I'm a bit confused as to what we're supposed to be doing to support starting a workout using Siri in iOS/watchOS 26. On one hand, I see a big push to move towards App Intents and shortcuts rather than SiriKit. On the other hand, I see that some of the things I would expect to work with App Intents well... don't work. BUT - I'm also not sure it isn't just developer error on my part. Here are some assertions that I'm hoping someone more skilled and knowledgable can correct me on: Currently the StartWorkoutIntent only serves the Action button on the Watch Ultra. It cannot be used to register Shortcuts, nor does Siri respond to it. I can use objects inherited from AppIntent to create shortcuts, but this requires an additional permission to run a shortcut if a user starts a workout with Siri. AppIntent shortcuts requires the user to say "Start a workout in " - if the user leaves out the "in " part, Siri will not prompt the user to select my app. If I want to allow the user to simply say "Start a Workout" and have Siri prompt the user for input as to which app it should use, I must currently use the older SiriKit to do so. Are these assertions correct - or am I just implementing something incorrectly? Using the latest Xcode 26 beta for what it is worth.

New in iOS 26 and WatchOS 26 is a Sleep Score calculation for users based on Duration, Bedtime and Interruptions. Unfortunately I can't find any APIs for developers to tap into this metric. Yes, in theory it's all created off the same Sleep Analysis data already available with HealthKit but that makes it very hard to recreate in our apps. If the numbers don't match up exactly, users will understandably complain. Can anyone confirm that this is the case and I've not missed a Sleep Score API? I'll then file feedback. Hopefully this doesn't go the way of Heart Rate Zones where the Apple Watch iPhone app has generated them for years and provided no way for third party apps to access these values (yes many feedbacks provided previously).

We are developing a health app that relies on HKObserverQuery and BackgroundDelivery to monitor Heart Rate data. On watchOS 10.6 and 11.6 , these data updates are typically delivered reliably every 8–12 minutes, occasionally exceeding 12 minutes, but generally not longer than 15 minutes. This frequency has been sufficient for the real-time data requirements of our app. However, after adapting our app to watchOS 26, we noticed that HKObserverQuery triggers much less frequently, with longer and very inconsistent intervals. This issue has had a major impact on our product: data collection for essential features is unreliable, resulting in a greatly diminished user experience on watchOS 26 and making the app essentially useless from the user’s perspective. Observed Behavior: HKObserverQuery and BackgroundDelivery are extremely unstable, with trigger intervals frequently exceeding 15 minutes, and sometimes even 20 minutes. When the user is sedentary, intervals become even longer; there are cases where no heart rate or active energy updates are delivered for 30 minutes, or even over 1 hour. Request for Support and Guidance: Have there been any changes to the HKObserverQuery background delivery mechanism on watchOS 26, specifically for Heart Rate and Active Energy data? If these changes are intentional system optimizations, could you provide guidance or recommended practices to ensure our app can reliably retrieve updates and maintain a smooth experience for users? Thank you for your support.

I want to insert the medication data which is available from ios 26 from my app to apple health kit. I have tried to get the permission to read and write data but app got crashed while I tried to request that permission. Does apple allow to insert the medication data to apple health kit likewise we are able to add other health and fitness data or not? let healthStore = HKHealthStore() @available(iOS 26.0, *) @objc func requestAuthorization(_ resolve: @escaping RCTPromiseResolveBlock, rejecter reject: @escaping RCTPromiseRejectBlock) { guard HKHealthStore.isHealthDataAvailable() else { print("not available ") return } let doseType = HKObjectType.medicationDoseEventType() let medType = HKObjectType.userAnnotatedMedicationType() healthStore.requestAuthorization(toShare: [doseType], read: [doseType]) { success, error in if let err = error { reject("auth_error", err.localizedDescription, err); return } self.healthStore.requestPerObjectReadAuthorization(for: medType, predicate: nil) { s, e in if let err2 = e { reject("per_obj_auth", err2.localizedDescription, err2); return } resolve(["ok": success && s]) } } }

We are using HealthKit in our app to synchronize step count data. The data is correctly synced with the Health app, but the step count does not appear in the Fitness app (although workout data does). Is there anything developers need to do to synchronize step count data with the Fitness app as well?

