How does Apple Health work? Monitoring your health with iPhone

Health app in iOS: why is it needed, what data is recorded in it, what useful settings are there? Read our article about how to lead a healthy lifestyle with Apple.

Apple Health is an aggregator of data about your body's health on your iPhone. The app collects data from various fitness apps installed on your smartphone and Apple Watch, analyzes it and organizes all the information in a convenient way to give you a comprehensive view of your health.

Apple Health. Categories

Apple Health: Health Data Categories
There are four different data categories in the Health app. They allow you to quickly get an idea of your diet, sleep patterns, physical activity and other important things.

Activity : This category collects data about your physical activity and sports activities. Here you will find out how many steps you took per day, how long you sat still and how many calories you burned.
Sleep : a regulated biorhythm is very important for good sleep. In this category you can find information about how long your sleep lasts and what time you go to bed.
Mindfulness : In this category you will find data about the rhythm of your breathing. You can also get an idea of how regularly you took breaks throughout the day, which can help prevent stress from developing.
Nutrition : Are you counting calories, want to eat less fatty foods, or think you're consuming too much caffeine? In the “Nutrition” category, you can analyze your menu and make the necessary adjustments.

In addition, the application has additional categories: heart, body measurements, reproductive health, tests, vital indicators.

What is the Hey Siri function for?

Many lifehacks on the Internet say that you can disable the Hey Siri feature. Stupid advisers do not understand at all that in a situation when your hands are full, Siri can save your life. You can’t get out of bed, reach the phone, your hands don’t work. Anything could happen. Again, if you already understand that there is a probability of such an event, even minimal, you should definitely enable this function .

Why do you need the Hey Siri feature?

Apple Health. Fitness Tracking

Apple Health: Health
If you're using iOS 8 or later and don't see the Health app, you may need to update to the latest version of iOS.

Additionally, to use the Health app properly, you may need to enable the Fitness Tracking option:

Open iPhone settings.
Select the General , then click Privacy .
To use Health app features, under Health > Fitness Tracking, move the slider to the right.

How does a pedometer work on iPhone?

A feature of all iPhones, from the 5th model to the latest X, is a built-in electronic-mechanical pedometer. The function based on the amplitude of vibrations of the smartphone transforms impulses into the number of steps taken, in other words, it counts steps.

If you don't see your step count in the Today tab, tracking may not be enabled.

It's easy to enable by following the step-by-step instructions:

On the main screen, select the “Settings” icon (gray gear), then look for the “Privacy” item, then click on the “Movement and Fitness” link.
Opposite the Fitness Tracking function, activate the switch so that it lights up green. In the same way, move the slider opposite the “Health” application.

After this, the iPhone will begin collecting statistics on its owner’s activities: the number of steps, floors walked, and counting the total distance.

There are also third-party programs with similar functionality. It is recommended to install them from the App Store repository.

Apple Health. Search applications

Your iPhone and Apple Watch perform some functions automatically to collect information about your activity and health. These include counting steps and measuring heart rate.

But you can integrate a lot of other health data collected through third-party apps into the Health app:

Open the Health app and tap one of the four categories.
You will be asked to watch an explanatory video. You will also see apps that match that category. Tap any app to learn more about it and download it.
If you already use some apps to collect your health data, find them in the search field on the Health app's start screen and add them.

Create your own control panel.

The Health app is an aggregator designed to collect data.
Most of the time, the metrics that appear on your dashboard will be based on data received from other applications. But, there are two exceptions: counting steps and number of takeoffs. Steps and
number of takeoffs.
Using the motion processor on the 5S, 6, or 6 Plus, Health can track your steps without the help of an external app or device like FitBit. The same applies to iPhones 6 and 6 Plus, both of them can track the number of takeoffs (meaning responding to a change in position relative to sea level, which happens, for example, when an airplane takes off) using a built-in barometer.

To track your steps, go to the Health Data tab, then Fitness. Here, go to the number of lifts and steps, then turn on Show on Dashboard. Now these statistics will appear in the Control Panel.

Track other apps in Health.
This is where the fun begins. In the Health app, check the Sources tab. If you have compatible apps installed, here you can give them permission to share your data with Health.

