How does the sync work?

You don't need to wear your heart rate sensor, press any start buttons, or manage timers to earn points. If you have a smartwatch that records your heart rate, ZonePoints can import and score the workout using your zones. With two-way sync, your training data flows automatically, keeping your tracking simple and hands-free.

Syncing your smartwatch

Any watch or band that logs your heart rate—such as a Garmin, Samsung Galaxy Watch, Fitbit, or Pixel Watch—can share data with ZonePoints using Health Connect (Android's shared health hub). You can train without your phone; ZonePoints will import the session later and calculate your points exactly as if you had recorded it live in the app.

Trade-offs: accuracy and live feedback

While convenient, training with just a watch has two main drawbacks:

  • Lower accuracy: Most smartwatches read your pulse optically (using light on your wrist). This is less reliable than a chest strap's electrical reading, especially during high-intensity or interval workouts[1]. Your points will be in the right ballpark, but less precise.
  • No real-time feedback: You lose the live workout screen — no real-time heart rate, zone changes, or alerts telling you when to push or recover. Your points appear in full, but only after the workout is imported.

Automatic importing

ZonePoints keeps your progress updated automatically. It imports new workouts when you open the app, and runs a background sync once a day.

No duplicate workouts

If you record a session live in ZonePoints using a chest strap, and your watch also records the workout, you won't be credited twice. The live session takes priority. The points from the overlapping imported watch data do not count towards your daily total, though the session remains visible in your history.

Two-way data sync

With sharing enabled, any heart rate data you record directly in ZonePoints using a sensor is written back to Health Connect. This means your heart rate data will automatically show up in other connected apps like Google Fit, Samsung Health, or Strava. Your fitness history stays unified rather than trapped in a single app. Note that only raw heart rate data is written, not the imported sessions or zone points.

How to enable it

Once enabled in settings, you can customize your sync preferences, including setting a minimum points threshold. This is especially useful if your training zones are set low, preventing minor daily movements from cluttering your workout history with unintended sessions.

References

  1. Variable Accuracy of Wearable Heart Rate Monitors during Aerobic Exercise
    Gillinov, S., Etiwy, M., Wang, R., et al. (2017).
    Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 49(8), 1697–1703