Answers for life with long COVID. See the crash coming. See the climb back.
Autonomic is a long COVID tracker for iPhone and Android. A five-minute morning reading tells you how much today can take, warns you when your numbers start to slide, and keeps the long view of a recovery that rarely moves in a straight line. All of it stays on your phone.
Every install starts with 14 days of Pro, free
“I’ve been through a dozen apps trying to manage my POTS and PEM. I can say without a doubt Autonomic is the BEST one I’ve tried.”
“It’s already helping me manage my health and gather data to show providers.”
“Only app that isn’t for athlete training and specific to dysautonomia.”
The questions long COVID leaves you with, answered.
Each one is a part of the app. Tap a question to see how it works.
What long COVID is, and why it is so hard to read day to day.
- Single test
- None
- Crash delay
- 12 to 48 hours
- Often overlaps
- POTS, ME/CFS, MCAS
- Recovery
- Slow, rarely a straight line
Long COVID is the name for symptoms that persist for weeks or months after a COVID infection: fatigue, brain fog, breathlessness, palpitations, unrefreshing sleep, and crashes after effort that seem out of all proportion to what caused them. There is no single test for it. It is defined by your history and by the pattern of your symptoms over time, which is exactly what makes it so easy to wave away in a fifteen-minute appointment.
For many people, a large part of that pattern runs through the autonomic nervous system, the part of you that sets heart rate, blood pressure and temperature on autopilot. A heart that races when you stand, a thermostat that seems broken, and a crash a day or two after doing too much are all signs worth measuring. Long COVID also overlaps heavily with POTS and ME/CFS1, and our guide to long COVID symptoms that point to dysautonomia maps out how the pieces fit.
Why long COVID is so hard to track by feel
Three things work against you. The crash is delayed: post-exertional malaise usually lands 12 to 48 hours after the effort2, so the walk on Tuesday and the floor on Thursday never feel connected. Brain fog erases the record: when memory is one of the symptoms, “how was last month?” has no reliable answer. And recovery is slow and non-linear: good weeks and bad weeks hide a trend that only shows over months, which is why what recovery actually looks like surprises so many people.
What tracking gives you back
- A budget for today, set by your own morning readings, so pacing stops depending on how you feel in the moment3. Good days are the ones most likely to tempt you over the edge.
- An early flag when your numbers start to slide, so you can rest before the crash fully lands rather than after.
- The long view, so a slow climb you cannot feel becomes a line you can point to.
- A record that speaks for you. When your tests keep coming back normal, months of readings, stand tests and symptoms are evidence a description can never be.
What Autonomic will not do
It will not diagnose long COVID, it will never tell you to start, stop or change a treatment, and it will never tell you to push through. It measures, organizes and points out patterns, and it says so when it has nothing to say. The decisions stay with you and your clinician.
Sources
Checked November 2026- Long COVID: major findings, mechanisms and recommendations Davis HE, McCorkell L, Vogel JM, Topol EJ. Nature Reviews Microbiology 21(3):133–146, 2023. Dysautonomia and POTS as common features of long COVID.
- Beyond Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Redefining an Illness Institute of Medicine. The National Academies Press, 2015. Post-exertional malaise, and why the crash comes later.
- Effect of using a structured pacing protocol on post-exertional symptom exacerbation and health status in a longitudinal cohort with the post-COVID-19 syndrome Parker M, Sawant HB, Flannery T, et al. Journal of Medical Virology 95(1):e28373, 2023. Structured pacing in long COVID.
What to track with long COVID, and why.
The signals that move with long COVID, and how each one reaches your journal on the days you have nothing to spare.
| Signal | What it can tell you | How Autonomic gets it |
|---|---|---|
| Morning HRV (RMSSD) | A reading under your own normal, especially a day or two after a big effort, is one of the earliest signs that strain is building. | Five minutes with your phone camera, Apple Watch, Garmin or a chest strap |
| Resting and overnight heart rate | A resting rate that ticks up over a few days often comes before the crash you feel. | From your morning reading, plus overnight heart rate from Apple Health or Health Connect |
| Exertion | Steps, time upright, workouts and the minutes your heart spends above your own exertion line: the load that post-exertional malaise answers to. | Read from Apple Health or Health Connect and counted against your pacing budget |
| Crashes and PEM | When a crash hits, how long it lasts, and what the two days before it held. | Post-exertional malaise is a built-in symptom, logged in two taps |
| Sleep | Unrefreshing or broken nights show up in the next morning’s numbers. | Nights arrive from Apple Health or Health Connect, with stages and overnight heart rate |
| Standing heart rate | Whether POTS is part of your long COVID, and whether it is easing over the months. | A guided stand test on Apple Watch or a chest strap |
| Symptoms | Brain fog, fatigue, shortness of breath, palpitations, chest tightness and temperature swings, and when each one hit. | Built-in symptoms for long COVID and dysautonomia, plus any you create |
| Treatments and supplements | What you started or stopped, and when, so a change can be read against everything else that moved. | Meds and supplements logged with their timing, including types you create |
See the recovery you cannot feel.