To show health data from fitness apps and devices in the Health app dashboard:

Go to sources, then to the app you want and enable read and write permissions. Specify the permission type: Active Calories or Workouts.
Go to the Health Data tab and find the permission type you recorded in step one. In this category, allow display in the Control Panel.
Everything tracked in this app will now appear in the Dashboard.

To find apps compatible with the Health app, go to the App Store, then go to the Health & Fitness category.

Additional Apple Health app settings

Apple Health: Apple Watch integration

If you want to manually enter your blood pressure readings, click Metadata and then Key Metrics . Select a data type, for example, Pressure and click on the plus icon. Enter values manually.
You can also import your health data if you have previously used other apps. Enter the Health app, select the required data and find the Export . This is usually an icon shaped like a rectangle with an arrow pointing from it. Select Add to Health . Then, in the Health app, in the Metadata , select Health Status and tap it to view the information you need.
To motivate yourself to exercise more or go on a diet, you can activate the function in the application to inform you about your daily progress. Just tap Today at the bottom of the app to view statistics for various data points.
You can add the data that is most important to you to Favorites . Click on Metadata , then category and data type. Select a statistic or information and select Add to Favorites . In Favorites, you can easily see information for the current month about your muscle growth, diet, or heart rate.
If you have an Apple Watch, your smartwatch data is automatically included in the Health app. To do this, the watch and iPhone simply need to be synchronized with the smartphone. You can receive data about your heart rate, movement and breathing from your smartwatch.

Conclusion

The “Health” direction is the summation and demonstration of activity indicators of the phone owner.

When a sedentary lifestyle becomes habitual, it is difficult to maintain a healthy level of activity for the body. Apple devices, as well as a special program, help with this. Athletes benefit from having additional devices: a smart watch or a fitness bracelet. This way it is easy to collect data on your physical activity level and avoid the physiological problems associated with a sedentary lifestyle.

Health app in iOS: why is it needed, what data is recorded in it, what useful settings are there? Read our article about how to lead a healthy lifestyle with Apple.

Sources

The Sources tab in the “Default” state looks a little, let’s say, lonely. This page will only be populated when applications that are installed from the AppStore request permission to update your health information.

For example, if you have a fitness tracker that tracks your sleep time or a scale that transmits your weight data to your smartphone via Bluetooth. The corresponding app on your smartphone will ask for permission to integrate with HealthKit. It will then upload the data to the Health app and you will have access to all your data in one place. This data can then be used by other apps, allowing you to gain greater insight into your health over the course of weeks, months or years.

Note that apps that you manually enter data into can also integrate with HealthKit, with all the implications described above.

This application is not very similar to ordinary Apple products, which are distinguished by their functionality brought to a shine. When you try it out, Health doesn't give you a very positive feeling, especially considering the amount of noise Apple made last year touting the merits of its "landmark" product to the media. Mainly because it was created somewhat “in advance” and there is not yet the necessary set of tools for it - software and hardware. Of course, you already have the option of manually entering all your health data into it, but the original purpose of the product involves the use of devices and applications that do this automatically, constantly and unnoticed by you. We believe that in the near future this situation will change.

Medical ID

The Medical ID tab allows you to create a medical ID. This is information that can be shown on your smartphone's lock screen without entering a password. This function is unlikely to be very useful to users from Russia, especially since people in the United States don’t really know about it yet.

The idea is that you can add information about yourself that might be useful in an emergency—information about medical conditions and allergies, blood type, organ donor status, emergency contacts, and the like. This important data can be accessed right from the screen of your locked phone if it is needed by medical professionals or first responders. This is something like a digital version of the medical identification bracelet that many of you have seen in American films about hospitals. True, this thing will be useful if someone thinks to look at your phone in an emergency. And also click on the “Call Help” button on the lock screen, and then click on the Medical ID item. Perhaps this will work in the future, but for now it doesn't. It's better to wear a hospital bracelet with similar information. Somehow more reliable.

Using a pedometer in the Health app on iPhone

Launch the “Health” application. In the “Meddata” menu, click on the “Activity” card. This section contains all user activity for the month, week and day. If you scroll down a little, you can see the Walking and Running Distance menu.

