Apple's Revamped Health App Adds Readiness Score, Health Age, and Longevity Tracking

Apple (搜索)搜索该公司 on Wednesday introduced a redesigned Apple Health app alongside the new Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, marking a significant expansion of the company's consumer health-data platform. The overhaul leverages Apple Intelligence to make better sense of health data, delivering a new Insights tab with a summary of the most timely information, personalized guidance, in-depth assessments, a new "readiness" score, and a computation of a user's "Health Age."

The redesign addresses a longstanding gap in Apple (搜索)搜索该公司's ecosystem. While Apple was an early trendsetter in health-focused wearables, it had fallen behind competitors such as Whoop, Garmin, and Fitbit, which already offered sleep scores, recovery scores, and customized insights based on daily data. The previous Health app was described as "mostly a dry listing of data from different sources," despite having access to an extensive amount of data and powerful hidden features.

Readiness Score and Insights

A central feature of the update is a new Readiness score, which tells users whether they need to "recover," should "pace yourself," are "ready," or should "go for it"—in order from worst to best. This score can update during the day, functioning as a more readable version of tools like Garmin's Body Battery.

When users open the Health app, relevant "insights" appear at the top of the screen, including sleep, recovery, and rings, while the main screen can display the previous night's sleep along with a sleep score. The app includes text summaries and guidance generated by Apple (搜索)搜索该公司 Intelligence, which Apple suggests will require an iPhone 16 or later.

With Apple (搜索)搜索该公司 Intelligence, the app can make sense of other health data in features such as the readiness score and the Insights tab. For example, the app could suggest that a user incorporate more intervals into their morning run to improve cardio health, and it will go deeper in areas like fitness and heart health.

Health Age and Longevity

The app now computes a "Health Age," a way to understand how a user's various health metrics compare with their actual age. This calculation uses data including VO2 max, sleep, and more, as well as biomarkers from blood.

A new Longevity tab uses metrics from the Apple (搜索)搜索该公司 Watch and iPhone to assess health across sleep, movement, heart health, and other factors. Apple's longevity calculations involve seven areas, with icons indicating nutrition, exercise, heart health, hearing health, movement, sleep, and mental well-being. Lab results can be incorporated into this guidance.

Apple (搜索)搜索该公司 announced a team-up with Quest查看公司主页 for a 50-biomarker panel priced at $119, giving users quick access to data that can only come from lab tests.

Assessments and Heart Rate Sensing

The Health app also allows users to take in-depth assessments of how well their bodies are moving, which can help people who are aging or recovering from an injury. A trainer can demonstrate certain moves for users to try during the assessment, which Apple (搜索)搜索该公司 claims is like having a coach present.

A new set of assessments includes a VO2max assessment. According to Apple (搜索)搜索该公司's presentation, users prop their phone up where it can see their full body, then step to a metronome's beat, speeding up as the beeps speed up until running in place. Until now, Apple's VO2max estimates have been based on GPS-tracked activities such as outdoor running.

On the hardware side, Apple (搜索)搜索该公司 redesigned the heart rate sensor on the back of the Series 12 Apple Watch, with larger lights and redesigned photodiodes to detect reflected light. Apple says this delivers the "most accurate heart rate sensing in a wearable."

The updated Health app rolls out later this year, starting in U.S. English.