I need to be able to create and store a HeartbeatSeries for a given time-period from an Apple Watch, to then retrieve that data from HealthKit to be processed. I have working code which allows me to begin a workout session, which is being used to determine how long a session has been running for. I also have working code for retrieving HeartbeatSeries data from HealthKit. The issue is that no HeartbeatSeries data is being stored into HealthKit as a result of the workout session running. Whether that session is running for as little as 30 seconds or as long as 20 minutes, nothing is stored. However, when I use the the Apple "Meditation" app (formerly known as "Breathe"), I can query HealthKit afterwards and retrieve a list of individual heartbeat timings during that 2 minute period. Therefore, it IS possible to store a HeartbeatSeries from within an app on the Apple Watch. What I would like to know is, how can I use the pulse sensor built-in to the Apple Watch to be able to record a HeartbeatSeries similar to how the Meditation app does it.

Hi, I’m currently working on an app that utilizes sleep data from HealthKit to provide users with meaningful insights about their sleep. To ensure a smooth user experience, I’d like to understand when sleep data collected by the Apple Watch is saved to the HealthKit store and when it gets synced to the iPhone. Ideally, I want to fetch sleep data right after the user wakes up and opens our app. However, to do this reliably, I need to know the timing of how and when this data becomes available in the iPhone’s HealthKit store. I’ve looked through the official documentation and relevant WWDC sessions but couldn’t find clear information on this topic. If anyone has insights or experience with how and when the Apple Watch syncs HealthKit data—especially sleep records—to the iPhone, I’d greatly appreciate your input. Thanks!

Hi, i'm trying to get the number of step counts a person has taken. I decided to pull the data from health kit and the number of steps are incorrect. Come to find out apple health recommends an app called pedometer++ for the number of steps counted and after testing I realized that they are getting the correct number of steps a person is taking. How can I pull the correct number of steps a person has taken? I want to be able to merge the data from watch and phone to make sure we are getting the correct number of steps but not double counting the steps either. any guidance on this would be appreciated! Here's the code snippet that i'm using right now: permissions: { read: [AppleHealthKit.Constants.Permissions.StepCount], write: [], }, }; AppleHealthKit.initHealthKit(permissions, error => { if (error) { console.log('Error initializing HealthKit: ', error); return; } else { dispatch(setAllowHealthKit(true)); getHealthKitData(); console.log('HealthKit initialized successfully'); } }); const getHealthKitData = async () => { try { const today = new Date(); const options = { startDate: new Date(today.setHours(0, 0, 0, 0)).toISOString(), endDate: new Date().toISOString(), }; const steps = await new Promise((resolve, reject) => { AppleHealthKit.getStepCount(options, (error, results) => { if (error) reject(error); resolve(results?.value); }); }); setStepsCount(steps); } catch (error) { console.error('Error fetching HealthKit data:', error); } };

When I set the distanceFilter = 5 (5 meters) in the GPS CLLocationManager I can't display the workout routes in the Apple Fitness app after writing the recorded GPS data to HealthKit via HKWorkoutRouteBuilder. The smaller distanceFilter, Fitness will displays the route. Should I consider setting up a small distanceFilter when developing a workout app on watchOS?

I was wondering which is the preferred way to send a lot of data from sensors of the apple watch to server. It is preferred to send small chucks to iphone and then to server or directly send bulk data to server from watch. How does it affect battery and resources from watch ? Are there any triggers that I can use to ensure best data stream. I need to send at least once a day. Can I do it in background or do I need the user to have my app in the foreground ? Thank you in advance

Has anyone seen the workout buddy options on watch OS yet? I am not able to get it on my watch. My setup is an iPhone 16 and Watch Ultra 1 with the 26 OS I am currently using beta 3. English US language on both and US as region. I am located in Germany though. I restarted both devices multiple times without any changes. Hopefully someone can help.

Are there any HealthKit related changes to be aware of in the new update that enables SPO2 / Blood Oxygen Saturation measurements on certain Apple Watch models within the US? I’m aware of processing happening on the phone…. But beyond that: Does this mean values are then saved to Apple Health? Do these models still take background SPO2 measurements in the same way as other models do? Are these values then visible in third party iOS apps as normal through HealthKit? Do these values sync back to the paired Apple Watch HealthKit store for third party apps to access on the Watch? For reference I have an iOS and WatchOS app that, amongst other features, provides the ability to see your SPO2 values in the Watch app, complications and in the iOS app.

