wait until you are. It shouldn't consume much battery power while dormant. *

It'll show a notification while running; just click the notification to stop the flow.

* I have only tested this on a Samsung Galaxy S9, which has an onboard fingertip pulse sensor next to the rear camera, which will turn on a red LED only when it detects a finger is there. I haven't verified how much power the sensor uses when being waited for.

It should work with heart rate monitor info from smart watches etc, but I haven't tested that and Automate doesn't say whether they're being used or not.

† Automate only gives pulse in BPM, updated every 4–7 seconds or so. It doesn't give details like exactly when the last beat was, or the current state of the sensor. So it's impossible for me to exactly sync the vibration to happen at the same time as your heartbeat.

Also, on the Galaxy S9, I have found that if the middle phalange of your finger is over the pulse sensor (rather than the tip), the pulse sensor reports a much lower number (around ⅔) than is correct (though this seems to sometimes correct itself after a couple measurements).

Check your pulse at your neck to verify that it's in the same rhythm as the vibration; if it's way off, just move your finger so the tip is on the sensor.

version 1 (2022-09-18): first release