Apple is working on an artificial intelligence-powered health coaching service and new technology for tracking emotions, its latest attempt to lock in users with health and wellness features.
The new coaching service — codenamed Quartz — is designed to keep users motivated to exercise, improve eating habits and help them sleep better, according to people with knowledge of the project. The idea is to use AI and data from an Apple Watch to make suggestions and create coaching programs tailored to specific users, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the initiatives haven't been announced yet.
The move is part of a broader health push at the company, which has made such features central to its devices, especially the Apple Watch. Its latest efforts also include an expansion of the health app to the iPad and features that could help users with poor vision.
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An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on the Cupertino, California-based company's plans.
The Quartz initiative is reminiscent of LumiHealth, a wellness and coaching service Apple launched in partnership with the Singapore government in 2020. One difference is that the Singapore-based program could pay out monetary awards to users who stayed healthy, while Apple's new in-house service will carry a monthly fee — like many of its other digital offerings. It will also be its own app.
The service is planned for next year, but could ultimately be canceled or postponed. The project is being driven by several Apple groups, including its health, Siri and AI teams, as well as its services division.
In the nearer term, Apple plans to roll out an iPad version of the iPhone health app for the first time. The change, which will allow users to see electrocardiogram results and other health data in a larger format, is planned to be included as part of iPadOS 17 later this year.
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The hope is that an iPad version will boost the app's popularity in health-care settings, where tablets have already made inroads. The app is central to the company's health efforts, serving as a repository for fitness data collected by the Apple Watch and outside health records. It also serves as a portal for users to share information with their doctors.
The tools for tracking emotion and managing vision conditions, such as nearsightedness, will be added to the health app this year. The initial version of the emotion tracker will let users log their mood, answer questions about their day and compare the results over time. But in the future, Apple is hoping the iPhone could use algorithms to determine a user's mood via their speech, what words they've typed and other data on their devices.
