When Apple unveiled iOS 8 at WWDC on June 2, it officially marked Apple's entry into the mobile health and Quantified Self arena. While iOS 8 doesn't revolve around health as early reports suggested, it was one of the most exciting new aspects of the mobile OS.
"Health" (the name of the app) and "HealthKit" (Apple's health-tracking data platform) are not just another counting steps or sleep app. As everyone knows, there are plenty of apps already covering that ground. Instead, Health pulls data from the third-party apps you're already using into an easy-to-read dashboard.
This means you will no longer have to check three or four different apps to track your progress - you'll get a clear and current overview of your health inside the app. Health will track 60 different types of data and will let you create an "emergency card," with information like your blood type and allergies, which will be accessible from your lock screen.
Right Place, Right Time
The amount of health and fitness monitoring platforms that Health manages is bigger than most (if not all) other health apps. Even the best apps from The SmartphoneDiet™ pale in comparison. MyFitnessPal helps you count calories, but that's about it. UP by Jawbone tracks your movement and sleep, but it's all centered round the Jawbone ecosystem. Withings WiFi Scales measures your weight and body fat, but not your activity. Health covers all of that.
Sharing Your Information
If you're worried about privacy, and you should be, Apple is making sure you can very clearly choose what data an app can share with Health. Want to keep everything separate? No problem.
The complete list of apps Health will work with is unclear. But Apple said it will work with Nike, and in the first ad for Health, Apple showed customers using third-party accessories like the Withings Health Mate, Misfit Shine and Adidas miCoach Smart Ball, as well as apps like Wemo, Wahoo Fitness and Nike+ Running.
Considering Health is one of the focal points of iOS 8, and considering this is Apple, figure most (but not all) of your fitness apps will be compatible.
Health vs. HealthKit
Speaking of communicating with doctors, Apple partnered with The Mayo Clinic and Epic Systems (which accounts for over half of all medical records in the U.S.) to make sharing records and data with your health providers as easy as possible. No other partnerships were announced, but a successful launch of Health could have companies lining up to get involved.
Not everyone is thrilled with Health and HealthKit, though. Any health apps that generate revenue from in-app ads could have less eyes on those ads if Health is able to pull all necessary info from those apps. And that's to say nothing of the Australian company HealthKit, which has nothing to do with Apple, iOS 8 or Apple's version of HealthKit. One would assume that Apple reached out to the Aussie's and offered to purchase healthkit.com and @healthkit... actually... no, no it didn't. What a surprise.