How to Use Your iPhone’s Health Tracking Features

Apple’s main selling point for the Apple Watch is tracking your health, including activity, sleep, and certain medical conditions.

But it’s not the only Apple product that can help you get fit and stay healthy. The humble iPhone also has plenty of health tracking features.

You may already know that you can follow in your footsteps, for example. But the Health app built into your iPhone can do a lot more, like tracking how long you’ve been practicing mindfulness through third-party apps, determining how much time you’ve been in bed, how fast you walk and more.

Here are some examples of how the iPhone can help you stay healthy:

The Health app can automatically track the number of steps you take per day. It can also track the number of stairs climbed and the total distance you have walked.

Apple doesn’t have its own meditation app, unless you count some of the workouts from its Fitness + subscription service, which features mindful recharge and yoga workouts. But, it can keep track of the time you spend meditating in third party apps like Calm or Headspace. If you install these apps, you’ll be prompted to save information in Apple Health, and once you do, you’ll be able to track your meditation duration each day over time in the app.

You need an Apple Watch to track your sleep, but iPhone can keep track of your time in bed and record that information.

It’s not a great analysis of your sleep, but you can get a feel for your sleep patterns and if you’re picking up your iPhone at night. You can activate it by selecting “options” in the “Complete program and options” menu.

The iPhone also has a “decompress” feature that automatically puts your iPhone in do not disturb mode and darkens the screen. Once in this mode, you can set shortcuts on your lock screen to access meditation apps, a reading app like Kindle or Apple Books, and more. I use it every night so that my iPhone does not bother me when I sleep.

For women, iPhone can track menstrual cycles and predict your next period and fertile window. You can also keep a diary of your menstrual flow, any symptoms you might have that you want to share with your doctor, etc. It may also take into account factors that may affect your fertility window, such as pregnancy or birth control.

A feature called “Headphone Audio Levels” can track the audio volume level of your headphones and let you know if you have listened to music too loudly beyond the recommended limit. Listening to music at over 90 dB for four hours a week, for example, would trigger this alert.

You can track medical records from your doctor visits if your doctor’s office supports integration with Apple Health. This allows you to see all kinds of information, including vaccinations, blood test results, past medical procedures, and more.

Review your health checklist

Apple also has a “health checklist” built into iOS 14, which was released in September 2020.

The Health Checklist will help you create a medical ID on your phone that you or someone else can show to first responders. It contains vital information such as whether or not you are an organ donor, what type of blood you have, allergies and reactions, what medications you are taking, your height and weight, etc. You enter this data yourself, so you don’t have to include it if you don’t want to.

The health checklist can also help you set up Emergency SOS, a feature on your iPhone that will automatically call emergency services if you press the side button on the phone 5 times in a row. If you hold the button down, it will also send a message to any contacts you add in Emergency SOS. I have installed my immediate family members in mine, for example.