Apple Health (iPhone)

Basic  Apple Health is the health hub on every iPhone. It already collects steps, sleep, heart rate and more from the phone, the Apple Watch and other apps. Connecting it shares those numbers with you automatically. This is an iPhone (iOS) feature; the Android equivalent is Health Connect.

What syncs

Once a client connects Apple Health, Protocol reads these daily numbers:

That is the whole list, and it is the same list on Android. Sleep arrives as the night’s session and becomes duration, deep / REM / light and efficiency on the client’s record.

These are daily summaries: a day’s step total, that night’s sleep, the morning’s resting heart rate. Protocol doesn’t pull minute-by-minute samples or live heart rate, and it doesn’t import individual workouts; those stay logged the usual way. Protocol only ever reads from Apple Health, it never writes anything back.

How your client connects

The whole flow lives in your app, on the client’s phone. You can’t do it for them from the dashboard. Walk them through it once:

1. Open your app, go to Profile, then Health Data.
2. Tap Connect on the Apple Health card.
3. iOS shows its own permission sheet. The client turns on the categories they’re happy to share and taps Allow. They’re in full control here, and this sheet is the only place the choice is made: there are no per-metric switches inside your app.
4. Done. The card shows Connected and the first sync runs. After that it tops up while they have the app open.

When data arrives, and why it can lag

Apple Health data syncs while the client has your app open, and no more often than once every 15 minutes so it doesn’t sync constantly. It catches up the moment they reopen the app, and the Sync now button forces an immediate refresh. The practical takeaway: numbers are as fresh as the client’s last app open. A client who hasn’t opened the app in three days will have three-day-old data until they do.

First connection backfills history. The very first sync pulls roughly the last 30 days, so you get a trend immediately, not a blank chart you have to wait to fill.

“Connected” but no data showing?

iOS keeps health permissions private. It tells the app the permission screen was shown, but never whether the client actually left a category switched on. So the card can read Connected even if the client tapped through without enabling anything, and you’d see nothing arrive.

If a connected client shows no readings, have them check the toggles:

• On the phone: Settings → Health → Data Access & Devices → [your app], make sure the metrics you want are turned on, then tap Sync now in the app.

Turning it off

There’s no “disconnect” button on the device card. To stop sharing, the client revokes access from iOS Settings → Health → Data Access & Devices → [your app] (turn categories off, or remove access). New data stops flowing; what already synced stays on their record.

Next: the Android equivalent, Health Connect →, or jump to Reviewing a client’s biometrics →.