# Animo: Sharing Biosignals on a Smartwatch for Lightweight Social Connection

## TL;DR

Animo is a smartwatch app that facilitates lightweight, mood-centric social interactions by sharing biosignals like heart rate, supported by a two-week user study exploring new communication patterns.

## Contribution

This work introduces a novel smartwatch app for biosignal sharing, focusing on lightweight social interactions and exploring new communication patterns for dyadic heart rate exchange.

## Key findings

- Participants engaged in new biosignal communication patterns.
- The study identified opportunities for mood-centric interactions.
- Design landscape for biosignal communication on smartwatches was outlined.

## Abstract

We present Animo, a smartwatch app that enables people to share and view each other's biosignals. We designed and engineered Animo to explore new ground for smartwatch-based biosignals social computing systems: identifying opportunities where these systems can support lightweight and mood-centric interactions. In our work we develop, explore, and evaluate several innovative features designed for dyadic communication of heart rate. We discuss the results of a two-week study (N=34), including new communication patterns participants engaged in, and outline the design landscape for communicating with biosignals on smartwatches.