Bad news for folks hoping the Powerbeats Pro 2 can replace their chest strap at the gym: while the workout buds are great at playing music and can connect to various gym equipment to track heart rate, they can’t do both at the same time.
The issue was pointed out in YouTuber DC Rainmaker’s review of the buds. Rainmaker, who’s trusted by fitness enthusiasts for his rigorous heart rate and GPS testing, says that Apple confirmed the issue. The Verge also reached out for further clarification, but did not immediately receive a response.
In my testing, I unfortunately couldn’t get the Powerbeats Pro 2 to connect with the treadmills or bikes at my local gym (because it’s hard to get any peripherals to connect to the ancient machines there). Regardless, it’s counterintuitive to make users choose between heart rate and music on gym equipment. The whole draw of adding heart rate to headphones is that you can theoretically consolidate workout peripherals.
Rainmaker, and other fitness influencers like Shervin Shares, also maintain that the Powerbeats Pro 2 don’t track heart rate on iOS apps as reliably as they do on Android apps. On that front, Apple and Beats told The Verge in a press briefing that heart rate features on iOS were limited to seven partner apps at launch: Runna, Nike Run Club, Open, YaoYao, Slopes, Peloton, and Ladder. We were told that apps like Strava, Zwift, and even Apple’s own Fitness Plus are incompatible with heart rate tracking, but that Apple hopes to expand the partner list in the future.
In the iOS partner apps, the heart rate function is supposed to start up automatically without the user having to do anything. I tested the Powerbeats Pro 2 with Peloton and Ladder on iOS and had zero issues with connectivity and accuracy, though I stuck to low-to-mid intensity workouts like yoga and strength training.
These app limitations, however, don’t apply to Android — the buds work with any Android app that supports a Bluetooth heart rate tracker. One could argue this all traces back to Apple wanting things to “just work” within its ecosystem — and the complications arising from that. For example, the buds are programmed so that if you use them with an Apple Watch, the Apple Watch’s heart rate data will always take precedence even if you’d prefer to use the Powerbeats instead. Users aren’t given a choice. The buds don’t, however, impose that limitation on other third-party headphones with heart rate tracking, like the Sennheiser Momentum Sport or chest straps.
For these reasons, plus the fact that it’s unwieldy to view the Powerbeats Pro 2’s heart rate data in the Health app, we noted in our review that the heart rate feature isn’t particularly useful — especially for athletes who use Apple Watches or want the greatest freedom over their heart rate peripherals.
