Health App Gains New 'Symptoms' Section in iOS 13.6 Beta

Tuesday June 9, 2020 11:11 am PDT by Juli Clover

In the new iOS 13.6 beta released today, the Health app has gained a new "Symptoms" section that wasn't available in previous versions of iOS.

The section appears to allow users to add symptoms of various illnesses like body and muscle aches, appetite changes, coughing, dizziness, fainting, headache, nausea, and more.

Health app users are able to add symptom data through the Health app by tapping on the "Add Data" option, providing a way to track and log various illness-related symptoms over time.

Each symptom listed in the app comes with a description and the entry options vary based on the symptom in question, with options to add details like Severe, Moderate, Mild, Present, or Not Present.

The Health app previously had options for logging symptoms related to menstruation for the menstruation tracking feature, but this general symptoms feature is more extensive and will presumably allow patients to share more detailed health information with their doctors.

Steve Moser contributed to this report.

Top Rated Comments

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chucker23n1

15 weeks ago

Why? To start, the difference between an iPhone and an iPad is that Apple can confidently say your iPhone will be with you for the most part. The moment you activate your health app on a tablet do you cumulatively count the tracking data from that, which will potentially double your movement data, or does Apple do what exactly? The moment your health data applies across multiple devices the assumptions they can make change, and not always for the better and/or more accurate data.

Redundant movement data is already a problem anyway. All of HealthKit is designed to support multiple data sources and outputs, and for movement, that could just be wearing an Apple Watch while carrying an iPhone. Hardly an unusual use case. An app like Pedometer++ will simply merge the data together.

Health on an iPad makes sense to me. It's not as critical as having it on the phone, but it's quite useful. Its bigger screen makes for nicer space to show charts and analytics. You can also hand your iPad over to a doctor, therapist, etc. to temporarily show some data, in a way that doesn't quite feel right for an iPhone.

Personally, I'd also like it on the Mac — let me use e.g. Numbers to further explore the data.

Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)

GadgetBen

Waiting now for the tin foil hat folk to claim this is Apple tracking who has Corona.

Infinite Vortex

That's all well and good but in today's connected world I wonder if these "symptoms" can at some point be used against us when it comes to, for instance, getting insurance coverage or when we fill out that job application. There's a point were I feel it's too much information.

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)