Apple provides powerful insights into new areas of health

Apple today announced new health features in iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and watchOS 10, expanding into two impactful areas and providing innovative tools and experiences across platforms.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230605005315/en/

New health features in iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and watchOS 10 expand into two impactful areas and provide innovative tools and experiences across platforms. (Photo: Business Wire)

New mental health features allow users to log their momentary emotions and daily moods, see valuable insights, and easily access assessments and resources. iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch offer new vision health features that encourage healthy behaviors that help reduce the risk of myopia, and the Health app comes to iPad, giving users new ways to see their health data. All of these new features — and existing health features — are grounded in science and built with privacy at the core.

“Our goal is to empower people to take charge of their own health journey. With these innovative new features, we’re expanding the comprehensive range of health and wellness tools that we offer our users across iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch,” said Sumbul Desai, M.D., Apple’s vice president of Health. “Mental health and vision health are important, but often overlooked, and we’re excited to introduce features that offer valuable new insights to provide users with an even better understanding of their health. These insights help support users in their daily decisions and offer more informed conversations with their doctors.”

Mental Health

Mental health is as important as physical health and affects people every day in how they think, feel, and act.

Research shows that reflecting on one’s own mental state can help build emotional awareness and resilience. According to Dr. Michelle Craske, a distinguished professor of psychology and psychiatry at UCLA, who echoes many in the field, “Identifying our feelings has been shown to help us manage difficult emotions, appreciate positive moments, and improve wellbeing.” Multiple studies by researchers have shown that identifying feelings reduces emotions like sadness and anger, and positively impacts our body by slowing our heart rate. Additionally, in a survey of participants in the UCLA Digital Mental Health Study, initial results showed more than 80 percent of participants found reflecting on their mood in the study app increased emotional awareness, and about half said it increased wellbeing.