While riding my bike today, recording the ride on my FR 935, I was also recording via an iOS app to more easily view speed/distance/cadence. I wanted to see heart rate for a moment and I wondered what Garmin Connect for iOS might display: GC seemed to have a relatively "live" display of my heart rate. This is without any Ant+ dongle/key. Made me think that heart rate may be available from the FR 935 to iOS apps - I was specifically wondering if there are any cycling iOS apps which can display heart rate from the FR 935 during a ride (while integrating with other BT sensors for speed/cadence)?
The iPhone does not have ANT+ capabilities. You'd have to use an ANT to BLE bridge of some sort like CABLE or the 4iiii HR strap to broadcast from your watch to an app.
It's true that the iPhone does not have ANT+ w/o a dongle/key, and that HR is only officially broadcast via ANT+ HOWEVER, recall from the OP (and try for yourself if you like) you can see your heart rate change in realtime (as I note in the OP) in the iOS GC app during activity, so the FR 935 seems to be making heart rate available via bluetooth, at least to the GC app.
Seems like that HR viewable in GC for iOS could be made available to other iOS apps and perhaps is...?
There was a post last month mentioning an obscure exercise trainer that had just released a phone app, in conjunction with Garmin, that could record your HR in the phone along with an activity (this activity is sent to the trainer company). I assume Garmin allowed them access to the API to collect HR data through the method you are suggesting.
