iPhone Health App Tracks Fitness History

The New York Times recently published a Q&A about Apple‘s new fitness tracking app for iPhone. Below is an excerpt from the Q & A.

Q. I can see my step count for the day, week, month or year on the graph in the iPhone 6 health program, but does it store the amount of past recorded steps by specific day?

A. The Health app included with iOS 8 and later does indeed save a history of your daily step counts, along with any other fitness and medical information you choose to share with it. To see the information, open the Health app and on the Dashboard screen, tap the orange graph showing your current steps and daily average.

On the Steps screen, tap Show All Data. Now, on the All Record Data screen, you should see the amount of steps you took each day, going back to when you first started using the iPhone as a step counter — or enabled the function again after turning it off. Tap a day to see your step count further broken down by the time of day.

If you prefer to see your daily distance totals measured in miles, return to the Health app’s Dashboard screen and underneath the Steps graph, tap the graph for Walking + Running Distance and go on to Show All Data and then to the All Recorded Data screen. Likewise, you can see your history of stair-climbing by tapping through the screens from the Flights Climbed graph on the Dashboard.

Apple’s Health app (which encrypts your personal data when you have your iPhone secured with a passcode) works with third-party apps and deviceslike fitness trackers to collect your nutrition and activity information. You can back up the files to iCloud or iTunes in case you are worried about losing or breaking your iPhone.

Read the full story in the New York Times.