- Getting Started
- Touring Other Cool iPhone Apps
- Listening to Music with the Music App
- Finding Your Way with Maps
- Managing Your Health Information with the Health App
- Using Bluetooth to Connect to Other Devices
- Connecting Your iPhone to Other iPhones, iPod touches, or iPads
- Working with the Wallet App and Apple Pay
- Working Seamlessly Across Your Devices
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Managing Your Health Information with the Health App
Apple’s Health app does two things. One is that you can use it to store a Medical ID with your medical information in one place for easy access, for your reference or for the reference of others during an emergency. The other is that it can be a dashboard for other health-related apps you use. For example, if you use an app to help you lose weight, that app can provide information to the Health app. Likewise, apps you use to monitor your exercise can feed their results to the Health app so you can get all your health information in one place.
You can also configure and use the Emergency SOS feature to get help quickly.
Configuring and Using Emergency Calling
Using the Emergency SOS feature, you can quickly place a call to local emergency services and also send notifications to people to let them know an emergency has occurred. To be able to use this feature, you need to configure it as explained in the next section. Once configured, you can call for help and notify others as explained in “Using Emergency Calling.”
Configuring Emergency Calling
To configure Emergency calling, perform the following steps:
Open the Settings app.
Tap Emergency SOS.
Note how you activate an emergency call using the diagram at the top of the screen. This shows the specific button you push and the number of times you push it to place the emergency call.
Set the Auto Call switch to on (green).
Tap Set up Emergency Contacts in Health to identify who you want to be notified when you place an emergency call. The details for this are provided in “Using the Health App to Create a Medical ID” later in this chapter.
Set the Countdown Sound switch to on (green) so you hear a warning sound before the call is placed. This can help prevent accidental emergency calls because you hear the alert before the call is made.
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Using Emergency Calling
With Emergency SOS set up as described in the previous section, you can place an emergency call and send notifications using the following steps:
Press the button sequence to activate Emergency SOS that you noted in step 3 of the previous task. For example, on an iPhone 7 or earlier model, you press the Side button five times; on an iPhone 8, 8 Plus, or X you press the Side button and either Volume button. The Emergency SOS feature activates, starts a timer, and plays the alert sound.
When the call is made, you are connected to your local emergency services just as if you placed the call manually. Notifications are also sent to your emergency contacts to inform them you have made an emergency call.
If you didn’t intend to place the call, tap the Stop icon before the timer finishes its countdown.
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Using the Health App to Create a Medical ID
To configure a Medical ID in the Health app, perform the following steps:
Tap Health to open the app.
Tap Create Medical ID. You see that your name and photo (if you added one) is filled in automatically based on other configurations, such as the photo set for your Apple ID. (If your name or photo isn’t entered automatically, enter at least your name; you should also add a photo so emergency workers can confirm your identity.)
Set the Show When Locked switch to on (green) so that you or others can access your medical information when your iPhone is locked. For example, if someone needs to provide you with medical treatment, they can get to this information without having to unlock your phone.
Tap in the Date of Birth area and use the wheels to set your date of birth.
Swipe up the screen on the Date of Birth area to close it.
Tap the next information you want to include.
Enter the information.
Tap in the next section and enter its information.
When you’re done entering the information in the text fields, swipe up the screen to close the keyboard.
Complete the other fields you see.
Tap add emergency contact.
Use the Contacts app to select the emergency contact (see Chapter 6, “Managing Contacts,” for help with this app).
Tap the relationship you have with the contact you selected in the prior step.
Continue adding information and emergency contacts until you’ve provided all the information you want to have available on your Medical ID.
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Accessing Your Medical ID
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You can view your Medical ID information at any time by returning to the Medical ID screen (open the Health app and tap Medical ID).
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If you enabled the Show When Locked feature in step 3 of the previous task, your Medical ID can be accessed while your iPhone is locked. This is especially useful for situations in which you are incapacitated and others need this information to treat you. To access this information while the phone is locked, wake up the phone, press the Touch ID/Home button to move to the Touch ID or Enter Passcode screen. (If you have Touch ID configured to unlock your phone, press the Touch ID/Home button with a finger that is not recorded or you’ll unlock the phone instead.) Tap Emergency; then, tap Medical ID.
Using the Health App for Health and Fitness Information
You can use the Health app to store all sorts of health and related information. This information can be entered directly into the Health app, or even more usefully, it can be automatically added from other apps you use, such as an app you use to monitor exercise or to lose weight.
Configuring Apps to Report to the Health App
You have to provide explicit permission for apps to report their data to the Health app so that you can view that information on the Health app’s screens. You can do this using the Health app by performing the following steps:
If it isn’t open already from the previous task, open the Health app.
Tap Sources.
Tap the app you want to configure.
If you want all the data that the app can report to be reported into the Health app, tap Turn All Categories On.
To enable specific data to be reported in the Health app, set its switch to on (green) or to prevent that data from being reported, set its switch to off (white).
Tap Sources and repeat steps 3 through 5 until you’ve configured all the apps whose data you want to access in the Health app.
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Using the Health App to View Health Information
You can use the Health app to view your health information. Because it consolidates the information from many other apps, there is a large amount of information available to you. You can view information in individual categories and view dashboards and data of specific types.
To see your information, open the Health app and use the following pointers to get started:
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Tap Health Data. You see categories at the top of the screen, such as Activity and Nutrition. Tap a category to view the information it contains. For example, when you tap Activity, you see information about the workouts you’ve done, which have been reported by other apps or captured by the iPhone itself. You can see information for the current week or year. You also see apps related to exercise along with data that’s been collected for various kinds of exercise or by specific apps. Tap Health Data to get back to the Health Data screen.
On the Health Data screen, swipe up to view different kinds of data, such as Body Measurements or Heart. For example, if you tap Heart, you see a chart of heart data including heart rate. At the bottom of the screen, you can access other data, such as for blood pressure, or set up notifications, for example, to receive a notification when the heart rate exceeds a threshold value.
Tap Today. You see the information collected, such as for activities that happened on that day. You can tap an activity to see its details. You can swipe on the dates at the top of the screen to select other days to view.
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