Getting started
with Grove.
A short setup. If you've used the Health app before, the whole thing takes about three minutes — plus one good night's sleep before your first read.
Before you begin
You'll need:
- ✦ An iPhone running iOS 16 or later
- ✦ An Apple Watch (optional but recommended for richer overnight HRV and sleep)
- ✦ About three minutes for setup, plus one full night of sleep before your first recovery read
Install & grant access
- Download Grove from the App Store. The app installs on your iPhone. There's no separate Watch app to find — Grove reads your Apple Watch data through the Health app on iPhone.
- Sign up. Email and password, or sign in with Apple or Google. You'll confirm your email with a code, then land on the home screen.
- Grant HealthKit permission. Grove asks to read HRV, resting heart rate, heart rate, sleep, respiratory rate, SpO₂, active energy, and workouts. Everything is read locally on your device — your raw biometric data is never uploaded to a server.
Tip: If you wear your Apple Watch overnight, your sleep tracking and HRV will be richer within a few nights. Grove needs about one full night of sleep data before your first meaningful recovery read — the home screen will be quiet until then.
Your first read
Grove computes your first recovery score the morning after your first night of HealthKit sleep data. Until then, your home screen will look intentionally quiet — no fake numbers, no filler. Once a night of data arrives, your forest plants its first sapling and begins to evolve.
The biome reflects a rolling 14-day window of recovery, sleep, and strain. The first week is foundational — it sets the baseline against which future days are measured. Be patient with the first seven nights.
Sync & data
Grove reads fresh data from HealthKit every time you open the app, and again in the background while it's running. Your forest updates at most once per hour — we found more frequent refreshes made the biome feel restless rather than restful.
Your raw HealthKit data stays on your device. Your computed biome state and score history sync to a private Grove backend so your forest is consistent across reinstalls. If you sign in to Grove on another device, your biome travels with you.
If something feels off
- The biome looks stuck. Grove refreshes hourly, not instantly. If it's been more than a day since anything visibly changed, swipe down on the home screen to force a sync. If that doesn't help, quit and reopen the app.
- HRV readings seem low or noisy. HRV varies dramatically by sensor wear, body position, and time of measurement. Grove weights overnight readings heavily for this reason. Give it a full week before drawing conclusions.
- HealthKit data isn't appearing. Open the Health app on iPhone → Sources → Grove. Confirm every category is toggled on. If they are and Grove still looks empty, deleting and reinstalling Grove usually fixes it without losing your account.
- Subscription or restore questions. In Grove, go to Profile → Restore Purchases. Apple manages billing — to cancel, go to Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions on your iPhone.
Still stuck? Write to us using the form below. Include your iPhone model, your watch model if you wear one, and what you've tried. We'll respond within a day, usually less.