Health & Fitness

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Explore the technical aspects of health and fitness features, including sensor data acquisition, health data processing, and integration with the HealthKit framework.

Health & Fitness Documentation

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HealthKit quantity types are not documented when generated by the system and on which Apple Watch models
Finally at last Apple Health supports saving .distancePaddleSports, .distanceCrossCountrySkiing, .distanceRowing, .distanceSkatingSports, and much more. The backstory. In the land of 10,000 lakes, there hasn't been a way to save 'canoe' or 'kayak' distance and I've been asking for it for years. Thank you health team for adding it this year! FB7807993 - Add HKQuantityTypeIdentifier.paddleDistance for canoeing, kayaking, etc type workouts (June 2020) Prior we could just save the totalDistance to a workout, but since the HKWorkout initializers were deprecated we no longer have a supported way to save these distances in our workouts. The iOS 18 / watchOS 11 introduction addresses this. If you want to know more why you can't do this in earlier versions you can check these feedback titles: FB10281482 - HealthKit: Deprecation of totalDistance on a workout session of paddleSports breaks apps that used that to save distance to the workout because there is no "paddleDistance" type available to save as sample data (June 2022) FB12402974 - HealthKit: Deprecation of HKWorkout completely breaks support for third party fitness apps from saving non-standard workout distance (June 2023) Great, so there is new support that solves all of these requests and issues for the new version of the OSes. However, the downside is now that there is not much for documentation. Unlike the .runningSpeed and .runningPower introduced in iOS 16 / watchOS 9, none of the new iOS 18 / watchOS 11 types have documentation, at all. To some degree this is understandable, but types from last year still remain undocumented too. Without this information for the data types introduced in both iOS 17/18 and watchOS 10/11 it makes building and integrating with these new types difficult to say the least. We can't make assumptions about anything. Can we get a documentation update for new (and existing) quantity types for when Apple Watch will automatically generate samples? FB14236080 - Developer Documentation / HealthKit: Update documentation for HKLiveWorkoutDataSource typesToCollect for which sample types are automatically collected by watchOS 10 and 11 (July 2024) FB14942555 - HealthKit / Documentation: App Update Release Issue - HKQuantityTypeIdentifiers are missing documentation describing when the system automatically adds data (today) I know that the behavior has changed from release to release for some of these types, so documentation would be based on OS version. If you didn't catch it, watchOS 11 will now associate .cyclingSpeed for cycling workouts both indoor and outdoor. FB12458548 - Fitness: Connected cycling speed sensor did not save samples to health via cycling workout (June 2023 - received reply that only saved for indoor cycling, but not documented otherwise) FB14311218 - HealthKit: Expected outdoor cycling to include .cyclingSpeed quantity type as a default HKLiveWorkoutDataSource type to collect (July 2024) To the other third party fitness apps out there, how are you managing the knowledge of which devices collect which data types on which versions of the OS? Sure, we could look at the HKLiveWorkoutDatSource and inspect the typesToCollect property across a bunch of devices, but again that is trial by error not 'as documented'. Is the behavior of simulators guaranteed to match the behavior of real devices? Maybe, but also maybe not. Fingers crossed for a nice documentation update to spell out all of the behavioral details. Apple folks / DTS, many of the above feedbacks are addressed and I plan to update or close them after the releases this fall. Some are still outstanding. P.S. I hope that .paddleSports gets deprecated and split into individual activity types like skiing did years ago. Their MET scores are different according to the research on the physical activity compendium site. FB7807902 - Split HKWorkoutActivityType.paddleSports into their own activity types (June 2020)
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431
Aug ’24
Exporting/storing user HealthKit data for analytics in database
I am having trouble finding clear information about this. I want my app to collect and aggregate user data to provide useful analytics to the user and userbase. Can data accessed from HealthKit be stored on a database outside the Apple ecosystem and used for analytics? The data will not be used for marketing and will not be shared. It will be used only for the benefit of the user's understanding of their health and for the community that uses the app. If not, what if the data is anonymized first before being exported to a 3rd party database?
