Why can’t I connect my Apple Watch directly to my Peloton bike?
Here’s the technical jargon recap: it has to do with ANT+ and Bluetooth compatibilities. But the good news is, there’s a workaround for this limitation!
If you’re like me, you LOVE to use your Apple Watch at every moment throughout the day. I especially love to use it during workouts and watch my rings fill with my exercise, stand time, and calories of the day.
Now, imagine my frustration when I got my Peloton bike and realized that while it had its own Apple Watch app… the two didn’t sync.
In short, while the Peloton can connect to a variety of Bluetooth heart rate monitors, it’s not able to directly connect to the Apple Watch, at least not yet. The problem here is that while the Apple Watch can connect to Bluetooth devices, it can not broadcast as a Bluetooth device. Big bummer.
After looking into alternatives, I found something called ANT+.
I like to think of it like languages. Bluetooth is one language (i.e. your Apple Watch sends Activity data to your phone via the Bluetooth language), ANT+ is just another language.
Many heart rate monitors sold today can support both Bluetooth and ANT+ languages. However, your Apple Watch does not have ANT+ capabilities at all.
So there are two reasons why your Apple Watch can’t connect to your Peloton bike. First, your Apple Watch is not able to broadcast a Bluetooth signal, and second, your Apple Watch can’t broadcast ANT+.
