Hello, everyone! I'm seeking some guidance on the App Store review process and technical best practices for a watchOS app. My goal is to create an app that uses HealthKit to continuously monitor a user's heart rate in the background for sessions lasting between 30 minutes and 3 hours. This app would not be a fitness or workout tracker. My primary question is about the best way to achieve this reliably while staying within the App Store Review Guidelines. Is it advisable to use the WorkoutKit framework to start a custom, non-fitness "session" for the purpose of continuous background monitoring? Are there any other recommended APIs or frameworks for this kind of background data collection on watchOS that I should be aware of? What are the key review considerations I should be mindful of, particularly regarding Guideline 4.1 (Design) and the intended use of APIs? My app's core functionality would require this kind of data for a beneficial purpose. I want to ensure my approach is technically sound and has the best chance of a successful review. Any insights or advice from developers who have experience with similar use cases would be incredibly helpful! Thank you!

Overview of Issue My implementation of HealthKit is no longer able to read values due to authorization issues (ex. "HealthKitService: Not authorized to read HKQuantityTypeIdentifierHeight. Status: 0"). I have been through every conceivable debugging step including building a minimal project that just requests HealthKit data and the issue has persisted. I've tried my personal as well as Organizational developer teams. My MacOS and Mac Mini. Simulator and personal device. Rechecked entitlements, reprovisioned certificates. This makes no sense. And I have been unable to find anything similar in the Developer forums or documentation. The problem occurs during the onboarding flow when the app requests HealthKit permissions. Even when the user grants permission in the HealthKit authorization sheet, the authorizationStatus for characteristic data types (like Biological s3x and Date of Birth) and quantity data types (like Height and Weight) consistently returns as .sharingDenied. This prevents the app from pre-filling the user's profile with their HealthKit data, forcing them to enter it manually. The issue seems to be environmental rather than a specific code bug, as it has been reproduced in a minimal test case app and persists despite extensive troubleshooting. Minimal test project: https://github.com/ChristopherJones72521/HealthKitTestApp** STEPS TO REPRODUCE Build app, attempt to sign in. No data is imported into the respective fields in the main app. Console logs confirm. PLATFORM AND VERSION iOS Development environment: Xcode Version 16.4 (16F6), macOS 15.5 (24F74) Run-time configuration: iOS 18.5 Relevant Code Snippets Here are the key pieces of code that illustrate the implementation and the problem: 1. Requesting HealthKit Permissions (HealthKitService.swift) This function is called to request authorization for the required HealthKit data types. The typesToRead and typesToWrite are defined in a centralized HealthKitTypes struct. // HealthKitService.swift func requestPermissions(completion: @escaping (Bool, Error?) -> Void) { guard HKHealthStore.isHealthDataAvailable() else { completion(false, HealthKitError.notAvailable) return } let typesToRead: Set<HKObjectType> = [ HKObjectType.characteristicType(forIdentifier: .dateOfBirth)!, HKObjectType.characteristicType(forIdentifier: .biologicals3x)!, HKObjectType.quantityType(forIdentifier: .height)!, HKObjectType.quantityType(forIdentifier: .bodyMass)! ] let typesToWrite: Set<HKSampleType> = [ HKObjectType.workoutType(), HKObjectType.quantityType(forIdentifier: .activeEnergyBurned)! ] healthStore.requestAuthorization(toShare: typesToWrite, read: typesToRead) { success, error in DispatchQueue.main.async { if let error = error { print("HealthKitService: Error requesting authorization: \(error.localizedDescription)") completion(false, error) } else { print("HealthKitService: Authorization request completed. Success: \(success)") completion(success, nil) } } } } 2. Reading Biological s3x (HealthKitService.swift) This function attempts to read the user's biological s3x. The print statements are included to show the authorization status check, which is where the issue is observed. // HealthKitService.swift func readBiologicals3x() async throws -> HKBiologicals3xObject? { guard HKHealthStore.isHealthDataAvailable() else { throw HealthKitError.notAvailable } let s3xAuthStatus = healthStore.authorizationStatus(for: HKObjectType.characteristicType(forIdentifier: .biologicals3x)!) print("HealthKitService: Auth status for Biological s3x: \(s3xAuthStatus.rawValue)") guard s3xAuthStatus == .sharingAuthorized else { print("HealthKitService: Not authorized to read Biological s3x.") throw HealthKitError.notAuthorized } do { return try healthStore.biologicals3x() } catch { print("HealthKitService: Error executing biologicals3x query: \(error.localizedDescription)") throw HealthKitError.queryFailed(error) } } 3. Calling HealthKit Functions During Onboarding (OnboardingFlowView.swift) This is how the HealthKitService is used within the onboarding flow. The requestHealthKitAndPrefillData function is called after the user signs in, and it attempts to read the data to pre-fill the profile form. // OnboardingFlowView.swift func readHealthKitDataAsync() async { print("Attempting to read HealthKit data async...") // ... (calls to HealthKitService.shared.readDateOfBirth(), readHeight(), etc.) do { if let biologicals3xObject = try await HealthKitService.shared.readBiologicals3x() { if self.selectedGender == nil { switch biologicals3xObject.biologicals3x { case .female: self.selectedGender = .female case .male: self.selectedGender = .male case .other: self.selectedGender = .other default: break } } } } catch { print("OnboardingFlowView: Error reading Biological s3x: (error.localizedDescription)") } print("OnboardingFlowView: Finished HealthKit data processing.") } Console Logs Attempting to read HealthKit data async... HealthKitService: Reading Date of Birth... HealthKitService: Current auth status for DOB (during read attempt): 0 HealthKitService: Not authorized to read Date of Birth. Status: 0 OnboardingFlowView: Error reading Date of Birth: The operation couldn’t be completed. (Strike_Force.HealthKitError error 2.) HealthKitService: Reading Height... HealthKitService: Current auth status for HKQuantityTypeIdentifierHeight (during read attempt): 0 HealthKitService: Not authorized to read HKQuantityTypeIdentifierHeight. Status: 0 OnboardingFlowView: Error reading Height: The operation couldn’t be completed. (Strike_Force.HealthKitError error 2.) HealthKitService: Reading Weight (Body Mass)... HealthKitService: Current auth status for HKQuantityTypeIdentifierBodyMass (during read attempt): 0 HealthKitService: Not authorized to read HKQuantityTypeIdentifierBodyMass. Status: 0 OnboardingFlowView: Error reading Weight: The operation couldn’t be completed. (Strike_Force.HealthKitError error 2.) HealthKitService: Pre-read check for Biologicals3x auth status: 1 (Denied) HealthKitService: Reading Biological s3x... HealthKitService: Current auth status for Biological s3x (during read attempt): 1 HealthKitService: Not authorized to read Biological s3x. Status: 1 OnboardingFlowView: Error reading Biological s3x: The operation couldn’t be completed. (Strike_Force.HealthKitError error 2.)