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235
Oct ’24
Workout Effort Scores
Is there anywhere that describes in detail how third party workout apps can use the new effort score functionality? I can't see much in the documentation or any of the WWDC videos. In particular it would be useful to know if an effort score is automatically calculated for workouts created with third party apps? It doesn't seem to happen but some people say it takes weeks / months before watchOS starts calculating it for third party apps. If it doesn't happen automatically then how can the app set it? I tried the new relateWorkoutEffortSample API but that didn't work for me (see https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/763539). If I could get it working then how should I determine a default effort score based on the workout metrics? Is that something that the app should do? If so then it would be good to be consistent with watchOS so some idea of how that is calculating effort scores would be useful. Sorry for all the questions, especially if there is an article in the documentation or a video that I have missed.
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655
Sep ’24
Issue with Air play since new update iOs18 (apple fitness App)
Can’t start fitness video with my iPhone on my tv since new update 18.1. Air play is connecting I see the countdown then the dots rolling but nothing happens and I end up receiving a « can’t read video » message. I’m using an iphone 16 pro max, an apple watch ultra (1st gen) and an apple tv HD (A1625 model). I have almost the same issue with a more recent Apple TV, but on that one it’s just painfully long before the video starts but it does start eventually (just taking much longer than it used to). That some tv is an A2843 model (apple tv 4k 3rd gen). Has anyone else had this issue?
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312
Oct ’24
Missing manual - Training Load, .estimatedWorkoutEffortScore, .workoutEffortScore - Where are the Apple RPE CR-10 scale docs?
Apple is using the RPE scale for workout effort scores. This stands for the Rate of Perceived Exertion. They're specifically using the CR-10 scale, at least from what I can tell by saving values to HealthKit. They only accept value between 0 and 10. Has anyone been able to find a scientific or academic paper on how they have chosen their different effort breakouts? Right from the Fitness app on iPhone and Activity app on Apple Watch: 1-3 Easy 4-6 Moderate 7-8 Hard 9-10 All Out There is zero documentation on these new types, which makes it difficult for workout recording apps to properly and appropriately save this new data type. Sure, we can use the Apple apps as a reference, but since there isn't a built-in Apple SwiftUI sheet to present this data, and no references to academia to point our users to, our solutions would just look the same. FB15315876 - Documentation / HealthKit: Publish documentation about .workoutEffortScore and .estimatedWorkoutEffortScore FB15316109 - Documentation / HealthKit: Add documentation to .estimatedWorkoutEffortScore and .workoutEffortScore that you can't save those samples via the save API and that they must be related and let that API save the sample FB15316251 - Documentation / HealthKit: Add documentation for acceptible values of .estimatedWorkoutEffortScore and .workoutEffortScore - don't rely on a runtime error! Apple missed making an enum for all third party developers this year.
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264
Oct ’24
How to add "Estimated Time in Each Heart Rate Zone" info to my custom HKWorkout when viewed in Apple Fitness app?
