Use HealthKit to enable your iOS and watchOS apps to work with the Apple Health app.

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Apple Watch 8 OS11.2 not synching my activity (intermittently)
My Apple Watch after the beta update is not syncing the activities sometimes with Apple Health. I just completed a 2.5 km walk, and it showed on Apple Health, yes, but it did not affect my daily goals. This is not the first time this has happened; this is just one of the examples that I'm sharing, other than what has been some problems that I am seeing after the beta update. Additionally, the camera remote app is not working correctly as I cannot see anything on the watch screen like I used to.
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HKWorkoutSession.sendToRemoteWorkoutSession doesn't report success or failure
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?
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HealthKit: Exercise Minutes Not Saving After iOS 18.1 Update
I'm working on an app that reads and writes exercise minutes to HealthKit. Everything functions correctly up to iOS 18.0.1, but starting from iOS 18.1, my implementation is no longer working as expected. Here's the code snippet I use to write to HealthKit: let workout = HKWorkout(activityType: .other, start: startDate, end: endDate) try await healthStore.save(workout) This code successfully writes to both workouts and exercise minutes in iOS 18.0.1 and earlier. However, from iOS 18.1, it only writes to workouts and not to the exercise minutes data source. Has anyone encountered this issue or have insights on how to resolve this?
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HKCumulativeQuantitySample does not accumulate values
Hi, My app reports daily step counts, and I’m trying to use HKCumulativeQuantitySample to report them to HealthKit by adding such objects with each update: let sample = HKCumulativeQuantitySample(type: .stepCount, quantity: HKQuantity(unit: HKUnit.count(), doubleValue: dailyTotal), start: startOfDay, end: nowDate) However, HealthKit interprets them as regular samples—it sums them into a global aggregate instead of updating the daily cumulative value. So if I report the daily step count as 500 and then 550, HealthKit interprets it as 1,050 steps instead of 550. Is this expected behavior? If so, what is HKCumulativeQuantitySample intended for, and how should it be used? I’m struggling to find any examples. Thank you
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Unable to retrieve certain data during live workout
I'm currently trying to collect some of the following data whilst running a workout in a WatchOS app I'm building. Below are the data points I'm trying to retrieve: HKQuantityType.init(.heartRate) HKQuantityType.init(.oxygenSaturation) HKQuantityType.init(.respiratoryRate) HKQuantityType.init(.bloodPressureSystolic) HKQuantityType.init(.bloodPressureDiastolic) HKQuantityType.init(.heartRateVariabilitySDNN) I'm using the following delegate function workoutBuilder(_:didCollectDataOf:) which is part of HKLiveWorkoutBuilderDelegate Something I'm realising whilst running this on the simulator and on my Apple Watch is out of all of the Quantity types I'm requesting. Only the heart rate is being called via the delegate function when trying to retrieve the statistic. Is this the intended behaviour of this API? Since there's no docs about what is and isn't exposed
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3w
Stands not detected
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!?!?!? 😁🤣
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Oct ’24
Seeking Feedback on an Idea: Real-Time Siri Running Coach for iOS
Hello everyone, I hope you’re all doing well. I’m not a developer, but I have an idea for an iOS app that I’d love to get your thoughts on. I wanted to share it here to gather feedback from this knowledgeable community and to learn from your expertise. Idea Overview: Real-Time AI Running Coach for iOS The concept is an iOS application that provides personalized, real-time running coaching by leveraging on-device data sources and Apple’s latest technologies. The app aims to offer an adaptive and motivating running experience while ensuring user privacy through on-device processing. Key Features: • Personalized Coaching: • Utilize real-time biometric data and personal insights to deliver AI-driven coaching tailored to the user’s mental and physical state. • Analyze health metrics, activity data, mood check-ins, and more to provide context-based motivational feedback. • Privacy First: • All data processing occurs on-device using Apple’s frameworks like Core ML, ensuring no personal data leaves the device. • Adaptive Motivation: • Implement Natural Language Processing to analyze user inputs like journal entries or mood check-ins. • Generate personalized coaching cues based on historical performance and mood trends. • Performance Enhancement: • Offer dynamic adjustments to pace, route, and strategy in real time to help improve running performance. • Seamless integration with Apple Watch for real-time data collection and haptic feedback. Technologies and Frameworks Involved: • HealthKit: Access health metrics such as heart rate, distance run, VO₂ max, sleep patterns, etc. • Core ML: On-device machine learning for real-time data analysis without latency. • Natural Language Processing: Analyze personal inputs for better coaching personalization. • Core Motion & Core Location: Track motion data and location services for runs. • AVFoundation & Speech: Provide real-time voice feedback and coaching cues. • SiriKit Integration: Allow users to initiate workouts and receive updates via Siri. Target Audience: • Runners of all levels seeking personalized coaching that adapts to their mental and physical states. • Users who prioritize privacy and want AI-driven insights without their data leaving the device. • Tech-savvy fitness enthusiasts who use iOS devices and Apple wearables. Questions for the Community: 1. Feasibility: Is this idea technically achievable using current iOS frameworks and technologies? 2. Data Access: Are there limitations in accessing and processing the necessary data on-device, especially regarding privacy and permissions? 3. Potential Challenges: What hurdles might developers face in creating such an app, and how could they be addressed? 4. Advice: As someone without a technical background, what steps would you recommend I take to move this idea forward? I truly appreciate any feedback or insights you can provide. I’m excited about the potential of this idea but also aware there may be complexities I’m not considering. Thank you for taking the time to read this! Best regards, Paul
