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?
Use HealthKit to enable your iOS and watchOS apps to work with the Apple Health app.
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Hello,
I’m building a health-related app for both watchOS and iOS, which needs to monitor certain health data (e.g., heart rate, active energy).
Before updating to watchOS 26, the queries worked reliably without any issues. However, after adapting to watchOS 26, some users have reported that health data updates stop being delivered.
What I’ve observed:
HKObserverQuery with enableBackgroundDelivery is set up normally.
On WatchOS 26, the query sometimes stops delivering updates entirely after a certain point, and once an update is missed, it may stop delivering further updates completely.
Restarting the Apple Watch temporarily restores delivery, but the problem reoccurs after some time.
This makes background health data monitoring unreliable for my app.
Here’s a simplified version of the code we are using:
guard let heartType = HKObjectType.quantityType(forIdentifier: .heartRate) else { return }
let query = HKObserverQuery(sampleType: heartType, predicate: nil) { query, completionHandler, error in
if let error = error {
logEvent("Observer error: \(error.localizedDescription)")
return
}
logEvent("Heart rate changed")
MyNotificationManager.shared.sendNotification() // Send a local notification
completionHandler()
}
healthStore.execute(query)
healthStore.enableBackgroundDelivery(for: heartType, frequency: .hourly) { success, error in
if success {
logEvent("Background heart rate delivery enabled")
} else {
logEvent("Failed to enable background heart rate delivery: \(error?.localizedDescription ?? "Unknown error")")
}
}
Could you please clarify:
Is this a known issue with HKObserverQuery and enableBackgroundDelivery on watchOS 26?
Are there any recommended workarounds or best practices to ensure continuous background delivery of health data?
Thank you in advance for your help.
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Health & Fitness
Tags:
Health and Fitness
watchOS
HealthKit
Observation
Hi everyone,
I’m building a health app with React Native using Expo Dev Client on a real iPhone. I need to read Apple Health (HealthKit) data, but the authorization sheet never appears—so the app never gets permissions and all queries return nothing.
What I’ve already done
Enabled HealthKit capability for the iOS target.
Added NSHealthShareUsageDescription and NSHealthUpdateUsageDescription to Info.plist.
Using a custom dev build (not Expo Go).
Tested fresh installs (deleted the app), rebooted device, and checked Settings → Privacy & Security → Health/Motion & Fitness.
Tried both packages: react-native-health and @kingstinct/react-native-healthkit. Same behavior: no permission dialog at first use.
Ask
Is there a known reason why the HealthKit permission sheet would not show on modern iOS when called from a React Native bridge (with Expo Dev Client)? Are there any extra entitlements, signing, or config-plugin steps required beyond HealthKit capability + Info.plist?
If you’re successfully fetching Apple Health data from React Native on recent iOS, could you share the exact steps that made the permission sheet appear and data flow (Expo config/plugin used, Xcode capability setup, profile/team settings, build type, bundle ID nuances, any Health app reset steps, etc.)? This would help me and others hitting the same “authorized call but no prompt/no data” issue. Thank you!
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.
I am working on a cycling fitness app and I want to read the cycling power recorded using my Garmin edge from the Garmin Connect App. Currently the data is not transferred to the Health/Fitness Apps. Ideally it would be good to be able to query the power samples similar to the heart rate samples, but even the average power would suffice, as I could then calculate the Kilojoules.
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?
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Health & Fitness
Tags:
Health and Fitness
HealthKit
Icon Composer
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).
We are seeing an issue where sending data using the asynchronous method HKWorkoutSession.sendToRemoteWorkoutSession(data: Data) will never return in some cases (no success nor failure).
This issue is happening for roughly 5% of Workouts started and will stay broken for the whole workout. The other 95% of the workouts, the connection works flawlessly. This happens on both watchOS 10 and 11, and with phones running iOS 17 or 18. The issue is quite random and not reproducible.
Our app has thousands of workouts a day that use the workout session workout data send, with constant messages being send every few seconds.
In some of those 5% cases the "sendToRemoteWorkoutSession" will throw way later, like 30+ minutes later, if the watch app is awake long enough to capture a log of a failure.
Our code uses the same flow as in the sample project:
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/healthkit/workouts_and_activity_rings/building_a_multidevice_workout_app
Here is some sample code, which is pretty simple.
Setup code:
let workoutSession = try HKWorkoutSession(healthStore: healthStore, configuration: configuration)
workoutSession.delegate = self
activeWorkoutSession?.startMirroringToCompanionDevice { success, error in
print("Mirroring started on companion device: \(success), error: \(error)")
}
workoutSession?.prepare()
then later we send data using the workout session:
do {
print("Will send data")
try await workoutSession.sendToRemoteWorkoutSession(data: data)
print("Successfully sent data") // This nor the error may be called after waiting extensive amounts of time
} catch {
print("Failed to send data, error: \(error)") // This nor the success may be called after waiting extensive amounts of time
}
So far, the only fix is to restart the phone and watch at the same time, which is not a great user experience.
Is anyone else seeing this issue? or know how to fix this issue?
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Health & Fitness
Tags:
Watch Connectivity
Health and Fitness
watchOS
WorkoutKit
I am developing a running training app that coaches can use to create interval workout plans.
I can use HKWorkout to get information about Splits similar to that in Fitness app, but I can't get information about Intervals.
My idea is to show interval details when users view their completed custom interval workout plans.
Can I use Healthkit (or another feasible method) to get the actual distance or time of exercise in intervals workout ?
(I know the workoutPlan property, but it doesn't reflect the segments of a real interval training workout.)
Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance!
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Health & Fitness
Tags:
Health and Fitness
HealthKit
WorkoutKit
Hi!
I have over 800 days strike in closing my move circle. However oerfect month badge is not popping up for November, we have now mid of Dec and still no update.
I updated iOS to 26, did multiple resets and hard resets and still no badge. I checked many forums and post but any of given tips is working in my case.
i know it sounds funny, but it’s frustrating that I’m not getting this little gold medal to keep me motivated 😅
does anyone know how to deal with it? Is it common issue?