Hello, I’m currently developing a fitness app for watchOS that lets a user to manually set a desired heart rate target zone (enter numbers representing the lower and upper boundaries) and start a workout (right now it’s only “Other” type). After that my app monitors user’s heart rate and alerts them when they’re out of zone. When user ends the workout, the info about this workout appears on “Fitness” iOS app, and user can see the workout data like Workout Time, Active and Total Calories, Avg. Heart Rate. Also user can see Heart Rate chart with info how their heart rate was changing during a workout (see the Figure 1). Now to the question. When user clicks “Show More” button above the Heart Rate chart, they can see the same Heart Rate chart and another one, with Post-Workout Heart Rate (see the Figure 2). But there is no “Estimated time in each heart rate zone” as one can see in the workout’s details that were recorded from Apple’s workout (watchOS “Workout” app, for a workout of “Other” type as well). Please see the Figure 3. The question is: is it possible to add “Estimated time in each heart rate zone” to workout recorded via my third-party app so it would look like on the Figure 3 in "Fitness" iOS app, and if it's possible, what steps should I undertake to implement this ? Thanks in advance! I posted the screenshots in the replies to the post, because otherwise I was not able to submit a post ("sensitive language" warning, I suspect it's because of the ids in the attached screenshot's urls)
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May ’24
internal healthkit error: "Unable to invalidate interval: no data source avallable"
we are seeing what appears to be an internal healthkit error appearing in our app.  not sure if it's connected, but we've mostly seen it reported on devices running ios 16.  even though our app's primary language is japanese, and in all reported occurrences the app was running in japanese, the error message itself appears in english.  searching the error string on the web yields surprisingly few results (including only two mentions on this forum that i could find, neither of which seemed relevant).  this would seem to suggest that it's coming from something deep inside healthkit, since the error message is not localized.  in all reported cases, the user had recently upgraded to a new iphone.  in most cases, the problem only occurs on the new device even though everything had been working correctly prior to the upgrade.  the error occurs when the app is unable to read step count data from healthkit. we have confirmed that the app has been granted access permissions to all health data via os settings.  we've also tried having the user toggling those settings off, then back on, rebooting the device, deleting and reinstalling the app, etc., to no avail. the error message is "Unable to invalidate interval: no data source avallable." we'd appreciate it if anyone can shed more light on this issue. thanks!
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1.3k
Nov ’22
Adding workoutEffortScore to HKWorkout
I'm trying to hook into the new workoutEffort score supported in iOS 18, I am collecting this information from users when they submit their workout and trying to add a sample to the HKWorkout in the same manner as I've been adding other samples like bodyweight, calories burned, etc. I'm receiving the error: HKWorkout: Sample of type HKQuantityTypeIdentifierWorkoutEffortScore must be related to a workout I tried adding the samples using HKWorkoutBuilder.add([samples]) as which has been working perfectly for calories burned & bodyweight, but I am receiving the above error for workoutEffortScore As a second approach, I tried adding the sample after I called finishWorkout on the HKWorkoutBuilder and received back the HKWorkout object using HKHealthStore.add([samples], to: HKWorkout) and am still receiving the same error! I don't know otherwise how to relate a sample to a workout, I thought those were the APIs to do so? I'm using Xcode 16.0 RC (16A242) and testing on an iOS 16 Pro simulator
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Sep ’24
HealthKit permission sheet appears every time for some users - bug?
The HealthKit permission sheet is showing up every time the app opens for a few users of my app. It doesn't matter what action they take in the sheet. I have had them try toggling the permissions from the HealthKit system settings but that did not happen to fix the problem. Has anyone experienced this problem or know a fix? Its affecting a few users of my app. I haven't been able to find what in my code could be doing this, I suspect its a bug on HealthKit's side for specific users. I can't find anyone reporting this problem elsewhere so I have to assume its my fault, but the docs clearly state that the permission sheet will only be presented once.
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1.2k
Feb ’24
How the iOS 18 Control Widget displays an AppIntentError to the user.
