Apple’s Next AI Feature Could Help Coach Your Health
While the current roster of Apple Intelligence features run the gamut from useful things like Writing Tools to more whimsical options like Genmoji and Image Playground, a new report suggests that Apple may be preparing to put its machine learning and AI expertise to work on helping iPhone and Apple Watch users lead healthier lives.
Analysts have been speculating about an Apple Health+ service since at least 2019, suggesting it could be part of Apple’s push into more paid subscription features, but little has actually come of it. One proposed service, “Mail+,” may have been part of what ultimately became Hide My Email under the iCloud+ banner, but Apple hasn’t done much on the core health. Apple Fitness+ certainly keeps you healthier by offering workout programs, but even as Apple begins tracking new types of metrics like sleep apnea, the Health app only lets you look at your stats but doesn’t do much to help you understand them.
That’s a start contrast to Samsung, which has been moving further into health coaching with the Galaxy Watch and its Galaxy S-series phones that are now equipped with Galaxy AI features. While Apple had a commanding lead in the smartwatch and health tracking front, Samsung has lapped it by offering users a more holistic view of their health.
It was nearly two years ago that we first heard about Apple’s plans for its iOS 17 journalling app from The Wall Street Journal as part of its push into new health frontiers — in this case, helping folks with their mental health. Around the same time, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman revealed that Apple was working on an AI-driven health coaching service that could include “new technology for tracking emotions.”
While some of these mental health logging features found their way into iOS 17, they were believed to be the first step in what would ultimately become a more sophisticated coaching service scheduled to launch further down the road. Gurman believed that might come in iOS 18 but acknowledged that it could take longer for Apple to have it ready.
He reiterated this timeline in his Power On newsletter this week, noting that Apple plans “a revamped health app” that would feature the “AI-based coaching service” that he spoke of in 2023.
The distinction between health and health care defines much of what Apple will be doing for the foreseeable future. Early considerations for the virtual health and fitness coach include the ability to generate eating, sleeping and exercise recommendations from data collected from Apple devices, according to people with knowledge of its development.
Mark Gurman
The service is said to be codenamed “Quartz” and will focus on preventative health care rather than what sources call “post-sick health care.” The same goal applies to Apple’s work on developing blood glucose monitoring for the Apple Watch, which supposedly involves “nanotechnology and software” that will hopefully warn users of prediabetes rather than replacing a traditional blood sugar monitor, much like the wrist temperature sensor works today.
The coaching service would use Apple’s AI models to analyze data collected from an Apple Watch — most of the stuff already available in the Health app in raw form — to create coaching programs tailored to an individual user’s needs. This could include exercise regimens and recommended diets, and would likely adjust as a person’s health needs change.
Gurman believes the coaching service would be a new “Health+” style subscription plan that might be rolled into Fitness+ or part of an Apple One bundle. However, Apple likely hasn’t settled on a pricing model or even a name yet. The holistic nature could lead Apple toward something like “Apple Wellness” instead of its more typical “plus” designations.
There are some indications that Apple aims to have this new service ready for the launch of iOS 19 later this year, which will undoubtedly bring a new suite of Apple Intelligence features across the board. Meanwhile, the AirPods Pro 3 may gain heart rate monitoring while the Apple Watch Series 11 and Ultra 3 could finally adopt high-blood pressure sensors to alert users to hypertension.
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