Live context
One hour, without leaving the moment
The expanded view keeps a rolling one-hour, minute-average trend. Hovering reveals the time and BPM while collection continues live.
Native macOS App
2026
Pulse Notch
SwiftUICoreBluetoothBluetooth LEmacOSProduct Design
Live WHOOP heart rate, designed around the MacBook camera cutout.
A local macOS companion that reads WHOOP 5.0 Heart Rate Broadcast directly over Bluetooth Low Energy, then turns live BPM into a cutout-aware display, a rolling one-hour trend, and user-set threshold cues.
Download for Apple silicon
macOS 13+ · M1 or newer · v0.1.0
Built around the cutout
Useful at a glance. Detailed only when invited.
Compact
Live BPM on the left; locally derived zone and a 60-second trend on the right.
Expanded
One-hour context, threshold state, reset, snooze and settings in a single panel.
Full screen
Keep the compact view, hide it automatically, or enable presentation privacy.
Live context while you work
A small signal for better-timed pauses.
Pulse Notch does not decide what a heart-rate change means. It keeps live BPM and the recent pattern nearby, so you can connect the signal with your own context.
01
Notice sustained change
Separate a brief spike from a pattern that continues through a demanding task or call.
02
Pause when it is useful
Let your sustained threshold suggest a short breathing reset or walk instead of relying only on a timer.
03
See the response
Watch the next few minutes to see whether the live reading settles after a reset.
04
Add breathing room
Use the patterns you notice to avoid stacking demanding work and add a buffer when you need one.
Direct BLE flow
Device to Mac. No cloud round trip.
Pulse Notch listens to the standard Bluetooth Heart Rate Service. It does not start workouts, change WHOOP settings or write data back.
01
WHOOP sensor
Heart Rate Broadcast is enabled on WHOOP 5.0.
02
Standard BLE
The wearable advertises Heart Rate Service 180D.
03
CoreBluetooth
The Mac subscribes to measurement characteristic 2A37.
04
Pulse Notch
BPM, chart history and threshold cues update locally.
Designed for the background
Calm when it is quiet. Resilient when the signal is not.
Quiet coaching
A cue only after it stays elevated
A user-set threshold, sustained-duration check, snooze and restrained cooldown prevent a single noisy reading from becoming a distraction.
Connection resilience
Explicit selection, reliable return
Nearby heart-rate monitors are shown for the user to choose. A device is remembered only after it delivers a valid reading, with wake recovery and stale-reading protection built in.
Privacy by architecture
Heart-rate data stays on the Mac
There is no Pulse Notch account, developer-operated backend, analytics, cloud history or WHOOP cloud API connection. The app listens to BLE and does not write back to the wearable.
Requirements and installation
A focused build for Apple silicon.
- Apple Silicon Mac — M1 or newer
- macOS 13 Ventura or newer
- WHOOP 5.0 with Heart Rate Broadcast enabled
- 01
Download the latest DMG, open it and drag Pulse Notch into Applications.
- 02
On first launch, macOS may block the ad-hoc signed app. Use System Settings, Privacy & Security, then Open Anyway.
- 03
Allow Bluetooth access, enable Heart Rate Broadcast in WHOOP and explicitly select your device.
Pulse Notch is an independent wellness project, not a medical device, and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by WHOOP. Its zones, colors and coaching cues are calculated by Pulse Notch, not official WHOOP classifications.
Pulse Notch for macOS
Your live heart rate, without another screen to check.
Built for Apple Silicon Macs and WHOOP 5.0 Heart Rate Broadcast.