My app is an outdoor exercise tracking app that allows you to start exercising from the Control widget。 I want to prompt the user with an AppIntentError.PermissionRequired.location error when the user doesn't authorize Core Location permissions. When I throw error in the Intent, tap the Control widget doesn't do anything and doesn't give the user any indication of what's happening
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Sep ’24
HealthKit bugs related to new workout effort score - heart rate samples take forever to fetch, Health app displays invalid data
I am encountering issues on my device running iOS 18 that fetching heart rate samples associated to a given workout is very slow. Like 10+ seconds slow. This is unacceptable and unexpected. In producing a video to attach to a feedback, I also observed that Apple Health app displays incorrect information if a workout effort score is associated to a workout. In this image, you can see the Health app bug: Total Resting Energy != Estimated Workout Effort Score Here is the same workout after I delete the workout effort score using the Apple Health app: Can anyone else see if attempting to view 'heart rate' data within the workout summary in Apple Health is unbearably slow if that workout also has an effort score associated? My steps: Record workout (Apple Activity app on watchOS) Associate effort score View the workout on Apple Health (iOS) Attempt to view it's heart rate samples Observe very slow loading times Observe the incorrect cell label and value and disappearance of resting energy cell data Remove/disassociate the effort score from the workout by tapping the workout effort row, and swipe to delete the value. Navigate back, navigate back, and then go into the workout detail again At this time the UI fixes itself, but the loading of heart rate data is still super slow FB15269657 - HealthKit: Sample query to fetch heart rate samples associated to a workout is taking over 10 seconds - computing 'time in heart rate zone' FB15278790 - Health: Workout summary 'Total Resting Energy' label has value of 'Estimated Workout Effort Score' for a value, pushed view shows empty
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323
Sep ’24
Wake-up detection with HealthKit
Hello HealthKit Experts & Enthusiasts! I am building an app called one sec which forces people to take a deep breath before they can use social media apps (it’s using Shortcuts Automations for that). One important feature of one sec is the Good Morning Countdown: For a specified time after waking up (e.g. 30mins) selected apps are blocked completely. This helps to start the day screen-free. They way it works is, the user grants access to read HKCategoryTypeIdentifier.sleepAnalysis data. I have implemented a HKObserverQuery and enableBackgroundDelivery in order to be informed whenever new HKCategoryTypeIdentifier.sleepAnalysis becomes available. I noticed that when I have my device connected to Xcode, this works as expected. However, when I quit the app and launch it from my Home Screen, my observer query is not informed about new sleep data (except when my app is running in foreground). Any ideas? Furthermore, I have noticed that sometimes sleep data is provided delayed to HealthKit, many minutes (sometimes even longer) after waking up, no sleep samples are to be found in the Health app. Of course, for my app it is crucial to get accurate + timely so apps can be blocked accordingly. Is this an issue that the Apple Watch first needs to send the samples to the phone? Thanks a lot for your help!
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Sep ’24
HealthKit ID is the same with another Device
HealthKit tracker Id is the same with another Device, We are using an application to track our health progress and we are trying to connect our HealthKit to monitor our health data (steps and calories) but unfortunately we can't connect to the app (another application) at the same time because two devices is sharing just one health kit tracker ID. Can anyone help me to resolve this issue? Old phone was used by the other person before changing to new phone
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Aug ’24
Overlapping Segments and Duplicate Start Times in Workout Data
Hello, We're encountering overlapping segments and discrepancies when analyzing running/workout data for a 5-mile run. The expected splits for the run are: 8:39 9:06 8:30 8:39 8:43 0:08 However, the raw data includes segments where start times begin before the previous segment ends, and there are duplicate start times. Below is a sample of the raw data: "startDate": "2024-09-09T19:32:00.308-0400", "eventType": "segment", "eventTypeInt": 7, "endDate": "2024-09-09T19:37:56.135-0400" }, { "startDate": "2024-09-09T19:32:00.308-0400", "eventType": "segment", "eventTypeInt": 7, "endDate": "2024-09-09T19:41:08.476-0400" },``` // Here's an example of where the second segment start time falls in side the first segments startDate and endDate "startDate": "2024-09-09T19:54:22.658-0400", "eventType": "segment", "eventTypeInt": 7, "endDate": "2024-09-09T19:59:41.215-0400" }, { "startDate": "2024-09-09T19:58:44.624-0400", "eventType": "segment", "eventTypeInt": 7, "endDate": "2024-09-09T20:07:23.216-0400"
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Sep ’24
How to start a legit companion App from iPhone App which uses CoreMotion?
I have an iOS application for the iPhone that works with a companion app on the Apple Watch, using CoreMotion to provide data. How can I launch the Apple Watch companion app from the iPhone app before starting data recording? Can startWatchAppWithWorkoutConfiguration(...) be used for this without registering an actual workout with HealthKit? Or can I register this action as a new custom workout?
