The Visible app wanted me to check-in first thing in the morning while I was still in bed. I found this process problematic.
This is part of a longer review of the Visible Plus app.
Logistical Challenges
The first problem I had with the morning check-in is logistical.
The Polar Verity Sense heart rate monitor battery only lasts 24 hours, so I couldn’t wear it all night. Also, the arm band charger has a blinking light that I didn’t want next to my bed.
The check-in requires my phone. Normally at night I leave me phone in a completely separate room, which I consider part of good sleep hygiene. I have an iPhone 13 Mini and the battery usually lasts 2-3 days. Visible used so much battery that I would have to charge my phone every night.
So each night when I went to bed, I charged the arm band and my phone in the bathroom. Then when I got up in the morning, I would get both and put the arm band on. Sometimes to get the arm band on, I would have to remove my pajama top. Then I would climb back in bed. That activity would raise my heart rate, so I would have to wait for my heart rate to settle down and then start the morning check-in.
Sleep
The morning check-in will ask how you slept. The choices are
- Awful
- Bad
- Fair
- Good
It doesn’t ask you to estimate how long you slept or have a way to measure that. There is also no distinction between the quantity and quality of sleep.
RHR and HRV
Next the app will measure your Resting Heart Rate (RHR) and Heart Rate Variability (HRV). It requires you to lie still 1-2 minutes while it takes those measurements.
For me, the measurements were not repeatable. If I deleted the morning check-in and took the measurements again, the RHR and HRV would often be different, sometimes dramatically so.
Stability Score
Using the RHR, HRV, and trends in your symptoms, the app will then give you a score of 1-5 which is supposed to indicate how much you can do that day.
I did like the idea of the app telling me if my symptoms were stable, declining, or improving because sometimes I couldn’t see that on my own. However, the app does not have a way to distinguish between symptoms that get better with rest and those that don’t. For example, I have a bad shoulder that gets worse with rest, but my fatigue gets better with rest. Rather than list each symptom and whether it is getting better or worse, the app reports whether all symptoms combined are declining, stable, or improving. This was less helpful in my case.
I did not find the Stability Score accurate or useful.
Conclusion
I grew to resent the Morning Check-in. It made me do extra electronics management that I didn’t want to do. It trapped me in my bed longer while it measured me. And then at the end of that process, the 1-5 score was not useful.
Living with long COVID is really, really hard. This app was supposed to help me recover, but it forced me to think about my illness first thing every morning, which I don’t think is helpful or healthy.