Apple Health
Health data app in Health & fitness
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.
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.
22 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 12
- criticize it
- 10
- approval share
- 55%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 5 years
Median of the 3 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 12 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
End-to-end encrypted, keys stay on device
“Only you and your trusted devices have the keys, Apple can't see the keys”
Comment from 23 May 2026 in “Oura says it gets government demands for user data. Will it share how many?” “the only health/fitness data storage with end to end encrypted data”
Comment from 7 Aug 2026 in “My phone detects going on a run as "someone snatching my phone and running off"” “It's e2ee and only part of your icloud backup if you enable it.”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “The privacy problems hidden in your period tracker” - Comment from 19 Jul 2026 in “We want Texans to know their rights”
Central hub for other apps' data
“very well built and a good model of how other components in iOS could allow data exchange with very granular permissions”
Comment from 9 Jun 2026 in “Apple decided not to roll out Siri in EU after denied request for exemption” “write straight to Apple Health without needing their own stupid app and account”
Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “New Withings Users Must Pay $99/Year for Apple Health Syncing” “to fix missing features in the manufacturers own platforms”
Comment from 14 Jun 2026 in “Ask HN: What are you working on? (June 2026)” Adequate for tracking and doctor visits
“Apple Health data by itself and family history is enough to make a starter PDF for your cardiologist.”
Comment from 15 Aug 2026 in “Abdominal Fat Predicts Heart Disease Risk Better Than BMI” “Apple Health's tracker which is entirely adequate”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “Period tracking app has been yapping about your flow to Meta” “have been incredibly helpful”
Comment from 15 Oct 2026 in “Things to know when you get cancer”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Noisy, complicated, weak on insights
“more about aggregating data than actually producing actionable insights”
Comment from 7 Jan 2026 in “Introducing ChatGPT Health” “Apple health app is pretty bad. It's just noisy and complicated.”
Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “New Withings Users Must Pay $99/Year for Apple Health Syncing” Hard to access or export data
“Would love a way to access just some of it via api”
Comment from 30 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: I made my fitness dashboard public and Apple Health needs an API” “giant XML blob that chokes most tools”
Comment from 11 Mar 2026 in “Vitalina: Export Your Apple Health Data as CSV/JSON”
What people recommend instead
The same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple HealthThis page | 12 | 10 | 55% | 7 | 5 yrs3 owners | — |
| Kula | 10 | 3 | 77% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
20 of the 22 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Apple health app is pretty bad. It's just noisy and complicated.”
“the services strike me as uniformly shoddy”
“write straight to Apple Health without needing their own stupid app and account”
“have been incredibly helpful”
“There's not even a "maybe later". No matter what you do, it comes back every 2 weeks.”
“Apple needs to move the health data storage, at least optionally, to the home pod/apple tv.”
“Apple Health data by itself and family history is enough to make a starter PDF for your cardiologist.”
“the only health/fitness data storage with end to end encrypted data”
“it stays on device or encrypted in backups”
“It's e2ee and only part of your icloud backup if you enable it.”
“to fix missing features in the manufacturers own platforms”
“very well built and a good model of how other components in iOS could allow data exchange with very granular permissions”
“the native health app does a bad job of it”
“Only you and your trusted devices have the keys, Apple can't see the keys”
“Apple Health's tracker which is entirely adequate”
“Would love a way to access just some of it via api”
“giant XML blob that chokes most tools”
“it would crash after tapping “get started” consistently”
“more about aggregating data than actually producing actionable insights”
“there is a medication reminder built into Apple Health that might work better than an alarm”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.