Health and Activity: Complete Guide to iOS 13

 In several of its built-in applications, including Health and Activity, Apple has added new functionality and new functionalities, all of which have either improved dramatically or have substantial new features worth noting.

Health App

Summary

"In iOS 13, Apple fully revamped the Health app, removing the iOS 12 interface that featured four "Today" calendar tabs, "Health Info," "Sources," and "Medical ID.

There are now only two tabs on the main health interface: Overview and Search. Summary is a summary of all the various health metrics that differ depending on what health-related devices you have and how you use them.

For example, if you have an Apple Watch, you can see things like movement, heart rate, variability of heart rate, hours of standing, minutes of standing, steps, and loads more. Other devices can also be seen here, such as the Beddit sleep monitor, smart scales, blood pressure monitors, and everything else that links to the Health app.
To edit what's in the "Summary" tab," tap on the "Edit" button and tap the stars next to the categories that you want to be able to see.

Highlights

The Overview app has a "Highlights" section that shows you important and interesting details that you may want to know about the average minutes of exercise over the last seven days, recovery of heart rate, average daily steps, sound levels of the environment, and more.

covery, average steps walked per day, environmental sound levels, and more.

Get More From Health

If you scroll down to the end of the Health app's Overview section, you will see different choices, such as registering as an organ donor along with health-related content, such as why hearing health matters and recognising hearing loss. There are also links to applications related to health that you may want to explore.

Browse Tab

You will see a rundown of all the available health-related categories in the 'Browse' tab of the Health app to make it easier to locate various health details and your health records if you have a doctor's office that makes records available on the iPhone.

Profile

By tapping your profile picture at the top of the Health screen, information such as Medical ID and Sources, which was previously accessible via dedicated tabs in the iOS 12 Health app, is now found in a new Profile section.

Here along with your medical ID information and your organ donation preferences, your personal health details (height, weight, age, etc are kept. If you have a participating health provider and you can change which applications and devices have access to your health data, you can also access your health records in this section.

This section also includes a search category so you can search for exactly what you're looking for.

Health Data Breakdowns

Because the Fitness app is no longer sorted by date, when you tap into a health category, like steps taken or minutes of exercise, it looks different.

You can still see data organized by day, week, month, or year, but it's easier to find each category that you're looking for and Apple also provides useful health summaries in these sections.

Depending on the health category, metrics like historical average, daily average, range, alerts, and more are also available.

Menstrual Cycle Tracking

iOS 13 brings a new health tracking feature for tracking menstrual cycles. It includes options for both period and fertility tracking, providing a first-party alternative to less privacy-focused period tracking apps.

It predicts when a period is expected and keeps track of period history, along with allowing for the logging and tracking of different symptoms related to both health and fertility tracking.

Noise Monitoring

Apple in iOS 13 monitors the sound level around you through a connected Series 4 Apple Watch or through connected earbuds like the EarPods, AirPods, Powerbeats Pro, and other options.

The Health app can be set to send notifications when harmful noise levels are detected, such as if you're at a concert that's too loud or are listening to music through the ‌AirPods‌ or other headphones that's set too loud.

In the Health app specifically, Apple provides a readout of the ambient noise you've been exposed to over time. The app lets you know if it's been too loud, and provides the average sound level in your environment over the last hour, day, week, month, and year.

Toothbrushing Time

This data can now be imported into the Health app in a new Toothbrushing category if you have a Bluetooth-connected toothbrush that works with an iPhone app, so you can see your brushing time at a glance. Brushing time per day, week, month, and year is tracked by the Toothbrushing group.

If you don't have a Bluetooth-enabled toothbrush, you can also add manual data each time that you brush your teeth.

Activity App

The Activity app in iOS 13 has a new "Trends" tab that's designed to make sure you keep up your activity levels from month to month.

Trends lets you know if your overall health trends are stable, up, or down, so if activity levels have dropped, you can make the appropriate changes.

To give you an idea of where you stand at a glance, arrows up or down are used by Patterns. In a particular group, an up arrow indicates that your activity is up, while a down arrow means that you are trending downwards.

Trends cover activity (calories per day from physical movement), minutes of exercise, hours of standing, distance walked, and more, depending on what activities you do. Also available are metrics such as Stand Minutes per Hour, VO2MAX, Walking Speed, and Running Pace, but you need enough data to enable them. These are focused on workouts for walking and running.

Trends are designed to help users understand the long-term pattern of behaviour, mobility, and health over the last 90 days, says Apple. More accurate information is given by clicking on any of the arrows in the Trends tab, so you can see improvements in more detail over time.

Apple will give you an encouraging message if your trends are up, or personalized coaching if trends are down.

New Move Achivements

The Activity app also includes some new Move achievements, with rewards for hitting Move goals 1250, 1500, 1750, and 2000 times. Previously, this maxed out at 1000.