Blood pressure apps | Healthify (2025)

Knowing you have high blood pressure and finding the most accurate way to monitor and control it can be a challenge. Using a health app to track – but not measure – your blood pressure readings, combined with regular checks from your nurse or doctor, can help minimise your risk of having a heart attack or stroke.

Tips when using blood pressure apps

Do (✔)

• Talk with your nurse or doctor about your ideal blood pressure range and ways to maintain a healthy blood pressure.
• Use an app to keep track of your recordings as part of your blood pressure management plan.

Don’t (✘)

• Rely on apps that claim to measure your blood pressure without the use of a blood pressure cuff.
• Use a blood pressure app without first discussing it with your healthcare provider.
• Make changes to your medication based onthe recommendations from the app.

Warning: fake blood pressure apps

Be aware !!	Fake blood pressure apps
	There are many health apps that claim to measure your blood pressure without the use of a blood pressure cuff, but none of these have been validated and shouldn’t be trusted to give you an accurate recording.

Here are a few BP tracking apps reviewed by Healthify

App	Features	Clinical review
AVAX Blood Pressure	Diary Goal setting Tracking Graphs and reporting Reminders Cost: Free basic version; paid upgrade Read more about AVAX Blood Pressure
He taonga (blood pressure support tool)	Users can gain an understanding of what blood pressure is and why it is important. Ideas for realistic ways to change your habits to improve health and maintain a healthy blood pressure. Cost: free Read more about He taonga
BloodPressureDB	Blood pressure recording Medication tracking Reminders Graphs and reports Available from Google Play Cost: free Read more about Blood Pressure DB

While there are a growing number of apps that claim to support blood pressure self management, studies have found very few credible apps. Blood pressure apps differ in terms of their features and usefulness. A review of mobile apps to support the self-management of hypertension found the following functionality features to be important and desirable in blood pressure apps:

• Self-monitoring capabilities: this enables the user to track their BP and other health data over time in different formats, including graphs or tables and access the summary.
• Reminders and alerts: to remind users about their medication time, BP measurements, hospital visits or personal goals. Also the system alerts another person such as their health care provider when a medication dose is missed or when the BP is higher than the normal level.
• Automatic feedback: feedback is provided to users using different approaches. These include active feedback (through self-care messages and reinforcement messages) and passive feedback ( representing data in different colour codes to indicate whether measurement levels differed from the normal range).
• Goal setting.
• Educational information.
• Communication with health care professionals, eg, through text messaging.
• Stress management.

(Alessa, 2018(external link))

Blood pressure (mate pēhanga toto)
High blood pressure | Mate pēhanga toto
NZ Health App Library
Consumer guide – how to choose a health app
Clinicians guide – how to choose a health app

References

1. Popular Android blood pressure apps are useless and even harmful to patients(external link) iMedical Apps, Medpage Today,May 2016.
2. Green BB. BP here, there, and everywhere – mobile health applications (apps) and hypertension care(external link). J Am Soc Hypertens. 2015;9(2):137-9.
3. Kumar N, Khunger M, Gupta A, Garg N.A content analysis of smartphone-based applications for hypertension management(external link) J Am Soc Hypertens. 2015;9(2):130-6.
4. Alessa T, Abdi S, Hawley MS et al. Mobile apps to support the self-management of hypertension – systematic review of effectiveness, usability, and user satisfaction(external link)JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2018;6(7):e10723.
5. Jamaladin H, van de Belt TH, Luijpers LC, et al. Mobile apps for blood pressure monitoring – systematic search in app stores and content analysis(external link) JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2018 Nov 14;6(11):e187