Long COVID recovery rarely moves in a straight line. Autonomic keeps every reading, so slow change shows up as a trend instead of a hunch.
- 1Better than day oneToday’s score set against your first fortnight of logging, in points on the same 0 to 100 scale.
- 2Week, month and yearEvery metric over any range, so one bad week cannot erase a good month.
- 3What moved itInsights lines your better stretches up against what you were taking and doing at the time. Linked, never proven.
Progress beyond the last 14 days, and Insights, are part of Pro.
I’ve been through a dozen apps trying to manage my POTS and PEM. I can say without a doubt Autonomic is the BEST one I’ve tried.
A heads-up before the floor falls out.
When your score has been sliding for days, or two of the markers that tend to move first (resting and overnight heart rate, recovery after a workout, your standing rise, your symptom load) drift from your own normal at once, the Journal tells you and lists what moved. A notification can tell you when a slide starts.
An early flag, not a prediction. It can be wrong, and it never replaces how you feel. Crash warnings are free.
How crash warnings work →
vsThinking about Visible?
Many people with long COVID look at Visible first. Here is the short version.
Read the full comparison with Visible →
$259.58Visible Band 2.0, $79.70Not listed in its app descriptionTheir encrypted database; health data linked to you
“I’m not healed, and I won’t pretend otherwise. But over the two years I’ve used my own early version of Autonomic, I’ve been able to see what genuinely helps and reach a far better place than I’d been in for a long time.”
Austin Spaeth · more than four years with long COVID · dad of six, South Carolina
Read my story →Long COVID questions, answered
What is the best app for tracking long COVID?+
One built for long COVID rather than for fitness, that warns you before a crash and paces your day. Autonomic is built for long COVID and the conditions that travel with it, like POTS and ME/CFS. It turns a five-minute morning reading into a daily score, paces your day with a budget in hours and minutes, warns you when your numbers start to slide, and shows what lines up with your better days. The journal is free and everything stays on your phone.
Can an app tell me if I am about to crash?+
Not every time, and nothing can promise that. What it can do is watch the signals that often move first. A resting heart rate that ticks up and an HRV that sags in the day or two after a big effort frequently come before the crash you feel. Autonomic flags it when your score slides for days, or when two of those markers drift from your own normal at once, so you have a chance to rest before the crash fully lands.
How do I pace with long COVID?+
Pacing means staying inside the amount of activity your body can currently absorb without a crash. Autonomic gives you that as a daily budget in hours and minutes, set each morning by your HRV, resting heart rate and sleep, and judged on the two days after each day, because post-exertional malaise usually lands 12 to 48 hours later.
Can Autonomic show whether my long COVID is improving?+
It can show whether your numbers are. Your daily score is compared with your first fortnight of logging, and Progress charts every metric by week, month and year, so a slow climb shows up as a line rather than a feeling. It cannot tell you why you are improving, and it never claims to.
Do I need a wearable?+
No. Your phone camera can take the morning HRV reading with a fingertip on the lens, and the pacing budget works from your steps and what you log. A watch or strap that writes heart rate to Apple Health or Health Connect makes the budget sharper, and the app says so when an estimate is thin.
Is my health data private?+
Yes. Your journal lives on your phone. There is no account, no ads and no tracking, and every score and insight is worked out on the device. AI reports are built on your phone and only leave it if you choose to paste them into the AI you use.
Is Autonomic free?+
The journal is free forever, including unlimited HRV readings, crash warnings and your daily score. Autonomic Pro is $7.99 a month or $49.99 a year and adds the pacing budget, your full history, Insights and AI reports. Every install starts with 14 days of Pro, with no card.
About long COVID
All long COVID articles →The latest on long COVID
Tomorrow morning, see what today can take.
Free on iPhone and Android. Every install starts with 14 days of Pro, pacing budget included, with no card.