Expect a paid Apple Health+ subscription launching next year. Bloomberg News‘ Mark Gurman expects the introduction of a paid Apple Health+ subscription in 2026, featuring an AI-powered health coach offering personalized nutrition plans and medical recommendations, signaling Apple’s intent to blend cutting-edge design with advanced health technology.
Gurman reported on this earlier this year for Bloomberg News:
The idea is this: The Health app will continue to collect data from your devices (whether that’s the iPhone, Apple Watch, earbuds or third-party products), and then the AI coach will use that information to offer tailor-made recommendations about ways to improve health.
The company is currently training the AI agent with data from physicians that it has on staff. Apple is also looking to bring in outside doctors, including experts in sleep, nutrition, physical therapy, mental health and cardiology, to create videos. That content would serve as explainers to users about certain conditions and how to make lifestyle improvements. For instance, if the Health app receives data about poor heart-rate trends, a video explaining the risks of heart disease could appear.
Apple is opening up a facility near Oakland, California, that will let the physicians shoot their video content for the app. It’s also seeking to find a major doctor personality to serve as a host of sorts for the new service, which some within Apple have tentatively dubbed “Health+.”
Food tracking will be a particularly big part of the revamped app. That’s an area that Apple has mostly avoided, so far, though the current Health app does let you enter data for things like carbohydrates and caffeine. Going big on food tracking would mean challenging services such as MyFitnessPal and, to some extent, weight-management apps like Noom. The doctor-like AI agent will help users with the nutrition features as well.
Apple is also working on features that would tap into the cameras on its devices, such as the one on the back of an iPhone. The idea is to let the AI agent study users’ workouts and give pointers for improving their technique. This could eventually play into other Apple services, including the existing Fitness+ platform.
MacDailyNews Take: : The global health coaching market was valued at approximately $15.83 billion to $20.25 billion in 2024. Within the health coaching market, nutrition coaching is a leading segment, holding a significant share. It accounted for 32.4% of the market in 2023, driven by growing consumer focus on dietary habits, weight management, and chronic disease prevention. The increasing awareness of personalized nutrition, food allergies, and healthy eating trends, particularly among millennials and aging populations, further fuels this segment’s growth. Apple is smart to make further inroads into this market with a Health+ offering.
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