watchos 26 新增了睡眠评分，开发者如何获取这个评分，有相关的文档和API吗？ Watchos 26 has added a sleep rating. How can developers obtain this rating? Do you have any relevant documentation and APIs?

I have recently come across a couple of odd HealthKit step samples from WatchOS. They represent step data measured in 2022 by my Apple Watch, but they have a creation date ("Date Added to Health") within the past couple of days. These odd samples show a "View All Quantities" button at the bottom of the sample Details page in the Health app on iOS 26 (which I've never seen before); the button leads to a list of many small step quantities, almost as if some older, smaller samples were consolidated into these newer samples. Even weirder is that at least some of these samples seem to be getting re-created repeatedly. For example, I've seen the same sample with a "Date Added to Health" of 9/5/25, then 9/8/25, twice on 9/9/25, and twice on 9/10/25. These samples were originally created by WatchOS 9, and are not being deleted/recreated by any apps on my device. I have only observed it since I updated to the iOS 26 beta (and now the RC); my watch was still running iOS 18 the first time it happened, but it has also happened since my watch was updated to WatchOS 26 beta. I did some debug printing of the odd samples and the normal samples surrounding them for comparison. Here's a normal sample: Sample: 80AC5AC5-CBD7-4581-B275-0C2ACA35B7B4 6 count 80AC5AC5-CBD7-4581-B275-0C2ACA35B7B4, (9.0), "Watch6,1" (9.0) "Apple Watch" (2022-09-15 16:20:14 -0500 - 2022-09-15 16:20:16 -0500) Device: <<HKDevice: 0x10591eee0>, name:Apple Watch, manufacturer:Apple Inc., model:Watch, hardware:Watch6,1, software:9.0, creation date:2022-08-25 18:22:26 +0000> Source revision: <HKSourceRevision name:My Apple Watch, bundle:com.apple.health.EE83959D-D009-4BA0-83A5-2E5A1CC05FE6, version:9.0, productType:Watch6,1, operatingSystemVersion:9.0> Source: <HKSource:0x110588690 "My Apple Watch", bundle identifier: com.apple.health.EE83959D-D009-4BA0-83A5-2E5A1CC05FE6, localDeviceSource: 0, modification date: 2024-01-31 05:49:18 +0000> Date added: 2022-09-15 21:20:16 +0000 Days between end and add: 0 And here's one of the odd samples: Sample: 4982487F-1189-4F16-AB00-61E37818A66D 676 count 4982487F-1189-4F16-AB00-61E37818A66D, (9.0), "iPhone12,1" (16.2) "Apple Watch" metadata: { HKMetadataKeySyncIdentifier = "6:38082859-D9C8-466A-8882-53443B2A2D94:684969619.25569:684970205.31182:119"; HKMetadataKeySyncVersion = 1; } (2022-09-15 16:20:19 -0500 - 2022-09-15 16:30:05 -0500) Device: <<HKDevice: 0x10591ce40>, name:Apple Watch, manufacturer:Apple Inc., model:Watch, hardware:Watch6,1, software:9.0, creation date:2022-08-25 18:22:26 +0000> Source revision: <HKSourceRevision name:My Apple Watch, bundle:com.apple.health.EE83959D-D009-4BA0-83A5-2E5A1CC05FE6, version:9.0, productType:iPhone12,1, operatingSystemVersion:16.2> Source: <HKSource:0x110588640 "My Apple Watch", bundle identifier: com.apple.health.EE83959D-D009-4BA0-83A5-2E5A1CC05FE6, localDeviceSource: 0, modification date: 2024-01-31 05:49:18 +0000> Date added: 2025-09-08 21:11:12 +0000 Days between end and add: 1088 Here's that same odd sample a day later, apparently recreated: Sample: 9E8B12FC-048D-4ECD-BE5B-D387AADE5130 676 count 9E8B12FC-048D-4ECD-BE5B-D387AADE5130, (9.0), "iPhone12,1" (16.2) "Apple Watch" metadata: { HKMetadataKeySyncIdentifier = "6:38082859-D9C8-466A-8882-53443B2A2D94:684969619.25569:684970205.31182:119"; HKMetadataKeySyncVersion = 1; } (2022-09-15 16:20:19 -0500 - 2022-09-15 16:30:05 -0500) Device: <<HKDevice: 0x12f01c4e0>, name:Apple Watch, manufacturer:Apple Inc., model:Watch, hardware:Watch6,1, software:9.0, creation date:2022-08-25 18:22:26 +0000> Source revision: <HKSourceRevision name:My Apple Watch, bundle:com.apple.health.EE83959D-D009-4BA0-83A5-2E5A1CC05FE6, version:9.0, productType:iPhone12,1, operatingSystemVersion:16.2> Source: <HKSource:0x12f0f8230 "My Apple Watch", bundle identifier: com.apple.health.EE83959D-D009-4BA0-83A5-2E5A1CC05FE6, localDeviceSource: 0, modification date: 2024-01-31 05:49:18 +0000> Date added: 2025-09-09 20:53:18 +0000 Days between end and add: 1089 It's worth pointing out some differences between the "normal" and "odd" samples (besides the "View All Quantities" button in the Health app). The recreated "odd" samples have a different Source Revision - the "productType" and "operatingSystemVersion" refer to my iPhone, not the Apple Watch device that actually captured the samples. The odd samples also have metadata keys that don't exist in the other samples - HKMetadataKeySyncIdentifier and HKMetadataKeySyncVersion. Questions I'm hoping someone can help with: What are these samples? Why/how do they have a "View All Quantities" button that shows sub-samples? Is this new to iOS 26? Why are some of the samples getting recreated multiple times?

Can’t get the live data from ppg sensor (se os 26.x) for 0 latency parsing of haptics per each pulse (heart beat). any help would be cool. b

I'm currently collecting real-time heart rate data using HKWorkoutSession. I want to track when the Apple Watch is physically removed from the user's wrist during an active workout. However, I've noticed that workoutBuilder(_:didCollectDataOf:) continues to be called even after the watch is removed from the wrist. Is there a way to detect when the Apple Watch is removed from the wrist during an active HKWorkoutSession? Or is this tracking not possible through the HealthKit framework? Any guidance or alternative approaches would be appreciated.

How to legally and compliantly upload users' fitness and health data to our own server—while adhering to Apple's strict privacy policies—for analysis by our AI large model to provide personalized feedback and recommendations to users.

Some users have switched to wearing smart rings instead of an Apple Watch, but they still want their rings to close throughout the day in Apple Fitness to keep their streaks going. I've noticed that the 3rd party smart ring apps do not affect the progress of the exercise and move rings unless the user puts on their Apple Watch and syncs with there iPhone throughout the day. Is there a way to make the progress rings update throughout the day without having to connect an Apple Watch periodically?

