The iOS 8 Review
by Brandon Chester on September 17, 2014 1:00 PM ESTHealth
Talking about the Health app in iOS 8 is difficult. Much like extensibility, what Health enables depends greatly on developer support that doesn't exist yet with iOS 8 being newly released. What can be explained right now is how it will work and what features it offers beyond being a simple aggregator of a user's health information.
At its core, Apple's Health app is a hub for keeping track of the health information from several different apps and devices. It will be able to sync data with health applications from other developers that use Apple's HealthKit framework. Many of these applications rely on data input by the user, but applications that integrate with fitness devices like the Nike FuelBand can also automatically send information that the device tracks to the Health application.
The Health app consists of four main screens. The dashboard is a user customizable section that displays cards with information about various health statistics. These cards display the information in a graph, with buttons at the top of the page to change the scale of the graph's horizontal axis.
The Health Data screen contains all the possible health information categories that the app keeps track of. You can search by a certain category such as body measurements, or you can view a list with all the various different types of information. Data points for a category can be added manually or sourced from applications that the user gives the Health app permission to access. Other applications for tracking health information can also request access to the information stored in Apple's Health app.
The Sources section contains a list of all applications that are allowed to access and update the information stored in the Health app. Once developers start to hook into the Health app using Apple's HealthKit framework, the Health app will become an area where a user can view all the information from various different health focused applications in a single place.
Medical ID
Medical ID is a new feature in iOS 8 where users can create a section that displays their personal and medical information. It's integrated into the Health app and it has sections for various information like Medical Conditions, Emergency Contacts, Blood Type, Allergies, Medications, and Organ Donor status. These are all things that would be of immense value to emergency workers when helping a person who is unable to give the information themselves. Medical ID can be made accessible via the emergency dialer so it can be viewed even on devices that have a passcode enabled.
I've personally been in situations where I was unable to give information like medications and allergies to emergency services about another person who needed immediate assistance. If you have any conditions that might be important, I encourage you to fill out the Medical ID and enable lockscreen access so paramedics or doctors can access it if they need to. It could save your life someday. What's unfortunate is that this is an Apple service for iOS, as it's something that could really be helpful if it was on every device. There's also some privacy concerns (e.g. anyone with access to your phone could view this information), but as always you have to decide which is more important.
The Health app is also an iPhone only application. I know of many elderly people who own iPads but do not own iPhones. I think Apple should bring the Health app over to iPad, or at the very least the Medical ID feature, as the elderly are a segment of the population that could benefit most from it.
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WinterCharm - Wednesday, September 17, 2014 - link
Except no end to end encryption. Yay privacy.retrospooty - Wednesday, September 17, 2014 - link
Yay, now I know what Olivia Munn's vajooj looks like. Thanks Apple ;)grayson_carr - Wednesday, September 17, 2014 - link
His point was, on Android, you don't have to install Hangouts. Just like Messages on iPhones, it comes on all Android phones.grayson_carr - Wednesday, September 17, 2014 - link
And you don't have to create an account to use it on Android either. It uses your existing gmail account that you use with your Android phone. Not much difference between Messages app on iOS and Hangouts on Android, except Hangouts is available on iOS as well, whereas iMessage is not available on Android.robinthakur - Friday, September 19, 2014 - link
I've yet to meet an iPhone owner who installs a messaging app, especially not a google made one just "to be more compatible". iPhone users are compatible with other iPhone users and SMS users, there's really no need to install hangouts and only slightly more reason to install Whatsapp. The thought of the hassle of having to switch between multiple apps to message different people depending on their devices illustrates the difference between people here and regular users. Whilst I get that you want everybody to use Hangouts, it's just not going to happen.vinospam - Thursday, September 18, 2014 - link
Here's something I posted in another thread: Here's one fact that renders any Google based messaging system mostly unusable to over 2 Billion people right now. All Google sites, apps and services are blocked in most of China. I was traveling for business in China for 2 weeks and on China Unicom network. Gmail, docs, hangout, google groups - nothing is accessible. You can still get Gmail via IMAP and POP but the gmail.com website is inaccessible. In some big cities like Shanghai - some providers have managed to get around it but its rare. Dropbox and Box also did not work. And what about iMessage, FaceTime, iCloud and Apple Apps - they simply did. Now conspiracy theorists will immediately say Apple is in cahoots with the censors in China and NSA (everyone except Putin's intelligence services apparently) - but I don't care. I need to keep my business going and trying to be a nerd is not a big priority. Apple's devices just work - and thats it.robinthakur - Friday, September 19, 2014 - link
As an Android user I wouldn't *choose* to use Hangouts, I think it's awful and that new green colour scheme is hideous. iMessage is miles ahead of it because it works seamlessly as a messaging app. Hangouts does not because it drepeatedly sends the same sms multiple times (it doesn't display this to the sender, but it does charge you multiple times)I think it does depend on whether you know anyone who doesn't have an iPhone, I am the only one in my circle of friends who moved from iPhone to Android on HTC One M8, but I'll be moving back once my 6 plus arrives, because I miss the reliability and the compatibility. Plus there's Swiftkey now, Widgets, the hardware's better designed, there are more fully featured apps on iOS, it now comes with a larger screen, so why would you choose to stay on Android unless you literally love rooting kit and fooling around with ROMS or you actively dislike Apple?
Impulses - Wednesday, September 17, 2014 - link
They did sign up for something tho, an Apple account when they bought aN iPhone.retrospooty - Wednesday, September 17, 2014 - link
That is exactly how hangouts works, only hangouts works for everyone, not just Apple users.tuxRoller - Wednesday, September 17, 2014 - link
Because with hangouts anyone, on any platform, can use it and get the same experience.Really, this is one of the big reasons why I won't buy an apple product. They really only care about people buying the hardware, and to that end it seems to be a goal to strongly encourage people to use their products which provide a sub par experience (assuming it can be used at all) to folks who aren't in the ecosystem.