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How to count breaths
Your vet may have asked for a “sleeping respiratory rate”. It just means how many breaths your pet takes in a minute while asleep. Here’s how to count it.
Wait for deep sleep
Wait until they’re properly asleep, ideally an hour or more after a walk or play, in a room that isn’t too warm. Resting with their eyes open doesn’t count, and neither does dreaming or purring.
Watch the chest
Find a spot where you can see their chest or tummy. Each time it rises and falls is one breath.
Tap for each breath
Open Count and tap anywhere on the screen as each breath comes. The timer starts with your first tap and stops by itself.
We’ll do the maths
Heartside turns your count into breaths per minute, saves it, and checks it against the limit your vet gave you.
Tips for a good count
- Try to count around the same time each day, so the numbers are easy to compare.
- If a count seems high, give it 15 minutes and count again while they’re still asleep. One high reading on its own isn’t unusual.
- Purring cats and dreaming dogs will throw the number off, so wait until they’ve settled.
- If they wake easily, the watch lets you count from across the room.
Counting & readings
What’s a normal sleeping breathing rate?
For most sleeping dogs and cats, under 30 breaths a minute is normal. Your vet might pick a different number for your pet, so Heartside uses whatever you enter in Settings › Alert limit.
Open this answer on its own pageWhy does my reading say “Above limit”?
That count came in higher than the limit you set. Wait 15 minutes and count again while they’re still asleep. If it’s still high, follow the plan your vet gave you, or give them a call.
Open this answer on its own pageCan I edit or delete a reading?
Yes. Tap a reading in History to add a note, change it or delete it. We’ll always check before deleting anything, and the app never removes readings on its own.
Open this answer on its own pageData & backup
Will an update ever delete my readings?
No. Updates never change or remove your history. Your readings live on your phone, and in your iCloud or Google backup if you’ve turned it on.
Open this answer on its own pageReminders not arriving?
Heartside schedules reminders on your phone, so they work without internet. If they stop: check that notifications are allowed for Heartside in your phone’s settings. On Android, also allow “Alarms & reminders”. Some phones (Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei, OnePlus) put apps to sleep to save battery. Find Heartside under Battery and set it to “Unrestricted” or “Don’t optimise”. After that, reminders will arrive on time.
Open this answer on its own pageHow does backup work on Android?
Heartside uses Android’s built-in backup to your Google account. There’s no sign-in in our app. On Android 9 and later it’s encrypted with your screen lock, so Google can’t read it. Android runs it about once a day while your phone is charging on Wi-Fi, and restores it when you set up a new phone. For a copy you control, use Settings › Save a backup file.
Breathing videos are left out because of their size. To keep them too, save a backup file and tick Include breathing videos. After a restore, live sharing starts fresh: every pet and reading is there, and you can share a pet again with a new link.
Open this answer on its own pageHow does backup work on iPhone?
Heartside is part of your iPhone’s own backup: iCloud Backup, or a backup to your computer. There’s no sign-in in our app, and nothing goes to our servers. To turn on iCloud Backup, open the Settings app, tap your name, then iCloud › iCloud Backup. When you set up a new iPhone from that backup, your pets and readings come with it, breathing videos included.
After a restore, live sharing may start fresh: every pet and reading is there, and you can share a pet again with a new link. For a copy you control, use Settings › Save a backup file.
Open this answer on its own pageBackup files and the recovery code
Settings › Save a backup file makes one encrypted file with every pet, reading, note and log. The first time, Heartside shows you a recovery code: 24 letters and numbers that open your backup files. Every later backup file from that phone uses the same code, and you can see it again in Settings › Recovery code.
The key behind the code is kept in iCloud Keychain on iPhone, or with your Google account on Android, so on a new phone signed in to the same account the file opens by itself. On any other phone, or when you move between iPhone and Android, type the code to open it.
We never see the code or the file, so we can’t recover either one. Keep the code somewhere safe, like a password manager. Backup files from older versions of Heartside still open with the PIN they were saved with.
Open this answer on its own pageMoving to a new phone
Restore from your backup, or go to Settings › Move to a new phone to make a one-time link. Open it on the new phone and all your readings come across.
Open this answer on its own pageExporting for my vet
Share › Vet report makes a PDF with the readings, your notes and the limit, and you choose what goes in it. Share › Export everything gives you a ZIP of spreadsheets (CSV) with all your data: readings, medications, doses, the health log, your vet’s details and more.
Open this answer on its own pagePlus, tips & billing
What does Plus include?
Plus is a single payment, priced for your country by the App Store or Google Play, and it covers your whole family. It adds more pets, live syncing, the watch apps, breathing videos, medications, the symptom, weight and appetite log, longer vet reports and more themes. Counting, history and alerts stay free.
Open this answer on its own pageRestore my purchase
Go to Settings › Heartside Plus › Restore purchase. Make sure you’re signed in to the same App Store or Google Play account you bought it with.
Open this answer on its own pageRefunds
Apple and Google handle payments, so refunds go through them. If you get stuck, write to us and we’ll help.
Open this answer on its own pageWatch
Setting up Apple Watch or Wear OS
Once you have Plus, install Heartside from your watch’s app store. It finds your phone by itself, and there’s nothing to sign in to.
Open this answer on its own pageDoes the watch work without my phone?
Yes. Readings are saved on the watch and move to your phone the next time it’s nearby.
Open this answer on its own pagePrivacy
Can Heartside see my pet’s data?
No. Your readings stay on your phone, and anything you sync or share is locked before it leaves. We don’t run ads or track you.
Open this answer on its own pageContact
Write to us.
We’re a small team, and we read every message ourselves. Tell us what happened and we’ll get back to you.
- One of us will reply within a business day, usually sooner.
- hello@heartside.app
- Writing from the app (Settings › Contact us) adds your app version, which helps us fix things faster.
- Check service status