I have a few feasibility questions regarding health data processing on iOS, related to HealthKit and system capabilities: Background Health Data Collection Can an iOS app continuously collect and process health data in the background, including: Collecting health data from the Health app while the device is locked or in sleep mode Triggering user notifications when anomalies are detected in health data processing Are there any technical limitations? Do these capabilities require specific enterprise qualifications or additional fees? 2. Emergency Contacts Integration Can an app write or modify the system’s built-in Emergency Contacts (Medical ID)? If a user updates Emergency Contacts in iOS Settings, can the app receive a change notification or access the updated data? 3. Automated Alerting for Health Metrics Beyond Apple’s fall detection, can abnormal health metrics (heart rate, irregular rhythm, blood oxygen, etc.) trigger automated alerts such as SMS to preset emergency contacts—without requiring the user to manually open the app or only receive on-device notifications? This is a feasibility inquiry about API and system behavior, not a bug report. Any official guidance or documentation references would be greatly appreciated.

How do I add my hospital to the list of hospitals available on the Health Records on iPhone application?

I've ran into an error with the insertRouteData function of the HKWorkoutRouteBuilder that I can't seem to find any information on. The error is "Unable to find location series 1A193D3B-AFF5-41D8-A967-B1BE08D9F543 during data insert.". It seems to only happen when trying to insert very long routes, in the most recent case it was a 5 hour bike ride with 5900 samples. I save all the route data in a sqlite table as backup and after checking out the data there isn't any red flags as to why it would not insert correctly. Has anyone seen this before and could offer some insight or point me in the right direction to find the source of the error?

We are seeing an issue where sending data using the asynchronous method HKWorkoutSession.sendToRemoteWorkoutSession(data: Data) will never return in some cases (no success nor failure). This issue is happening for roughly 5% of Workouts started and will stay broken for the whole workout. The other 95% of the workouts, the connection works flawlessly. This happens on both watchOS 10 and 11, and with phones running iOS 17 or 18. The issue is quite random and not reproducible. Our app has thousands of workouts a day that use the workout session workout data send, with constant messages being send every few seconds. In some of those 5% cases the "sendToRemoteWorkoutSession" will throw way later, like 30+ minutes later, if the watch app is awake long enough to capture a log of a failure. Our code uses the same flow as in the sample project: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/healthkit/workouts_and_activity_rings/building_a_multidevice_workout_app Here is some sample code, which is pretty simple. Setup code: let workoutSession = try HKWorkoutSession(healthStore: healthStore, configuration: configuration) workoutSession.delegate = self activeWorkoutSession?.startMirroringToCompanionDevice { success, error in print("Mirroring started on companion device: \(success), error: \(error)") } workoutSession?.prepare() then later we send data using the workout session: do { print("Will send data") try await workoutSession.sendToRemoteWorkoutSession(data: data) print("Successfully sent data") // This nor the error may be called after waiting extensive amounts of time } catch { print("Failed to send data, error: \(error)") // This nor the success may be called after waiting extensive amounts of time } So far, the only fix is to restart the phone and watch at the same time, which is not a great user experience. Is anyone else seeing this issue? or know how to fix this issue?

When we upload workout data to HealthKit the route information with the workout detailed data is incomplete: just a few dots. When we select "Show all workout routes" the route data for the same workout shows correctly. We use the HKWorkoutBuilder to store the workout data, and add the location data with the HKWorkoutRouteBuilder to the workout with Is this an Apple Health issue, or do we have to change something in the way we store the location data to the workout?

For a given date, there are discrepancies between the step counts obtained from HealthKit and those displayed in the Health app. Is it possible for such discrepancies to occur even if step counts are not manually entered and multiple devices are not being used?

I am trying to track a user's real-time sleep state using heart rate data, but I have encountered several issues: When using HKSampleQuery on the phone to fetch heart rate data, I can only retrieve data recorded before the app comes to the foreground or before it is terminated and restarted (see related issue: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/774953). I attempted to get data on the Apple Watch and send updates to the phone via Watch Connectivity. However, if I use WKExtendedRuntimeSession, although I can obtain data on the watch, once the watch screen goes off, it can no longer transmit data via Watch Connectivity to the phone (since I cannot guarantee the app will remain in the foreground when lying in bed). On the other hand, using HKWorkoutSession results in interference with the activity rings and causes the heart rate sensor to run too frequently, which I worry may affect the battery life of the watch. Is there an elegant solution for tracking a user's heart rate data for sleep monitoring?

