Soluklan on Apple Watch
Standalone sessions on the watch, shared sessions with the phone, heart rate and the Health permission, the rhythm tapped on your wrist, and quick start on the watch.
6 min read
Soluklan is on the watch too: it works together with the phone or on its own. What's different is what it measures: on the watch it's your heart rate, not the sound of your breath.
Installing it on the watch
The watch app comes inside the phone app. In the Watch app on your iPhone, scroll down, find Soluklan under Available Apps and tap Install. If automatic app install is on, it arrives by itself.
The watch asks for Health permission: to read your heart rate and to open the session as a workout. It is asked on the watch while the app is open. If you already gave it on the phone, the watch doesn't ask again. If you don't allow it, sessions still work, you just won't see your heart rate. To turn it on later, on your iPhone go to Health → your profile at the top right → Privacy → Apps → Soluklan.
Why heart rate instead of sound
The watch's microphone is on your wrist, far from your mouth. By the time the sound of your breath gets there, it's buried under the room's noise. So the watch measures your heart rate instead: it's read throughout the session, and the summary shows your average along with your heart rate at the start and at the end.
On the session screen there is a small heart next to your heart rate, beating at your current heart rate.
The watch reads heart rate from Apple Health, and the session isn't saved to Health as a workout. If Write mindful minutes to Health is on in Settings → Apple Health on your iPhone, sessions that count, including the ones you do on the watch alone, are written to Health as mindful minutes. Nothing else is written there.
A session on the watch alone
The watch's home screen has a big Start circle with a small capsule under it showing the technique and the length. When you open the app, the technique suggested for you right now and the suggested length are already selected. The suggestion is the same as on the phone.
Tap the capsule to open the list:
- Techniques, each with its rhythm.
- Suggested length: the exact middle of the lit band you see on the phone's length slider. Change the technique and it moves to that technique's suggestion.
- Ready-made lengths, the same as the preset buttons in the phone's length picker: how far you can go depends on the technique. Energizing Breath has a single option: one minute.
- In Kapalabhati you choose the number of rounds instead of a length.
Tap Start and the session begins after a 3-2-1 countdown. The circle grows as you breathe in and shrinks as you breathe out.
The rhythm on your wrist
On the watch the rhythm comes to your wrist as taps. Breathing in, breathing out and holding each feel different on your wrist, so you can follow the rhythm without looking at the screen.
Even if you lower your arm, the session carries on and the rhythm keeps tapping.
If Breathing and countdown sounds are on in your phone's Settings, a session you start on the watch also plays your chosen session sounds through the watch speaker. In a shared session the phone plays the sounds. Notifications from the phone arrive on the watch with the watch's own sound.
Pausing and ending
You pause the session with the button at the top left. In the menu that opens you can choose Restart the cycle, Restart the session or End the session. The ring in the menu shows what percentage of the session you've done, and the part needed for the session to count is lightly tinted.
If you close the menu with the cross at the top left, the session carries on from the beginning of the cycle you were on, after a 3-2-1 countdown.
A session on the watch counts by the same rule as on the phone: if you did enough rounds, a short summary appears at the end and the session goes into your history on the phone. If you didn't, there's no summary and you go straight back to the home screen.
There's no score on the watch, because the score is worked out from the sound of your breath. The summary shows the length, the rounds and your heart rate.
A shared session
The phone and the watch also work together: your breath is measured by the phone, your heart rate by the watch. More in Shared session.
Quick start on the watch
If you turn on Always quick start on Apple Watch in Settings → Quick start on the phone, the watch's Start begins every time with the technique and length that quick start picks. If you have a running program and haven't done today's session, the program's session comes up.
While quick start is on, the watch's home screen has no technique capsule, and the circle says Quick start. If you want to pick the technique yourself, turn the switch off.
If Soluklan isn't installed on your watch, the switch looks faded and a line under it says you need to install it on the watch too.
When you switch to the Simple interface, quick start turns on by itself on both the phone and the watch.
What isn't on the watch
Tutorials, the intake questions and setting up a program happen on the phone. Widgets and the Live Activity are only on the phone and tablet.