According to the WWDC25 Presentation Track workouts with HealthKit on iOS and iPadOS, there is supposed to be a new property for restoring an active workout after a crash on iOS/iPadOS. The developer documentation also supports this. However, this property does not seem to exist in the latest Xcode 26 beta, even in projects targeting iOS 26.0 as the minimum version. Am I missing something? Has this property not been made available yet? It is actually looking like all of the new iOS 26.0 properties are missing UIScene.ConnectionOptions on my system.

Hello, everyone! I'm seeking some guidance on the App Store review process and technical best practices for a watchOS app. My goal is to create an app that uses HealthKit to continuously monitor a user's heart rate in the background for sessions lasting between 30 minutes and 3 hours. This app would not be a fitness or workout tracker. My primary question is about the best way to achieve this reliably while staying within the App Store Review Guidelines. Is it advisable to use the WorkoutKit framework to start a custom, non-fitness "session" for the purpose of continuous background monitoring? Are there any other recommended APIs or frameworks for this kind of background data collection on watchOS that I should be aware of? What are the key review considerations I should be mindful of, particularly regarding Guideline 4.1 (Design) and the intended use of APIs? My app's core functionality would require this kind of data for a beneficial purpose. I want to ensure my approach is technically sound and has the best chance of a successful review. Any insights or advice from developers who have experience with similar use cases would be incredibly helpful! Thank you!

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

I have FB12696743 open since July 21, 2023 and this happened again today. I get home at approx 10 mins after the hour, walk appox 50 ft across my yard, up 5 steps into my house, let the dog out and pace on my deck watching the dog, go back in the house walk around the kitchen while preparing dinner. A total of about 200 ft. I sit down about 35 past the hour and start to eat and at 10 mins to the next our and I get the reminder to stand. On the other side I wake up at 5 mins to hour. Walk 8 steps to the bathroom and successfully achieve the stand for that hour. WHY!?!?!? 😁🤣

Hi everyone, while testing HKWorkoutSession with HKLiveWorkoutBuilder on iOS 26 Beta (cycling workout), I noticed the following behavior: – Starting a cycling HKWorkoutSession automatically connects to my Bluetooth heart rate monitor and records HR into HealthKit ✅ – However, my Bluetooth cycling power meter and cadence sensor (standard BLE Cycling Power & CSC services) are not connected automatically, and no data is recorded into HealthKit ❌ On Apple Watch, when starting a cycling workout, these sensors do connect automatically and their data is written to HealthKit — which is exactly what I would expect on iOS as well. Question: Is this by design, or is support for power and cadence sensors planned for iOS in the same way as on watchOS? Or do we, as developers, need to implement the BLE Cycling Power and CSC profiles ourselves (via CoreBluetooth) if we want these metrics? Environment: – iOS 26 Beta – HKWorkoutSession & HKLiveWorkoutBuilder (cycling) – Bluetooth HRM connects automatically – BLE power & cadence sensors do not This feature would make it much easier to develop cycling apps with full HealthKit integration, and also create a more consistent user experience compared to watchOS. Thanks for any insights!

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).

Hi all, I'm developing fitness app and I use healthkit to track user's "STEPS" count from their iphone devices. I have been receiving this rejection and can't seem to get past this: Guideline 2.5.1 - Performance - Software Requirements The app uses the HealthKit or CareKit APIs but does not clearly identify the HealthKit and CareKit functionality in the app's user interface. Apps using these APIs should be clearly indicated to provide transparency and valuable information to users. Next Steps To resolve this issue, it would appropriate to clearly identify the HealthKit and CareKit functionality in the app's user interface. Resources Learn more about software requirements in guideline 2.5.1. I have modified my app: adding user permission prompt, adding healthkit notification, adding healthkit indicator in the UI, adding healthkit information in the onboarding process. I keep getting the same message. When I asked the reviewer what else could be done to satisfy the requirement, I only get boiler plate message above. Anyone know what they really looking for? Any insights is appreciated. Thanks!

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 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