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A closer look at iOS 8’s Health app (Video)

Screen Shot 2014-06-02 at 7.59.28 PM

Apple has officially announced its Heath app and HealthKit SDK confirming our detailed reports from earlier this year. The new HealthKit platform will allow developers of various health and fitness apps to have all related data populate within the Health app in iOS 8.

Apple’s Health app will serve as a central hub for all incoming data from companies like Nike, fitness apps, devices, and even possibly information from your doctor. Apple is working with the Mayo Clinic and other healthcare related companies to expand the Health app’s functionality and provide you with the most important information about yourself…

After exploring iOS 8 beta in-depth, we put together a hands-on video to show you exactly what the Health app has to offer. Within the app, there are several categories which each include a card (similar to PassBook) that can be shown within the app’s Dashboard. These card contain graphed information specific to its category and allow you to organize the data by days, weeks, months, and years.

This could definitely be a game changer in the health and fitness aspect of smart devices, but we won’t see HealthKit’s full potential until developers can fully take advantage of it. Unfortunately, Apple didn’t spend a lot of time going over HealthKit or the Health app at the WWDC 2014 keynote, but we’ve put together the video below to provide you with a closer look at what this new app and platform have to offer.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5VU1GcXqik]

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Comments

  1. Apps only looks like a Health dashboard so far: not impressed.
    But still looking what Apple will really do with it:
    – will it become THE aggregator for Health related data ?
    – what will Apple do with our data ?
    – how many different device will interface with the app ?
    – will app offer coaching / guidance ? There is a need to help users do something analyzing collected data.
    Hopefully more to come on this app when it is ready for launch.

  2. kobymac - 10 years ago

    So in order to use apples new app…all I need to do is download a heap of other apps, buy some non apple hardware….talk to my doctor, manually input those results. Such a revoluitionary , simple take on health. This was the most disappointing thing in iOs8 – it nots not only ugly because its gonna take so much effort to get anything out of it, its also a great indicator that apples I watch isn’t actually gonna do anything more than existing products.

    • Jesse Supaman Nichols - 10 years ago

      It’s incredible how much stupidity you managed to squeeze into a single post. The Health App, in its current form, give you no indication of how a theoretical iWatch will perform, nor can you extrapolate how the App will interact with it. Think about the functionality of the Nike+ sensor. The Nike App didn’t even appear until it was enabled and the sensor was paired with the device. Apple could do the same with wearable technology.

      • Jessica Sideways - 10 years ago

        And now, it’s improved so much. Now, you can use the Nike apps with no sensor at all. I use Nike+ Running and the Nike FuelBand apps. :)

  3. dman238 - 10 years ago

    AWESOME feature!

  4. ikir - 10 years ago

    If you will bypass official app like Fitibit one, it will very very handy

  5. Xavier Poirot (@dalaen) - 10 years ago

    Preparing iOS for the Internet of Things (well almost), which is pretty nice.

  6. Andrew Burns - 10 years ago

    Doesn’t look that good seems very basic typical Apple – don’t think it will be a game changer!

    • dugbug - 10 years ago

      lolwut? It looks fantastic and has a real published API behind it provided to developers today.

    • Tobias Hahn - 10 years ago

      You’re right. It isnt a game changer. It starts the game. All we had so far was multiple apps, not interacting with each other. Think of the day you realize, that you lost 100 gramm of bodyweight, because you took a long walk thru the woods or whatever. Your shopping-app transfers the calories you consume per week to this app and you can make a conclusion, what you should eat, to avoid gaining weight…

    • Tim Jr. - 10 years ago

      It’s a central location .. it will be up to 3rd party app and hardware devs to make it a game changer..

      It’s defiantly the right idea.. I hate having to have multiple apps for all these different devices.. It’s getting to convoluted … I’m really hoping the devs get on-board with this.. Looking forward to it!

    • Jesse Supaman Nichols - 10 years ago

      Correct! The App itself is not a game changer. It is the platform on which the game will be changed. =)

  7. Barry Sayer - 10 years ago

    Is this missing from iPad iOS8?

  8. Kenneth Quesada - 10 years ago

    The updatings and new updates I seem great.

    What I disagree is that all the lovers Apple have to endure to get carried away by the Microsoft company and interface of Windows 8, now everything is visually this operating system, although it improves the speed of our iOS and OS X by small amount of graphics, I thing that about Apple’s strange to look resemble Microsoft when it has always been the other way around.

    Honestly pleasing improvements but the overall aesthetics is very poor for me.

    • James Byrd - 10 years ago

      Design isn’t as simple as making icons flatter or choosing more vibrant colors, it’s the way all of those things interact with each other. I see what you are trying to get at, but it’s fairly obvious that iOS 8 and Yosemite were carefully designed while Windows 8 seems half-hearted. I had a windows phone for a year. Sure picking your own colors and resizing tiles is cool, but, (and this is coming from a minimalist designer) It was just too stark…it kinda looks like its unfinished or something.

  9. Brian Lee - 10 years ago

    The app, thus far, is pretty crap. Why can’t it sync with Nike Fuel? Or, UP? Neither of these devices appear in the source fields. I’ve read that Apple has launched this app within iOS 8, realising that it wasn’t ready or working properly. Kind of stupid if you ask me.