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Sep ’24
HKLiveWorkoutBuilder only reporting heart rate - No other measurements
I'm using Healthkit with the following H/W specs: Apple Watch, series 8, OS: 10.6.1 (21U580) iPhone 11 Pro, OS: 17.6.1 Mac Studio M1 Xcode ver: 16.0 (16A242d) I am trying to get Apple Watch to report heart rate, HRV, respiratory rate, and body temperature using Healthkit's HKLiveWorkoutBuilder implementing HKLiveWorkoutBuilderDelegate's workoutBuilder method. However, the only reported value that is found from the workoutBuilder method's collectedTypes (a Set of HKSampleType objects) is HKQuantityTypeIdentifierHeartRate. Nothing for HRV, respiratory rate, or body temperature. All entitlements are set up, the plist filled in, and capabilities in place. Not sure why only the heart rate is reported from the watch but nothing else. I've scoured StackOverflow, Apple developer forums, even ChatGPT but none of the solutions work. Any help most appreciate! The model code is: import Foundation import HealthKit class WatchModel: NSObject, HKLiveWorkoutBuilderDelegate, HKWorkoutSessionDelegate { private let healthStore = HKHealthStore() private var workoutSession: HKWorkoutSession! private var workoutBuilder: HKLiveWorkoutBuilder! override init() { super.init() requestAuthorization() startWorkoutSession() } private func requestAuthorization() { let heartRateType = HKQuantityType.quantityType(forIdentifier: .heartRate)! let respiratoryRateType = HKQuantityType.quantityType(forIdentifier: .respiratoryRate)! let HRVRateType = HKQuantityType.quantityType(forIdentifier: .heartRateVariabilitySDNN)! let temperatureRateType = HKQuantityType.quantityType(forIdentifier: .bodyTemperature)! let healthDataTypes: Set = [heartRateType, respiratoryRateType, HRVRateType, temperatureRateType] healthStore.requestAuthorization(toShare: healthDataTypes, read: healthDataTypes) { (success, error) in if !success { print("Authorization failed") } } } func workoutSession(_ workoutSession: HKWorkoutSession, didChangeTo toState: HKWorkoutSessionState, from fromState: HKWorkoutSessionState, date: Date) { } func workoutSession(_ workoutSession: HKWorkoutSession, didFailWithError error: any Error) { } func workoutBuilderDidCollectEvent(_ workoutBuilder: HKLiveWorkoutBuilder) { } func startWorkoutSession() { let configuration = HKWorkoutConfiguration() configuration.activityType = .other configuration.locationType = .indoor do { workoutSession = try HKWorkoutSession(healthStore: healthStore, configuration: configuration) workoutBuilder = workoutSession.associatedWorkoutBuilder() workoutBuilder.delegate = self workoutBuilder.dataSource = HKLiveWorkoutDataSource(healthStore: healthStore, workoutConfiguration: configuration) let dataSource = HKLiveWorkoutDataSource(healthStore: healthStore, workoutConfiguration: configuration) let respiratoryRate = HKQuantityType(.respiratoryRate) dataSource.enableCollection(for: respiratoryRate, predicate: nil) let bodyTemp = HKQuantityType(.bodyTemperature) dataSource.enableCollection(for: bodyTemp, predicate: nil) let hrv = HKQuantityType(.heartRateVariabilitySDNN) dataSource.enableCollection(for: hrv, predicate: nil) workoutSession.delegate = self workoutSession.startActivity(with: Date()) workoutBuilder.beginCollection(withStart: Date(), completion: { (success, error) in if let error = error { print("Error starting collection: \(error.localizedDescription)") } }) } catch { print("Failed to start workout session: \(error.localizedDescription)") } } func workoutBuilder(_ workoutBuilder: HKLiveWorkoutBuilder, didCollectDataOf collectedTypes: Set<HKSampleType>) { print("collected types: \(collectedTypes)") for type in collectedTypes { if let quantityType = type as? HKQuantityType { if quantityType == HKQuantityType.quantityType(forIdentifier: .heartRate) { if let heartRateQuantity = workoutBuilder.statistics(for: quantityType)?.mostRecentQuantity() { let