Most headlines about Apple’s “Surprise and Shine” event have focused on the iPhone Duo, and for good reason. I’m excited about the company’s first foldable phone, too. But the tech giant also announced plenty of upgrades coming to existing iPhones through iOS 27, including an improved Apple Health that will finally bring Apple Intelligence into its inner workings — though in an update coming later this year.
Apple CEO John Ternus redefined the iPhone as an “intelligent personal hub” during the opening part of the event keynote, and the Health app is going to be another interesting part in this picture.
CNET’s Anna Gragert already has a rundown of everything new coming to the Health app, including features exclusive to the new Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4. But here I want to dive into how it’s currently set up and how I see it becoming a major value-add for Apple, letting it leapfrog other health and wellness devices when the Health app gets its upcoming update.
The current version of Apple Health holds a lot of potential
The Apple Health app is currently a repository of data that doesn’t provide much insight.Aryan Surendranath/CNET
If you open the Health app on your iPhone right now, you’ll see three tabs: Summary, Sharing and Browse.
Summary gives you a surface-level view into data recorded by your iPhone, Apple Watch or third-party services and trackers. If you scroll lower on the same page, you’ll see health trends, assessments and articles designed to help you learn more about the data being recorded as well as your general health.
Then, the Sharing tab lets you see health data shared by your friends and family, and it’ll also let you keep tabs on everyone you’ve shared your data with, including health care providers.
Then there’s Browse. This is where Apple Health’s biggest advantage is buried. Browse has 14 categories, each with its own subset of tracked data. In my case, this section is populated with measurements from my Apple Watch (and now Whoop) and calorie tracking from MyFitnessPal. And then it goes nowhere. Quite abrupt, right? But that’s what’s going to change.
Also, before reading ahead, if you’ve been using any device other than an Apple Watch to track your numbers, check if its app can share data with Apple Health. If it can, enable those options — and once this Health app update rolls out (currently planned for later in 2026), you’re likely to see some new insights.
What Apple Health is going to do differently
Insights on Apple Health will share personalized info and timely health updates.Apple/Composite by CNET
According to Apple’s blog post, the Insights tab will focus on timely health updates. To do this, rather than showing only numbers and percentages, it’ll deliver personalized suggestions and articles in a For You section that should help you understand how your body responds to activities.
The Whoop app and Google Health app, which I’ve recently been using with Google’s Pixel Watch 5, don’t exactly put similar suggestions in front of you. You can get them by asking questions to the AI chatbots built into the apps, but Apple Health bypasses this step entirely and showcases videos and articles to help you move in the right direction.
Then there’s the Longevity tab. While Insights will focus more on day-to-day or week-to-week info, this one looks at the longer term. And as per my current understanding, where the data comes from only matters for Health Age and Movement Evaluations, everything else will be interpreted by Apple Intelligence to help you understand your lifestyle.
Apple’s Health app will also be broader in coverage than most other trackers by testing your hearing and mobility. AirPods come in handy for the hearing tests, while the iOS 27 update on your iPhone and a paired Apple Watch will handle mobility evaluations. This increases the amount of data Apple can use, giving it a massive advantage. Plus, the Health app can also integrate info from health care providers, which can make the base health dataset stronger and more reliable.
It’s these little things that I think give Apple a pretty solid base to outperform its rivals.
Final thoughts
Some might argue that Apple is only catching up to the competition with these changes to the Health app; However, while features such as readiness scores and health age have been available on competing products for some time now, Apple is going a step ahead by making it easier for you to digest tracked data and not limiting what third-party information is available in its Health app. These two aspects will take Apple Health from a simple place to store your health information to a potentially very good medical interpreter.
Aryan Surendranath
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