Hey everyone I'm working on a health app that's heavily focused on HRV tracking and analysis, and I'm trying to figure out what's actually possible with AirPods Pro 3 from a developer standpoint. The hardware clearly has a much better heart rate sensor than the previous generation, but I'm hitting some walls when it comes to actually accessing the data I need. So here's the situation I'm dealing with: When I query HealthKit for HRV samples, I'm not seeing anything coming from AirPods Pro 3. The device is obviously capable of tracking heart rate continuously during workouts and listening sessions, and from what I've read about the hardware, it should theoretically be able to capture the inter-beat intervals needed for HRV calculation. But either that data isn't being processed on-device, or it's just not being made available through the standard HealthKit data types that third-party apps can access. What I'm really after is either direct HRV metrics (like SDNN, which Apple Watch already provides through HKQuantityTypeIdentifierHeartRateVariabilitySDNN) or even better, access to the raw R-R interval data. With R-R intervals, I could calculate RMSSD, pNN50, and other time-domain and frequency-domain HRV metrics that are super valuable for tracking recovery, autonomic nervous system balance, and stress levels. This would be especially useful since a lot of users wear AirPods during activities when they're not wearing their Apple Watch. Has anyone managed to find a way to pull this data from AirPods Pro 3? Are there any private frameworks or entitlements I should be looking into? Or is this just fundamentally not exposed to developers at the OS level right now? I've gone through the HealthKit documentation pretty thoroughly and haven't found anything that specifically addresses this, but I'm wondering if I'm missing something or if there are any known workarounds. I'm also curious if anyone has heard anything from Apple about future plans to expose this data. It seems like a missed opportunity given how capable the hardware is and how much value developers could provide with access to this physiological data. Would love to hear if anyone else is working on similar features or has insights into the technical limitations here.

Ever since upgrading to OS 26.1, I've noticed that HealthKit anchored object queries seem to be much slower-updating than normal. I was curious if Apple stated anything explicitly changed on this front? I use anchored object queries to update some of the workout metrics that HKLiveWorkoutBuilder doesn't report (like stepCount).

Hi everyone, we’re developing an app that lets users export selected bike rides to the HealthKit ecosystem. We created our app icon using the Apple Icon Composer and referenced the composer file in Xcode. Everything works fine, except that the logo doesn’t appear correctly in the Fitness app. Has anyone experienced this issue or knows how to fix it?

I am the developer of a workout app that allows users to create interval programs (e.g. Warm Up, Fast, Cool Down). It is possible for me to store the data for the intervals along with the workout in the Health system by using WorkoutKit (or any other method)? My aim is to make it so that the Fitness app shows the interval details when users view workouts created by my app. Thanks in advance.

I am developing an iOS application that utilizes running workout data from the iOS Health app / Fitness app via HealthKit, with explicit user permission. Before finalizing the app design, I would like to clarify several technical aspects related to data reliability, manual entry, record modification, and GPS route availability in HealthKit. My questions are as follows: 1. Identifying manually added (non-physical) running workouts When a running workout is created in the Health app without actual physical movement (for example, a workout manually added by the user), is there any metadata, flag, or key in HealthKit that allows developers to distinguish these records from workouts generated through actual motion tracking (iPhone or Apple Watch)? 2. Editing existing running workout records Is it possible for users, or for third-party apps with HealthKit write permission, to edit an existing running workout (e.g., distance, duration, calories) after it has been saved? • If edits are allowed, are the original values preserved in any way, or are they fully overwritten? 3. Detecting modified workout records If a running workout (whether originally auto-recorded or manually created) has been edited after creation, is there any identifier, metadata field, source revision, or versioning mechanism in HealthKit that allows developers to detect that the workout has been modified? 4. Access to GPS route / running path data For outdoor running workouts recorded with location services enabled: • Does HealthKit provide access to GPS route data (running paths / location traces) associated with a workout? • Is this route data accessible to third-party apps with user permission? • Is route data available only for workouts recorded on Apple Watch, or also for iPhone-only recordings? • Is there a way to determine programmatically whether a running workout includes valid GPS route data? The overall goal is to understand whether, when building an app that relies on HealthKit running data, it is technically possible to differentiate motion-based workouts from manually added or edited records, and to assess the availability of route information for outdoor runs. Any clarification or references to official documentation would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

Hello everyone, I’m experiencing a visual issue when dismissing a sheet on iOS 26. I’m using the same implementation shown in the official Apple documentation. While testing, I noticed that some apps do not exhibit this behavior. However, when running this code on iOS 26, the issue consistently occurs. Issue description: The sheet dismisses abruptly A white screen briefly appears for a few milliseconds and then disappears This results in a noticeable visual glitch and a poor user experience I tested the exact same code on iOS 18, where the sheet dismisses smoothly and behaves as expected, without any visual artifacts. Has anyone else encountered this issue on iOS 26? Is this a known bug, or is there a recommended workaround? Any insights would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

HealthKit background delivery only triggers when charging. I have set step monitoring to hourly frequency. Despite step changes, callbacks fail to arrive after 3-4 hours on battery, but trigger immediately upon connecting power. Observed for 2 days: background updates are only received when charging. The device is not in Low Power Mode, and Background App Refresh is enabled for the app in Settings.