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Oct ’24
Mirroring Workouts Sample Code Doesn't Work With Simulators
I've realised with the sample code from the WWDC video below I'm getting the following error when trying to use the iPhone simulator and apple watch simulator paired. Whenever i try to test out the sample project I'm getting the following error. Failed to send data: Error Domain=com.apple.healthkit Code=300 "Remote device is unreachable" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Remote device is unreachable, NSUnderlyingError=0x600000c9c900 {Error Domain=RPErrorDomain Code=-6727 "kNotFoundErr ('rapport:rdid:PairedCompanion' not found)" UserInfo={cuErrorDesc=kNotFoundErr ('rapport:rdid:PairedCompanion' not found), cuErrorMsg='rapport:rdid:PairedCompanion' not found, NSLocalizedDescription=kNotFoundErr ('rapport:rdid:PairedCompanion' not found)}}} Is it not possible to not test out the new WorkoutKit mirroring API's using the simulator? Currently right now if you run the project you'll notice that you can start a workout session on the iPhone > Apple Watch but there is no way to control and mirror on both devices at the moment i.e You can't control the iPhone app on the Apple Watch and vice versa. Also because of this the iPhone can't send data to the Apple Watch i.e. pause, end, water etc. I'm guessing this is meant to be possible since it seems a bit strange to only be able to test this out with actual devices. WWDC Session https://developer.apple.com/wwdc23/10023 Sample Code https://developer.apple.com/documentation/healthkit/workouts_and_activity_rings/building_a_multidevice_workout_app
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Oct ’24
HealthKit data - Is HKStatisticsCollectionQuery slow?
Hi, I am using HealthKit for the first time. I am using HKStatisticsCollectionQuery. I am running my code iOS 17 on a physical iPhone. It takes several seconds to query data, for example 1 day worth of heart rate at 1 minute resolution. I changed the resolution to 1 hour, expecting it to be faster, but it's pretty much the same… I have been following the official documentation and sample code. I also compiled in Release, but that didn't really help for HKStatisticsCollectionQuery. I quickly looked with Instruments, the app is spending a lot of time in decoding data with NSXPCDecoder. Is there a way to speed data retrieval? Or this is "expected" latency?
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Oct ’24
Run Application In The Background Automation
I’ve developed an automation and shortcut using the iPhone Shortcuts app in IOS 18, something that hasn’t been done before. With support from Apple’s customer service, I was encouraged to bring this idea to life. The automation’s purpose is to open a specified iOS app, move it to the background, and use a txt database in Folders to ensure uninterrupted data flow and continuous connectivity—especially useful for health apps where wearable devices need consistent, uninterrupted operation and monitoring (e.g., doctor tracking or wearable device connectivity). I would like to share the Automation and the Shortcut with the community.
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Oct ’24
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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Aug ’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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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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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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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
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
visionOS App Not Receiving Latest Heart Rate Data from HealthKit
Hello everyone, I'm developing an app for visionOS that utilizes HealthKit to query heart rate data. However, I'm encountering an issue where the app doesn't retrieve the latest heart rate values. Specifically, it fails to get live heart rate data even after the data has been saved to the Health app. The readings my app displays are outdated and do not match the current values shown in the Health app. Here's what I've tried so far: Fetching Heart Rate Samples: Used HKSampleQuery and HKAnchoredObjectQuery to fetch the most recent heart rate samples. Despite this, the data retrieved is still not up-to-date. Checking Permissions: Ensured that all necessary HealthKit permissions are granted. The app has authorization to read heart rate data and write workout data. My questions are: Is there a known issue or limitation with HealthKit on visionOS that prevents apps from accessing the latest heart rate data? Are there additional steps or configurations required to access live heart rate data in visionOS apps? Has anyone successfully implemented live heart rate monitoring on visionOS, and if so, could you share how you achieved it?
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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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Sep ’24