Increase

It displays detailed statistics on the steps taken. To get a detailed report by day, click on a special calendar chart, which is orange.

In order not to search for this or that value every time in the entire tree, you need to display it in the “Favorites” menu in the form of a gadget. You can use the “Add to Favorites” switch for this.

Increase

In the “Sources” item, you can manage all connected devices.

Creation of a “Medcard” for emergencies

The Health app lets you display contact details and medical information on your iPhone's locked screen that can be helpful to those helping you in an emergency.

Note.

Anyone who picks up your iPhone will be able to read the information you entered into your Medical Card for emergencies.

Setting up a Medical Card.

In the Health app, tap the Medical Card section in the lower right corner of the screen.

View your medical card.

When waking your iPhone from sleep, scroll down to enter your passcode and tap the SOS option.

Hiding information.

Tap Medical Card, select Edit, and turn off Show Medical Card.

Launch the Health app and you will see the Control Panel screen. If you're using an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, your phone's built-in step sensor will automatically show you information about your physical activity. This sensor tracks the number of steps you have taken, the distance you have walked, and the number of steps you have climbed. You can see data for this activity for the last day, week or year.

If you have an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, you can use this app as a quick way to view your step count data without needing a separate pedometer or fitness tracker of any kind. And unless you have any additional device or app, then that's all you can see in the Health app. Again, this is assuming you have the latest model phone with this sensor.

Although the dashboard automatically shows only step count data, in reality you can choose to show any type of data here.

Where “Health” is useless.

This is just the beginning, and it is clear that the application will develop.
The most disappointing part is that users cannot export their data anywhere. It would be really useful if users were able to save their data into spreadsheets or export it to other applications. “Health” might also be a little more useful. There are many supported data types in the Health Data > All section, but Apple does a poor job of showing how users can obtain this data. Ideally, Apple would provide recommendations to apps as they become available.

Finally, it would be helpful if Apple allowed users to lock an app with Touch ID.

Apple didn't say anything about it, but the iPhone's built-in pedometer needs calibration.

For this we need any free sports program. I recommend Runtastic or Runkeeper.

Articles tagged "FISH"
include short recipes for activating little-known functions in iOS, OS X and Apple gadgets.
If you already knew about this
, we are proud to present you with a virtual “advanced user” medal. Let's give other readers the opportunity to receive such an award;)

Why did the problem suddenly surface?

27,000 steps (or 20 km)
today .
I looked at my iPhone and was surprised because my result was 18,000 steps (or 11 km)
.

We were together all day and there was no way he could have gotten away so far apart unless he got up early in the morning and started running secretly, which was not observed.

I asked him if the iPhone data matches the readings from activity trackers or sports programs? – to which the friend replied that he had never used any trackers.

This is how the theory about the need to calibrate the iPhone arose.

Having installed Runtastic on his phone, I went to the iPhone settings at Privacy → Location Services → scroll down to System Services → enable Motion Calibration

(a sufficient, but not necessary condition - you need to run the software).

Next, launch the sports software and select the Walking workout. A GPS icon should appear in the top right corner. We walk at a measured pace for at least two kilometers. After which the iPhone’s built-in pedometer will become more accurate, and the Health app will display real activity indicators. To improve accuracy, it is advisable to go the same way back faster.

After calibration, the data of the two iPhones becomes equal plus or minus the error.

Apple Watch owners do not need to install anything additional, because the watch already has the required workout and is called Walk

The Apple website didn’t mention this, but the iPhone’s built-in pedometer needs calibration.
For this we need any free sports program. I recommend Runtastic or Runkeeper. Who doesn't need to read further: owners of any sports trackers. Articles marked “TICK” include short recipes for activating little-known functions in iOS, OS X and Apple gadgets…. Let's figure out how to enable a standard pedometer from the Health app on the iPhone, calibrate it, and see what available pedometer apps are in the App Store.

This article is suitable for all iPhone Xs/Xr/X/8/7/6/5 and Plus models running iOS 12. Older versions may have different or missing menu items and hardware support listed in the article.