Why can I use background delivery to realize background notifications when I run the app for the first time, but when I delete the app running in the background, and then reopen the app to run it in the background, there will be no background notification when the data changes?

I'm trying to run this example project: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/HealthKit/building-a-multidevice-workout-app When I run it on my device (iPhone 16 Pro and Apple Watch Ultra 2) I get this error: -[SPRemoteInterface _appRecoverAnyExtendedRuntimeSession:]_block_invoke:4350: Got no sessions back from -[CSLSSessionService existingRunningSessions:] or -[CSLSSessionService existingScheduledSessions:] after receiving a PUICInitializeSessionServiceAction I start the workout from my phone, which successfully starts the workout on the watch. But this callback is never triggered on the phone: healthStore.workoutSessionMirroringStartHandler { // not happening } This makes it difficult to learn the mirroring workout technique. I'm using Xcode 16.3 and Mac OS 15.4.1. Any help appreciated!

Hello, I have enabled HealthKit background delivery for sleep analysis samples: private func setupSleepDataBackgroundDelivery() { if let sleepType = HKObjectType.categoryType(forIdentifier: HKCategoryTypeIdentifier.sleepAnalysis) { healthStore.enableBackgroundDelivery(for: sleepType, frequency: .immediate) { (success, error) in } } } In general, this function works. But I would love to know what the limitations / expected delivery delay for frequency: .immediate is. The documentation is only very vague about this and specifies that some sample types such as steps are only delivered once per hour. But how about sleep data? Is this expected to be delivered immediately once available on iPhone? Thanks a lot for your help!

I am very happy to see that HealthKit with OS26 is bringing HKLiveWorkoutDataSource to iOS and iPadOS. I have been replicating a similar type for the last several years for users that only have an iPhone. I did notice that the data types that the different platform data sources collect automatically is different. That makes sense if you think exclusively about what the device can actually capture. Bluetooth HRM is the only Bluetooth SIG profile that is out-of-the-box supported for Apple Health on iOS and iPadOS (right?). Whereas watchOS 10 got all of the cycling sensors (woohoo!). It would be great if the types to collect were the same across platforms even if the device couldn't collect the data now, because then in the future when / if new sensor support is added, it will be transparent to developers. Fantastic. Easier life as an indie / third party developer. At least that is the idea. And yes, I know I can also write Core Bluetooth code and roll my own SIG implementation for the cycling profiles, but Apple already has this code in one os, 'just copy it, it will be easy'. I know that isn't the reality especially against the new ASK framework, but one can hope and dream right? Imagine how many more apps would contribute that data if it was supported out of the box. An alternative, GitHub is a great place for Apple to share their Core Bluetooth implementation of the SIG profiles :). Just another thought. Here are some feedbacks related to this: FB17931751 - HealthKit: Add built-in support for cycling sensors on iOS and iPadOS - copy paste the code from watchOS. It will be easy they said (June 2025) FB12323089 - CoreBluetooth / Health / Bluetooth Settings: Add support for cycling sensors announced in watchOS 10 to iOS and iPadOS 17 (June 2023) FB14311218 - HealthKit: Expected outdoor cycling to include .cyclingSpeed quantity type as a default HKLiveWorkoutDataSource type to collect (July 2024) FB14978701 - Bluetooth / HealthKit / Fitness: Expose information about the user specified for Apple Watch paired Cycing Speed Sensor like isConnected and wheelCircumference values (August 2024) FB18402258 - HealthKit: HKLiveWorkoutDataSource should collect same types on iOS and watchOS even if device cannot produce data today (June 2025) FB14236080 - Developer Documentation / HealthKit: Update documentation for HKLiveWorkoutDataSource typesToCollect for which sample types are automatically collected by watchOS 10 and 11 (July 2024) Tangentially related: FB10281304 - HealthKit: Add HKActivityTypes canoeBikeRun and kayakBikeRun (June 2022) FB10281349 - HealthKit: Add HKActivityType walkCanoeWalk and walkKayakWalk (June 2022) FB7807993 - Add HKQuantityTypeIdentifier.paddleDistance for canoeing, kayaking, etc type workouts (June 2020) FB12508654 - HealthKit / Settings / Bluetooth / Workouts: Cycling sensor support doesn't allow for 'bike selection' in use case of multiple bikes and multiple sensors (borrow a bike to ride together) - production usability issue (July 2023)

I don’t get the workout buddy on my Apple Watch series 10, paired to an iPhone 16 running iOS 26 Beta 2

