A rowing monitor app that keeps the connection while you switch apps

Name: Ergmate
Author: Growing Peas

Row with your pace in big figures, and keep every stroke even when you switch to music or a video. Ergmate reads your monitor over Bluetooth, holds the link in the background, and if the signal drops for a moment it reconnects on its own and the workout carries on as one piece.

Get it on Google Play Android 12 and later · free live screen, no ads

The live screen marked Connected and Recording: a pace of 1:51.9 per 500 m in large figures, 4 m ahead of your ghost, with distance, stroke rate, power, heart rate, calories and strokes below. — Rowing live against a ghost, an interval plan for the monitor, and your records.

The workout plan editor: two intervals of 500 m, each with one minute of rest and a target pace of 1:50.0 per 500 m. — Rowing live against a ghost, an interval plan for the monitor, and your records.

If your rowing app loses the monitor when you switch apps

When a phone app loses the monitor in the middle of a piece, the workout is cut in two or lost, usually because you switched to music or a message.

Ergmate is built around keeping that link. It stays connected while you change songs, answer a message or watch a show in another app, and it reconnects on its own after a short drop, so the workout is saved as one piece. It works with Concept2 PM5 monitors (RowErg, SkiErg, BikeErg) over Bluetooth. It is an independent app, made by me, and not affiliated with or endorsed by Concept2. Concept2, PM5, RowErg, SkiErg and BikeErg are trademarks of Concept2, Inc.

Made for the seat

Live pace in large figures, readable from the seat, with time, distance, stroke rate, power, heart rate and calories.
A pace boat in the lane beside you: set a target pace and see how many metres ahead or behind you are.
Build intervals by distance or time, with rest and a target pace for each one, and send them to the monitor in one tap: it waits for your first stroke.
Splits, summary and recovery heart rate saved as you go, and time in each heart rate zone.
History grouped by week, this week against last week, a trophy on every personal best, and a home-screen widget with this week’s metres.

What is free, and what one purchase adds

Free: the live screen, the connection that holds in the background, workout plans sent to the monitor, the home-screen widget, the steady pace boat, weekly totals, heart rate zones, personal best badges and your last 10 workouts with their splits.

Pro, one purchase that stays yours: your whole workout history (older workouts are kept and come back), personal records on every distance and time, machine by machine, a 12-week trend of your metres, races against the ghost of any past workout, stroke by stroke, stroke-by-stroke charts of power, rate, pace and heart rate, and TCX export for your training log with your whole history as a CSV file. Google Play shows the price in your own currency. No subscription, no ads, no account.

Heart rate figures and zones are a training guide, not medical advice.

Who makes it

I do: one person, on my own, under the name Growing Peas. Mail goes to [email protected] and I answer it myself. There is no account, no sign-in and no server: your workouts stay on your phone, and the app never asks for your location. The privacy policy says so in full.