Feature Request: Expand HealthKit Body Composition Data Types to Support Smart Body Scanning Scales

Summary: Expanding HealthKit to support the full spectrum of smart scale metrics will allow Apple Health to remain the central hub for health data, align with user expectations, and future-proof the framework as body composition analysis evolves.

Description: With the growing adoption of smart body composition scales (e.g. segmental impedance scanners, multi-frequency analyzers, and body pods), users are generating a wide variety of clinically relevant metrics that currently cannot be stored natively in HealthKit.

At present, HealthKit supports a core set of body composition values (Body Mass, BMI, Body Fat %, Lean Mass, Height, Waist Circumference). While useful, these do not capture the full picture modern devices provide, leading to fragmentation: • Users can see dozens of metrics in the device app, but only a handful flow into Health. • Developers must resort to metadata fields, which are inconsistent across apps and not accessible in Apple’s Health app UI.

This gap undermines HealthKit’s role as a central, standardized health record.

Proposed Additions: Expand HealthKit HKQuantityTypeIdentifier to include additional body composition and derived measurements commonly reported by smart scales:

Core Body Composition • Visceral fat percentage / rating • Skeletal muscle mass • Segmental muscle mass (arms, legs, trunk) • Segmental fat mass (arms, legs, trunk) • Bone mineral mass • Total body water % / hydration

Derived Health Metrics • Muscle-to-fat ratio • Phase angle (bioelectrical impedance) • Metabolic age • Basal metabolic rate (BMR)

Rationale: • User benefit: Health app would show a more complete health profile, not just weight and fat %. • Developer benefit: Creates standardized identifiers, eliminating the need for proprietary storage in metadata. • Industry alignment: Many leading health devices already provide these metrics; users expect them to sync into Health. • Future-proofing: As body scanning scales proliferate, HealthKit can remain the trusted central repository rather than ceding ground to siloed vendor apps.

Suggested Implementation: • Introduce new HKQuantityTypeIdentifier values for each metric. • Permit segmental values to be represented as discrete samples with metadata for body region. • Ensure values can be written by apps/devices and surfaced in Health app UI, just like existing body composition data.

Thanks, @mchristopherjohnson. The formal way to provide feedback is to file a feedback report. Did you have a feedback report yet? If not, you can consider filing one and sharing the report ID here. Thanks again.

Best,
——
Ziqiao Chen
 Worldwide Developer Relations.

Feature Request: Expand HealthKit Body Composition Data Types to Support Smart Body Scanning Scales
 
 
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