I found the Apple Watch feature every busy pro needs — and I use it every workout

By pairing an Apple Watch with AirPods Pro, I unlocked a quiet dual-sensor trick that gives busy professionals chest-strap health accuracy with zero extra setup

by · TechRadar

Features By Bryan M Wolfe Published 2 August 2026

(Image credit: Future)

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Apple Watch Ultra 3 owners tend to know the headline features by now: satellite messaging, the brighter always-on display, hypertension alerts.

What most people haven't noticed is a much quieter feature that only shows up if you also own a pair of the well-received AirPods Pro 3 — the same earbuds you're probably already using on all those Zoom calls at work every day.

For anyone else trying to squeeze a workout into a packed workday (or if you're trying to travel light on a business trip), I can tell you it's become the one I actually rely on most.

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No more packing the chest-strap

AirPods Pro 3 have their own in-ear heart rate sensors, enabled by default, which is easy to miss since Apple doesn't make a big deal about it.

On their own, they're a genuinely solid heart rate source, useful for anyone who wants to track a run or a lift without a watch at all. But when you wear both an Apple Watch and AirPods Pro 3 during the same workout, the two devices don't just duplicate the same job.

They combine into multiple simultaneous streams of heart rate data, and the system automatically leans on whichever source has the highest confidence at any given moment.

(Image credit: Future)

That matters more than it sounds like. Wrist-based optical sensors, including the Ultra 3's, can struggle during movements that shift the watch on your wrist: heavy grip work, rowing, anything involving a lot of wrist flexion.

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