HealthKit is currently not supported on macOS nor tvOS, despite being supported by visionOS. Support for macOS was last asked about[1] here in 2018. My goal is to display interactive data visualisations over workouts collected in HealthKit on macOS. Will this be possible to do in the near future using HealthKit directly? If not, can I somehow read the information from an iPhone and display it on the mac? Cheers, Rodrigo [1] https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/94937

Hi, I have a workout app in the App Store which mirrors workout data between the phone and watch. Since iOS 26.x I've been having issues and received reports of the mirroring no longer working. Users in iOS 18 have no problems with this functionality. Bug description: A workout session is started from the phone app and starts mirroring to the watch companion device. The watch starts the workout session and then the mirroring session is disconnected / lost. Sending data to the companion device fails and ending the session on the phone doesn't end the session on the watch...essentially they become completely disconnected. Please note I am testing this on physical devices...not simulators. As a sanity check I've also tried the "Building a multidevice workout app" sample code and it has the same problem. To re-create on the sample app, I start a workout from the phone, the watch workout starts and then the mirroring session seems to disconnect and is unable to send data. This is the log from the "Building a multidevice workout app" sample code. Successfully started workout Type: Notice | Timestamp: 2025-10-17 06:57:07.341401+02:00 | Process: MirroringWorkoutsSample Watch App | Library: MirroringWorkoutsSample Watch App.debug.dylib | Subsystem: com.example.apple-samplecode.MirroringWorkoutsSampleABC123.watchkitapp | Category: MirroringWorkoutsSampleForWatch | TID: 0x1b2ca7 -[SPRemoteInterface _appRecoverAnyExtendedRuntimeSession:]_block_invoke:4350: Got no sessions back from -[CSLSSessionService existingRunningSessions:] or -[CSLSSessionService existingScheduledSessions:] after receiving a PUICInitializeSessionServiceAction Type: Error | Timestamp: 2025-10-17 06:57:07.641571+02:00 | Process: MirroringWorkoutsSample Watch App | Library: WatchKit | Subsystem: com.apple.watchkit | Category: default | TID: 0x1b2ca7 Session state changed from 1 to 2 Type: Notice | Timestamp: 2025-10-17 06:57:07.647883+02:00 | Process: MirroringWorkoutsSample Watch App | Library: MirroringWorkoutsSample Watch App.debug.dylib | Subsystem: com.example.apple-samplecode.MirroringWorkoutsSampleABC123.watchkitapp | Category: MirroringWorkoutsSampleForWatch | TID: 0x1b2e87 Failed to send data: Error Domain=com.apple.healthkit Code=100 "Failed to send data to remote session." UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Failed to send data to remote session.} Type: Notice | Timestamp: 2025-10-17 06:57:07.669922+02:00 | Process: MirroringWorkoutsSample Watch App | Library: MirroringWorkoutsSample Watch App.debug.dylib | Subsystem: com.example.apple-samplecode.MirroringWorkoutsSampleABC123.watchkitapp | Category: MirroringWorkoutsSampleForWatch | TID: 0x1b2ca7 Would appreciate any help with this problem as it's affecting customers. Thank you

I'm developing a watchOS nap app that detects when the user falls asleep by monitoring heart rate changes. == Technical Implementation == HKWorkoutSession (.mindAndBody) for background execution HKAnchoredObjectQuery for real-time heart rate data CoreMotion for movement detection == Battery Considerations == Heart rate monitoring ONLY active when user explicitly starts a session Monitoring continues until user is awakened OR 60-minute limit is reached If no sleep detected within 60 minutes, session auto-ends (user may have abandoned or forgotten to stop) App displays clear UI indicating monitoring is active Typical session: 15-30 minutes, keeping battery usage minimal == The Problem == HKWorkoutSession affects Activity Rings during the session. Users receive "Exercise goal reached" notifications while resting — confusing. == What I've Tried == Not using HKLiveWorkoutBuilder → Activity Rings still affected Using builder but not calling finishWorkout() (per https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/780220) → Activity Rings still affected WKExtendedRuntimeSession (self-care type) (per https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/721077) → Only ~10 min runtime, need up to 60 min HKObserverQuery + enableBackgroundDelivery (per https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/779101) → ~4 updates/hour, too slow for real-time detection Audio background session for continuous processing (suggested in https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/130287) → Concerned about App Store rejection for non-audio app; if official approves this technical route, I can implement in this direction Some online resources mention "Health Monitoring Entitlement" from WWDC 2019 Session 251, but I could not find any official documentation for this entitlement. Apple Developer Support also confirmed they cannot locate it? == My Question == Is there any supported way to: Monitor heart rate in background for up to 60 minutes WITHOUT affecting Activity Rings or creating workout records? If this requires a special entitlement or API access, please advise on the application process. Or allow me to submit a code-level support request. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!