The Redesigned Health App Returns for Real in the First iOS 27.3 Beta
Heart and Fitness in iOS 27.3 Health app [Jesse Hollington / iDrop News]
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It’s only been a week since Apple released iOS 27.2 to the public, and it’s already kicked off the beta cycle for iOS 27.3, with the first developer beta dropping this afternoon. That’s pretty much right on time, but this next point release is already shaping up to be more momentous than the last one.
That’s partly because Apple is going to be debuting the redesigned Health app it showed us alongside the new Apple Watch models in September — for real this time. While Apple trialed the new Health app in the iOS 27.2 betas, it made it clear from the start that it wasn’t going to be showing up in the final iOS 27.2 release. That’s similar to what it did with RCS encryption earlier this year in iOS 26.4, but since Apple still said it was coming before the end of the year, it’s a safe bet we’d see it back in iOS 27.3.
That means it’s no surprise to see it showing up in the first iOS 27.3 beta, but in case there were any concerns that Apple might pull the rug out from under us again, the company posted a quick newsroom announcement today not only confirming that it’s officially landing in iOS 27.3, but that it will also support even more languages than we first thought.
Today, Apple’s redesigned Health app will expand language support to global English, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), French, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, and Vietnamese, bringing powerful, personalized health insights to millions of people worldwide.
Apple
It’s rather unusual for Apple to issue an announcement like this for a developer beta software release, but perhaps that’s just one of the subtle changes under the company’s new CEO. The announcement closes by saying that “the redesigned Health app is available in the iOS 27.3 developer beta today and will roll out to users as a free software update later this year.”
It’s also worth mentioning that this new app will only be coming to Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone and iPad models, and some features will only be available on the iPhone side. From Apple’s wording, this appears to be an all-or-nothing transition; older devices — the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, and anything released in prior years — won’t see the redesigned Health app at all. Those devices will presumably have the same Health app experience we’re currently looking at in iOS 27.2.
Further, while the Health app can aggregate data from multiple sources, the new Health Age feature specifically requires an Apple Watch. The test to estimate VO2 max will also require an Apple Watch, AirPods Pro 3, or a third-party heart-rate-sensing device.
In addition to reorganizing the layout into more easily digestible cards for key metrics like heart, fitness, sleep, vitals, and readiness, the Health app also adds two new analyses: Longevity and Health Age.
Longevity combines movement (assessed by doing exercises with the iPhone camera), sleep, heart, hearing, nutrition, mental well-being, and metabolic health to try to predict how you’ll feel years from now, while Health Age factors in exercise minutes, resting heart rate, HRV, sleep score, cardio fitness, and steps, plus lab reports on hemoglobin A1c and LDL cholesterol (if you feed them in), to assess your body’s age compared to the number of years you’ve lived.
The new Health app was initially announced alongside the “Health Sensing System” in the new Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 models, which combines the more powerful S11 chip with a new second-generation electrical heart rate sensor and always-on optical heart rate sensor (effectively a fourth-generation version) that delivers higher-frequency heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV) measurements. It also powers a new Readiness app that analyzes these and other recent activity metrics to provide actionable recommendations on how prepared your body is to face the day.
