Even if you’ve never opened the Apple Health app, if you have an iPhone, you’ve probably used apps that send information to its on-phone database. Apple Health is a powerful tool for controlling who gets access to your health data, logging data in different ways, and even taking at-home screening tests for certain health issues. If you have an Apple Watch, that’s great, but you don’t need one (or any wearable!) to take advantage of most of these 10 hacks to get more out of the Apple Health app.
Individual apps can ask for permission to read data from Apple Health. (They also need your permission to write data to it.) You can control per-app permissions in Settings. Or, for a specific data point (like “walking and running distance”), go to that area of Apple Health and tap Data Sources and Access.
You can share health data with your doctor or with people you know, like family members. To manage who has access, go to the Health app and tap the Sharing tab.
Your Medical ID may be available when your device is locked. (This is how bystanders and first responders can access your emergency contact or other information you’d like to remain available in emergencies.) To control access to this, go to the Health app, find Medical ID, and toggle Show When Locked.
Set up tracking so you never forget to take your medication
Next, you can set up reminders. From this screen, you can tell the app when you plan to take your medication (if it’s one you take regularly, rather than as needed). The Health app will notify you at that time. To make the most of this feature, I recommend setting up follow-up reminders, which you’ll find on a different screen as well—more about that below.
At the bottom of the Medications screen, you can tap Options and turn on Follow Up Reminders, which will give you an extra notification 30 minutes after the first one if you haven’t logged a dose. I use this feature all the time myself: I get the first reminder while I’m in the middle of doing something, eventually take the pill, then the follow-up reminds me to log it. If I got distracted along the way, I have a second chance to not miss a dose.
If you’re not familiar with the Health app, you might not think there’s much there—just a few things on the home screen. You can change that, but it takes a few steps. You see, rather than being a minimalist app, there’s so much available in Health that Apple figures it’s not worth giving you a big list to start off. Tap the magnifying glass icon in the lower right corner, and you’ll see a whole list of categories. You can search from this screen, or browse the categories.
Once you’ve figured out which of these hundreds of data points are actually useful, put the ones you care about on the main app screen (called Summary). Find a relevant card by searching or browsing, scroll to the bottom, and tap Pin to Summary. This way you can see exactly what you want when you open the app: say, your steps, protein intake, and the day’s medications. (Plus a few things you may want to add after you learn about them below...)
Track your menstrual cycle without risking your privacy
To use the built-in tracker, go to the magnifying glass and tap (or search for) Cycle Tracking. The cycle tracker on this screen (which you can pin to your summary) allows you to log menstrual bleeding, as well as “factors” like contraceptive use, pregnancy, and more.
Another surprising use for manual logging in the Health app is under Mental Wellbeing. This is a really useful screen, since it collects things known to affect mental health, like your sleep, exercise minutes, time in daylight, and more. From here, you can also set up emotion and mood logging. The app explains that it considers emotions to be how you feel right now, and moods are how you’ve felt overall that day.
Take a hearing test (if you have AirPods Pro 2 or 3)
The Health app also includes a built-in hearing test, but it requires AirPods Pro 3 (or AirPods Pro 2). To find the hearing test, look up Hearing in the Health app, then Get More From Health, and then Take Hearing Test. This will only be available if you have the right type of headphones connected. Follow the prompts to take the test. Apple has more information on this test here. If your results seem concerning, you can export a PDF of your results to discuss with a professional.
It’s worth looking over the privacy policies for this feature as well, but the good news is that the data follows an encrypted connection between your phone and the healthcare organization, without ever giving Apple (the company) access to it. I’d recommend turning off Improve Health Records, which sends an anonymized version of your data to Apple; health records are detailed information about your body—but feel free to leave it on if that’s your preference. You can back up your health data over iCloud, as discussed above.
Track your blood pressure, even if you don’t have a device that estimates it
A handy place to use this feature is for blood pressure tracking. Some wearables estimate your blood pressure, like Whoop and the Samsung Galaxy Watch. But you don’t need one of those to log your numbers: just take note of your blood pressure at the doctor’s office, or when you use a wrist cuff or one of those machines they sometimes have at pharmacies. Open Blood Pressure and tap the plus, then put in the new reading. You’ll be able to view your history of blood pressure readings, and even see charts of how it has changed over time.
To let Apple account for this, go to your profile picture, tap Health Details, tap Edit at the top of the page, and scroll down to Medications That Affect Heart Rate. You can select calcium channel blockers or beta blockers, or both; these are the only categories of medication that Apple can account for.
Automatically share medical info in an emergency
I first learned about the Medical ID when I was teaching a class. A student came up to tell me about a medical condition, and showed me how to access her Medical ID (it’s right at the bottom of the lock screen). Most importantly, she made sure I knew what information I’d be able to find there, so I knew when and whether to reach for it in an emergency.
Also consider whether you want to turn on Share During Emergency Call, which allows this information to be shared with emergency services. You can also control whether or not your Medical ID appears on your lock screen using a separate toggle.
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