heartRateUnit = HKUnit(from: "count/min") let heartRateValue = heartRateQuantity.doubleValue(for: heartRateUnit) print("heart rate: \(heartRateValue)") } } if quantityType == HKQuantityType.quantityType(forIdentifier: .heartRateVariabilitySDNN) { if let hrvQuantity = workoutBuilder.statistics(for: quantityType)?.mostRecentQuantity() { let hrvUnit = HKUnit.secondUnit(with: .milli) let hrvValue = hrvQuantity.doubleValue(for: hrvUnit) print("HRV: \(hrvValue)") } } if quantityType == HKQuantityType.quantityType(forIdentifier: .bodyTemperature) { if let bodyTempQuantity = workoutBuilder.statistics(for: quantityType)?.mostRecentQuantity() { let tempUnit = HKUnit.degreeCelsius() let tempValue = bodyTempQuantity.doubleValue(for: tempUnit) print("body temp: \(tempValue)") } } if quantityType == HKQuantityType.quantityType(forIdentifier: .respiratoryRate) { if let respRateQuantity = workoutBuilder.statistics(for: quantityType)?.mostRecentQuantity() { let respRateUnit = HKUnit(from: "count/min") let respRateValue = respRateQuantity.doubleValue(for: respRateUnit) print("breathing: \(respRateValue)") } } } } } }
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539
Sep ’24
recoverActiveWorkoutSession() inaccurate for paused sessions
When a workout session is being recovered, if it is paused, the elapsed time will be incorrect. It will seem like that workout never was paused. The recovery works fine if the workout was never paused. Steps to reproduce: Implement recoverActiveWorkoutSession Start workout Pause session and print the elapsed time Stop simulator / cause crash When recoverActiveWorkoutSession is called the elapsed time will not equal the elapsed time when the session was paused. Here is my implementation. I haven't seen any examples online. guard let recovered = try? await healthStore.recoverActiveWorkoutSession() else {return} self.session = recovered self.builder = recovered.associatedWorkoutBuilder() self.session?.delegate = self self.builder?.delegate = self self.builder?.dataSource = HKLiveWorkoutDataSource(healthStore: healthStore, workoutConfiguration: recovered.workoutConfiguration) self.sessionState = recovered.state
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306
Sep ’24
Regular step count fetch and upload to API
Hello all, I am quite new to iOS and Swift, and before venturing further, I feel it's better to ask for advice. I have build a Type I diabetes simulator running as a NodeJS application on a server. The clients authenticate via a browser using Fitbit/Google oauth2, set up a virtual patient, then take care of the patient 24/7. The app imports the users steps and heartrate, as these influence the blood sugar variations. (https://cgmsim.com) I designed a companion app with Expo, adding high/log blood glucose alerts with push notifications. If the user doesn't have a Fitbit tracker or doesn't use Google Fit, I'd like to send their HealthKit step counts to the backend. (Using sensor data directly in Android). It works using Expo's Background Fetch and TaskManager, but the uploads from the iOS device are very irregular. I set up silent push notifications from the backend to wake up the app in the background and trigger the step count upload. It works, but it is not reliable enough. I now wrote my first local native module for iOS, where a HKObserverQuery listening for new step events, making the upload and sending the count to the JS for rendering. I used enableBackgroundDelivery and BackgroundTask for uploading the results. All the entitlements and Info.plist entries should be ok. Still my app works well only in the foreground, and not upload at all happens when in the background. As we all do, I asked Claude, and it assured me th app should work. I have doubts though, as I noticed how strict iOS is about executing background tasks. So... should I even expect this to work ?
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434
Sep ’24