Have you noticed a flashy green light activated on your Apple Watch at times?
This green LED light turns on whenever the heart rate sensor on the watch is activated.
The heart rate monitor periodically checks your pulse, during workouts, breathing sessions, or when you manually measure it.
While the heart rate data provides useful health insights, the constant green flashing can be annoying and distracting if you want to turn it off temporarily.
Fortunately, there are a few simple ways to disable the green light on your Apple Watch, both permanently and temporarily.
In this post, I will teach you how to turn off green light on Apple watch with easy, step-by-step instructions.
How to Turn off Green Light on Apple Watch Permanently
If you find the green light distracting and want to disable heart rate monitoring entirely, you can turn it off permanently in just a few steps.
Here are two ways to do it:
- Using Apple Watch
- Using Watch App on iPhone
1 — Using Apple Watch
Open the Settings app on your Apple Watch.
Scroll down, tap on Privacy, and select Health.
Now, tap Heart Rate.
On the next screen, you will see a toggle for “Heart Rate.”
Slide this toggle off to disable heart rate monitoring on your watch.
This will prevent the green LED light from activating whenever your watch tries to measure your pulse.
IMPORTANT NOTE — Turning this off will disable all heart rate-related features on your watch. You won’t get high/low heart rate notifications, irregular rhythm alerts, or be able to use the Breathe app. The watch also won’t show your heart rate during workouts. So only disable this if you want to completely turn off the heart rate monitor.
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2 — Using Watch App on iPhone
You can also disable the green light on your Apple Watch using the Watch app on your paired iPhone.
- Open the Watch app and go to the My Watch tab.
- Tap on Privacy and toggle off the switch for “Heart Rate.”
This will relay the setting change to your watch and turn off the heart rate sensor. Just like directly on the watch, this will also disable all heart rate-related features.
The change takes effect immediately – so whenever the watch tries to activate the sensor again, the green light will stay off.
You can easily re-enable heart rate monitoring in the settings when needed.
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How to Turn off Green Light on Apple Watch Temporarily
If you just want to temporarily turn off the flashing green light, there are a few handy tips you can use:
1 — Wait for the Watch to Finish Monitoring Your Heart Rate
The green LED light turns on whenever your Apple Watch checks your heart rate, which is every 10 minutes or so. When this happens, wait patiently for 10-15 seconds for the sensor to take the measurement.
Once your watch has your current heart rate, the green light will automatically turn off.
So, try to ignore the flashing light for a few seconds until the sensor finishes its work!
2 — End the Active Breath or Reflection Session on Your Watch
If you’ve started a breathing session or reflection with the Breathe app, your watch will continuously measure your heart rate in the background.
To stop the incessant green flashing, simply end the active session on your watch.
Press the red X icon on the Breathe app screen to exit.
Once you end it, the heart rate monitor and green light will turn off.
3 — Stop the Workout Session on Your Watch
During workout mode, your Apple Watch monitors your heart rate constantly to give you real-time stats.
To take a break from the green light, press the side button on your watch and swipe right on the workout screen to exit.
Tap the red Stop icon to end the workout.
Your watch will stop measuring your heart rate, and the green LED will turn off. Just remember to save your workout data first!
People Also Read — How Accurate is Apple Watch on Treadmill?
End Note
While the heart rate monitor provides beneficial data, the accompanying flashing green LED light can sometimes get in the way.
Fortunately, with the Apple Watch, you have the option to disable the heart rate sensor entirely or temporarily turn it off when needed.
Just be prepared to lose access to certain features that rely on continuous heart monitoring when you switch that green light off!
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