Apple is developing an “AI-powered health coach” that will offer personalized advice for improving exercise, diet, and sleep, according to a Bloomberg report on Tuesday.
Sources claiming to have knowledge of the matter told the news site’s Apple insider Mark Gurman that the new service — reportedly codenamed Quartz — will use AI technology with health data gathered by Apple’s smartwatch to make the company’s health platform even more useful.
The AI-powered health coach may require a monthly subscription and could launch in 2024, Gurman said, though he cautioned that Apple could change course at any time and postpone its release or even cancel the plan altogether.
What seems more certain is Apple’s reported initiative to bring the Health app to the iPad this year, as part of iOS 17’s release in the fall.
The new iPad Health app will let you view electrocardiogram results and other health data in a format larger than that offered by the iPhone, according to Bloomberg.
“The hope is that an iPad version will boost the app’s popularity in health care settings, where tablets have already made inroads,” Gurman wrote.
In addition, Apple is also believed to be working on some kind of emotion tracker for the Health app. The first version of this will function apparently by letting users input their mood and respond to questions about their day before comparing results across days, weeks, and months. A later version, however, could deploy algorithms to determine a user’s mood via their speech, typed words, and other data on a user’s device.
Apple’s interest in health started in 2014 with the launch of its dedicated app, and the arrival of the Apple Watch a year later opened up new possibilities for health and fitness tracking.
Over time, the tech giant has been adding more advanced Watch technology that has paved the way for additional Health features, and these latest reports point to an even greater push by Apple into the field of health and wellness.
While the release of iOS 17 is at least five months away, we can expect a preview of the updated operating system — including new features for the Health app — at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, which kicks off on June 5.
