Apple has finally given Siri the power to tell you things such as your current elevation and the ETA to your destination during navigation in Maps, thanks to the iOS 17.2 software update — but those aren't the biggest Siri improvements. The most significant update to Siri with iOS 17.2 is its enhanced integration with your iPhone's Health app, giving you quick access to your health data.
With iOS 17.2, released December 11, Siri can answer personal health and fitness questions regarding the data recorded in the Health app. That means you can ask Siri questions such as "How many steps do I have so far today?" or "When was the last time I had abdominal cramps?" without building complicated Siri Shortcuts manually in the Shortcuts app.
Even better, you can ask Siri to log your health information, such as the medicine you just took or your current weight. It also works for logging fitness activities such as running, cycling, or push workouts. These capabilities are built right into Siri now with iOS 17.2. So you no longer have to mess with confusing "Log Health Sample" or "Log Workout" actions in Shortcuts to get Siri to do what you want.
What You Need for Siri's New Health Skills
While you could ask Siri to start certain activities like a 30-minute outdoor run on your iPhone or Apple Watch before, you wouldn't be able to get it to log sports and fitness activity data for you without building those long Siri Shortcuts I keep mentioning. And it definitely wouldn't log any medical data points like medicine doses or menstrual cycles for you.
WatchOS 10.2, also released December 11, enables Siri requests for data points in the Health app and logging capabilities, but only on the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 models.
Siri's new Health skills for iPhone are not limited by device model. Any iPhone that can run iOS 17.2 should be able to use Siri to request Health data or log Health activity. As for iPad, most of the models that support iPadOS 17 will work with Siri's new feature, but not the iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation), iPad (7th generation), iPad (6th generation), and iPad Pro 10.5-inch.
What Type of Health Data Can You Request or Log
Most anything that appears as an available data point in the "Find Health Samples Where," "Log Health Sample," and "Log Workout" actions in Shortcuts will work with Siri by default now. For some topics, you can only request information and not log data.
Some queries will result in Siri showing and telling you information immediately, while others will simply open the Health app to related information. Siri can find information for specific dates or periods for some topics, such as body temperature and step count. For example:
- What's my basal body temperature?
- What was my basal body temperature this week/month/year?
- What was my basal body temperature last week/month/year?
For logging data points, you can ask Siri to simply "Log my [topic] as [data]," and Siri will record it in the Health app for the current date and time. In some cases, you can ask Siri to log information from the past, such as medication you took yesterday or a push workout you forgot to add last week.
Many of the following topics are supported for Siri requests and logging:
- Abdominal cramps
- Acne
- Active energy
- Activity rings
- AFib history
- Alcohol consumption
- Appetite changes
- Basal body temperature
- Biotin
- Bladder incontinence
- Bloating
- Blood alcohol content
- Blood glucose levels
- Blood oxygen
- Blood pressure
- Body and muscle ache
- Body fat percentage
- Body mass index
- Body temperature
- Breast pain
- Caffeine
- Calcium
- Carbohydrates
- Cardio fitness
- Cardio recovery
- Cervical mucus quality
- Chest tightness or pain
- Chills
- Chloride
- Chromium
- Congestion
- Constipation
- Copper
- Coughing
- Cycling distance
- Diarrhea
- Diastolic blood pressure
- Dietary cholesterol
- Dietary energy
- Dietary sugar
- Dizziness
- Double support time
- Downhill snow sports distance
- Dry skin
- Electrodermal activity
- Environmental sound levels
- Exercise minutes
- Fainting
- Fatigue
- Fever
- Fiber
- Flights climbed
- Folate
- Forced expiratory volume, 1 sec
- Forced vital capacity
- Ground contact time
- Hair loss
- Handwashing
- Headache
- Headphone audio levels
- Heart Rate
- Heart rate variability
- Heartburn
- Height
- High heart rate notifications
- Hot flashes
- Inhaler usage
- Insulin delivery
- lodine
- Iron
- Irregular rhythm notifications
- Lean body mass
- Loss of smell
- Loss of taste
- Low heart rate notifications
- Lower back pain
- Magnesium
- Manganese
- Medicine
- Memory lapse
- Menstruation
- Mindful minutes
- Minutes exercised
- Molybdenum
- Monounsaturated fat
- Mood changes
- Move minutes
- Nausea
- Niacin
- Night sweats
- NikeFuel
- Number of times fallen
- Ovulation test result
- Pantothenic acid
- Peak expiratory flow rate
- Pelvic pain
- Peripheral perfusion index
- Phosphorus
- Polyunsaturated fat
- Potassium
- Protein
- Pushes
- Rapid, pounding, or fluttering heartbeat
- Respiratory rate
- Resting energy
- Resting heart rate
- Riboflavin
- Running distance
- Running power
- Running speed
- Running stride length
- Runny nose
- Saturated fat
- Selenium
- Sexual activity
- Shortness of breath
- Six-minute walk
- Skipped heartbeat
- Sleep
- Sleep changes
- Sodium
- Sore throat
- Spotting
- Stair speed: down
- Stair speed: up
- Stand minutes
- Steps
- Swimming distance
- Swimming strokes
- Systolic blood pressure
- Thiamin
- Toothbrushing
- Total fat
- Underwater depth
- UV index
- Vaginal dryness
- Vertical oscillation
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin B6
- Vitamin B12
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin D
- Vitamin E
- Vitamin K
- Vomiting
- Waist circumference
- Walking + running distance
- Walking asymmetry
- Walking distance
- Walking heart rate average
- Walking speed
- Walking steadiness
- Walking step length
- Water
- Water temperature
- Weight
- Wheelchair distance
- Wheezing
- Wrist temperature
- Zinc
Cover photo and screenshots by Justin Meyers/Gadget Hacks
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