HealthKit Includes Native Bluetooth Support for Some Accessories, Eliminating Need for Companion Apps
HealthKit supports some medical Bluetooth accessories natively, allowing accessory makers to skip developing apps for iOS and focus on their hardware, according to 9to5Mac.
The accessories that will be built-in and supported natively by HealthKit include heart rate and blood pressure monitors, glucose sensors, and health thermometers. Apple is using official standard specs for Bluetooth LE devices from http://Bluetooth.org, which is what allows iOS 8 to automatically establish a connection with the devices listed above without the manufacturers worrying about anything on the software side.
HealthKit can automatically detect these Bluetooth medical devices and gather data from them, syncing them to the new Health app without the user having to do anything in a third-party app, making it easy for users to find health information in a single place. Additionally, device makers won't have to spend resources and time making an app rather than focus on their hardware.
HealthKit and the Health app are available to developers in the iOS 8 now. All three will launch in the fall for the general public.
Popular Stories
Last year, Apple launched CarPlay Ultra, the long-awaited next-generation version of its CarPlay software system for vehicles. Nearly a year later, CarPlay Ultra is still limited to Aston Martin's latest luxury vehicles, but that should change fairly soon.
In May 2025, Apple said many other vehicle brands planned to offer CarPlay Ultra, including Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis.
CarPlay Ultra...
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today revealed another iOS 27 change: notifications will slide in from the left side of the screen instead of from the top.
In addition, accessing Notification Center on iOS 27 will require swiping down on the top-left corner of the screen. If you swipe down on the Dynamic Island area, a new "Search or Ask" interface tied to the revamped Siri will appear, instead of...
Apple has several hardware releases in the pipeline, but will we see any of them unveiled at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference?
WWDC is primarily a software event where new versions of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS take center stage, but it's not unusual for Apple to introduce new hardware during the developer conference. Take WWDC 2017, for example, where Apple...
