# Apple Health

12 Hacker News commenters recommended Apple Health and 10 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 5 years (3 owners).

**Verdict:** Free and built into iOS, with data kept on device or end-to-end encrypted in backups. Critics say it is noisy, complicated and better at aggregating data than giving insights.

## Why people recommend it

- End-to-end encrypted, keys stay on device (4 comments): "Only you and your trusted devices have the keys, Apple can't see the keys" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48250449)) "the only health/fitness data storage with end to end encrypted data" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49209308)) "It's e2ee and only part of your icloud backup if you enable it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48940598))
- Central hub for other apps' data (3 comments): "very well built and a good model of how other components in iOS could allow data exchange with very granular permissions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48463781)) "write straight to Apple Health without needing their own stupid app and account" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50116881)) "to fix missing features in the manufacturers own platforms" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48530219))
- Adequate for tracking and doctor visits (3 comments): "Apple Health data by itself and family history is enough to make a starter PDF for your cardiologist." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49315428)) "Apple Health's tracker which is entirely adequate" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47934701)) "have been incredibly helpful" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50103466))

## What people warn about

- Noisy, complicated, weak on insights (2 comments): "more about aggregating data than actually producing actionable insights" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46532559)) "Apple health app is pretty bad. It's just noisy and complicated." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50120721))
- Hard to access or export data (2 comments): "Would love a way to access just some of it via api" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47580689)) "giant XML blob that chokes most tools" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47340298))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Kula](https://hackerapproved.com/p/kula.md): 10 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Apple Health", https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-health/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).