I am currently developing an app that measures HRV to estimate stress levels. To align the values more closely with those from Galaxy devices, I decided not to use the heartRateVariabilitySDNN value provided by HealthKit. Instead, I extracted individual interbeat intervals (IBI) using the HKHeartBeatSeries data. Can I obtain accurate IBI data using this method? If not, I would like to know how I can retrieve more precise data. Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Here is a sample code I tried. @Observable class HealthKitManager: ObservableObject { let healthStore = HKHealthStore() var ibiValues: [Double] = [] var isAuthorized = false func requestAuthorization() { let types = Set([ HKSeriesType.heartbeat(), HKQuantityType.quantityType(forIdentifier: .heartRateVariabilitySDNN)!, ]) healthStore.requestAuthorization(toShare: nil, read: types) { success, error in DispatchQueue.main.async { self.isAuthorized = success if success { self.fetchIBIData() } } } } func fetchIBIData() { var timePoints: [TimeInterval] = [] var absoluteStartTime: Date? let dateFormatter = DateFormatter() dateFormatter.timeZone = TimeZone(identifier: "Asia/Seoul") dateFormatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS" var calendar = Calendar.current calendar.timeZone = TimeZone(identifier: "Asia/Seoul") ?? .current var components = DateComponents() components.year = 2025 components.month = 4 components.day = 3 components.hour = 15 components.minute = 52 components.second = 0 let startTime = calendar.date(from: components)! components.hour = 16 components.minute = 0 let endTime = calendar.date(from: components)! let predicate = HKQuery.predicateForSamples(withStart: startTime, end: endTime, options: .strictStartDate) let sortDescriptor = NSSortDescriptor(key: HKSampleSortIdentifierStartDate, ascending: false) let query = HKSampleQuery(sampleType: HKSeriesType.heartbeat(), predicate: predicate, limit: HKObjectQueryNoLimit, sortDescriptors: [sortDescriptor]) { (_, samples, _) in if let sample = samples?.first as? HKHeartbeatSeriesSample { absoluteStartTime = sample.startDate let startDateKST = dateFormatter.string(from: sample.startDate) let endDateKST = dateFormatter.string(from: sample.endDate) print("series start(KST):\(startDateKST)\tend(KST):\(endDateKST)") let seriesQuery = HKHeartbeatSeriesQuery(heartbeatSeries: sample) { query, timeSinceSeriesStart, precededByGap, done, error in if !precededByGap { timePoints.append(timeSinceSeriesStart) } if done { for i in 1..<timePoints.count { let ibi = (timePoints[i] - timePoints[i-1]) * 1000 // Convert to milliseconds // Calculate absolute time for current beat if let startTime = absoluteStartTime { let beatTime = startTime.addingTimeInterval(timePoints[i]) let beatTimeString = dateFormatter.string(from: beatTime) print("IBI: \(String(format: "%.2f", ibi)) ms at \(beatTimeString)") } self.ibiValues.append(ibi) } } } self.healthStore.execute(seriesQuery) } else { print("No samples found for the specified time range") } } self.healthStore.execute(query) } }

Hello, I’m developing an iOS app that works with sleep data from Apple Watch via HealthKit. I would like to clarify the following: How can an iPhone app detect when a sleep session ends on the Apple Watch? When is sleep data typically written to the HealthKit store on iPhone after sleep ends? Is it immediately after wake-up, or does it depend on certain conditions (e.g., watch charging, connectivity)? Understanding the timing and mechanism of sleep data synchronization is crucial for our app to process accurate and timely health information. Thank you for your assistance.

My research group is using watch sensors (accelerometers, gyroscopes) to track wrist motion to detect and measure eating. https://cecas.clemson.edu/ahoover/bite-counter/ We are running an HKWorkoutSession on the watch so that the app can run for an extended period of time (up to 12 hr) and continue to sense and process motion data. Our app is adding to the activity rings, making it look like the user is exercising the entire time our app is running. Is there a method to prevent our app from contributing to the activity ring measures?

For an app that plan to integrate Apple HealthKit to allow app users to upload and download their health data, where can I locate the Data Processing Addendum that specifies who the data controller and processor will be, and how such health data will be used or distributed?

Based on Cooordinate with the companion app in this article by Apple https://developer.apple.com/documentation/healthkit/running-workout-sessions if a workout were to be started on the iPhone companion app but with no Watch available, given HKLiveWorkoutBuilder not available in iOS, does the iPhone app need to implement it's own workout tracking such as a timer for counting the elapsed time and location updates for distance and GPS tracking? If so in an instance where a paired Apple Watch were to exist and the workout is continued in the Watch app should the iPhone companion app stop this custom workout tracking and revert to the mirrored workout from the Watch to ensure accurate and synchronised data between the apps?