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

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.

healthappsymptoms
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.

Related Forum: iOS 13

Popular Stories

iPhone 16 Pro Sizes Feature

iPhone 16 Series Is Less Than Two Months Away: Everything We Know

Thursday July 25, 2024 5:43 am PDT by
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series around mid-September, which means we are about two months out from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design differences and new features to take into account. To bring ...
Apple Intelligence General Feature

Apple Intelligence Now Available in New iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia Developer Betas

Monday July 29, 2024 10:07 am PDT by
Apple is today providing developers with the first betas of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, with the new software introducing an early version of the Apple Intelligence features. These new betas will be in testing alongside the current iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia 15 betas. Developers can choose whether to opt into the new betas with Apple Intelligence, or stay on the ...
Apple Intelligence General Feature

Report: Apple Intelligence Delayed to iOS 18.1 in October

Sunday July 28, 2024 11:52 am PDT by
Apple Intelligence will miss its initial expected launch date to give Apple more time to fix bugs, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. According to individuals with knowledge about Apple's plans, the company now plans to start rolling out Apple Intelligence in software updates by October, arriving several weeks after the launch of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia. This means that Apple...
T Mobile Generic Feature Pink 1

T-Mobile Sued for Breaking Lifetime Price Guarantees

Friday July 26, 2024 2:44 pm PDT by
T-Mobile customers have filed a lawsuit [PDF] against the carrier, alleging that it failed to honor a guarantee not to raise the prices of select cellular plans. The lawsuit, first spotted by Wired, claims that back in 2017, T-Mobile advertised several of its plans with a price lock, but then went on to increase prices starting in May 2024. "T-Mobile ONE customers keep their price until...

Top Rated Comments

chucker23n1 Avatar
54 months 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 Avatar
54 months ago
Waiting now for the tin foil hat folk to claim this is Apple tracking who has Corona.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Infinite Vortex Avatar
54 months ago
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)
Rogifan Avatar
54 months ago
When is the health app coming to iPad or Mac?
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Bandaman Avatar
54 months ago

Aaaand... It’s terminal cancer.
Reminds me of this:

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kleber20 Avatar
54 months ago
Apple should make health app available for iPad... such a beautiful screen... wasted! D: also health app should include more body measurements.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)