iOS Apps That Monitor Your Wellbeing

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In a recent episode of iOS Today, hosts Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard explored a variety of apps and features designed to help users monitor their health and symptoms. From Apple's built-in health-tracking capabilities to third-party apps focused on specific health metrics, the duo provided a comprehensive overview of tools that can help you stay on top of your well-being. 

Apple Health: More Than Just Step Counting

Mikah kicked off the discussion by highlighting Apple's extensive symptom tracking capabilities within the Health app. In a previous iOS update, Apple added an impressive list of symptoms that users can track, ranging from abdominal cramps and acne to more serious conditions like chest pain and shortness of breath.

"If you go to the browse tab and you tap on symptoms, you are presented with any symptoms that you have experienced," Mikah explained. The app allows users to log whether symptoms are absent, present, mild, moderate, or severe, along with start and end times for tracking purposes.

While Mikah acknowledged that entering this data directly through the Health app might be somewhat "clunky," he emphasized that it provides a valuable database for collecting health information. He mentioned using it successfully to monitor heart issues in the past, noting that the ECG feature can prompt users to log associated symptoms.

Beyond symptom tracking, Mikah encouraged listeners to explore Apple's health website (apple.com/health) to discover additional features like tracking resting heart rate trends, body temperature changes, and potential sleep interruptions that could indicate sleep apnea.

Peak: Widgets for Fitness Tracking

Rosemary introduced Peak, an app designed primarily for providing widgets that display fitness data on your iPhone's home screen. "The purpose of Peak is actually to provide you with widgets on your iPhone to show you fitness things," she explained.

These widgets can display various metrics like sleep patterns, body temperature trends, and activity levels. Rosemary noted that these visual indicators can be particularly helpful for identifying potential health issues, such as noticing a rising body temperature or decreased activity that might signal illness.

Developed by an indie app developer whom Rosemary described as "incredibly responsive" and "absolutely lovely," Peak offers widgets for metrics including heart rate, blood oxygen, and time spent in daylight—the latter being particularly useful for those affected by Seasonal Affective Disorder.

While Peak is free to download, a subscription ($2.99 monthly or $19.99 annually) unlocks all features, with a lifetime option also available.

Is It Allergies or Illness? Apps That Help You Decide

Mikah then shifted focus to environmental factors that can impact health, introducing two apps that help distinguish between allergies and actual illness:

My Pollen Forecast Pro: This $4.99 app shows local pollen counts using a green-to-red gradient and provides forecasts of different pollen types in your area. A standout feature is its diary function, which allows users to log bad allergy days and correlate them with specific pollen types.

"On the day that your allergies are particularly bad, you can log that information and then start to look at what different pollen...are in the air at the time, and maybe get an idea that, 'Oh, I think I might be allergic to oak,'" Mikah explained.

Plume Labs: This free app tracks overall air quality, providing daily forecasts, weather information, and specific recommendations based on planned activities like cycling, running, or outdoor dining. Mikah highlighted its hyper-local data collection through Plume devices and the ability to check air quality in different cities—useful when traveling.

David Smith's Health Tracking Apps

Rosemary mentioned two popular apps by developer David Smith. Pedometer++: This free app connects to Apple Health to track steps and floors climbed. It gamifies movement by awarding badges for achievements like step streaks or reaching 20,000 steps in a day. Rosemary shared her impressive lifetime statistics: over 1.5 million steps and more than 1,200 flights of stairs climbed.

The app can be customized to show distances in kilometers instead of miles and can adjust step goals based on individual needs. It also offers wheelchair support by counting pushes instead of steps.

While basic features are free, additional functions like viewing long-term trends require a subscription ($1.99 monthly or $19.99 annually).

Sleep++: Though Rosemary didn't delve deeply into this app, she stated it works similarly to Pedometer++ but focuses on tracking sleep patterns through Apple Health data.

Visible: Managing Energy for Chronic Conditions

Rosemary concluded with Visible, an app/device combination designed primarily for people with chronic conditions like long COVID. The system includes an armband that connects to the Visible app to track heart rate and daily activities.

"The idea is, as you wear this on your arm...it tracks everything that you do in a day...and it gives you something called pace points," Rosemary explained. These "pace points" help users understand their energy expenditure for different activities and plan accordingly—especially valuable for those whose energy levels fluctuate significantly from day to day.

For example, washing dishes might use one pace point on a good day but three on a bad day, signaling to the user that they may need to rest afterward. Rosemary recommended Visible for anyone with "long-term illness or invisible illness, where there are a whole bunch of things going on and you have really good days and really bad days."

Watch the Full Episode!

For more detailed discussions about these health tracking apps and additional tips for monitoring your wellbeing through technology, tune in to the full episode of iOS Today with Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard on the TWiT network. Ad-free video feed is available through Club TWiT at twit.tv/club